Hymn to Agni
Rigveda I.70 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) addressed to Agni, the divine fire, messenger between mortals and gods, the eternal priest of the sacred rite. It is one of the 1,028 hymns of the Rigveda organized within Maṇḍala 1, the first of ten books. The ṛṣi (seer) to whom this hymn is attributed and its precise liturgical context are recorded in the traditional Śākalya Anukramaṇī.
The Rigveda is the oldest of the four Vedas and one of the oldest surviving religious texts in the world, composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE in the Vedic Sanskrit of the Indus-Sarasvatī region. Its hymns were preserved through oral transmission across millennia before being committed to writing. This is a Good Works Translation produced for the Good Works Library from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension.
1. May we win the many gifts of the noble patron through our thought; may Agni of fair flame attain all things.
2. Knowing the ordinances of the gods, and the birth of the human race.
3. Who is the germ of the waters, the germ of the forests, the germ of what stands still, and the germ of what moves.
4. Even within the rock, in his own dwelling — like one of the clans, immortal, well-disposed toward all.
5. For he, Agni, lord of the nights and of riches, gives fittingly to the one who honors him with well-made hymns.
6. Guard these abundantly, O knowing one, you who know the births of gods and of mortals.
7. Whom the many nights of varied hue made grow, and the chariot of the steadfast one, driven onward by the cosmic order.
8. The priest has succeeded, seated in the light of heaven, performing all his works in truth.
9. You have set your renown among the cattle and in the forests; let all bring their tribute, our share of the light.
10. Men honor you in many places; they carry off wealth as if from an aged father.
11. Skillful like one still eager for gain, a hero like an archer, blazing and fierce like one charging in the fray.
Translator's note: the Sanskrit as preserved here gives one compressed line per numbered verse rather than the fuller four-pāda form typical of Rigvedic triṣṭubh, so several verses read as terse, almost riddling statements; this is a feature of the source text, not an omission in translation. A few terms admit more than one reading and were rendered conservatively: duroṇe ("dwelling, abode") in verse 4, svar ("heavenly light, the sun-world") in verses 8–9, and vedaḥ ("wealth, possessions, or knowledge") in verse 10, taken here as "wealth" by context.
Colophon
Rigveda I.70 is drawn from the Śākala recension of the Rigveda, composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE. This is a Good Works Translation rendered verse by verse from the Sanskrit text printed below. Prepared for the Good Work Library by the Tianmu Anglican Church with AI-assisted translation.
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Source Text: ṛgveda I.70
vanema pūrvīr aryo manīṣā agniḥ suśoko viśvāny aśyāḥ || 1 ||
ā daivyāni vratā cikitvān ā mānuṣasya janasya janma || 2 ||
garbho yo apāṁ garbho vanānāṁ garbhaś ca sthātāṁ garbhaś carathām || 3 ||
adrau cid asmā antar duroṇe viśāṁ na viśvo amṛtaḥ svādhīḥ || 4 ||
sa hi kṣapāvām̐ agnī rayīṇāṁ dāśad yo asmā araṁ sūktaiḥ || 5 ||
etā cikitvo bhūmā ni pāhi devānāṁ janma martām̐ś ca vidvān || 6 ||
vardhān yam pūrvīḥ kṣapo virūpāḥ sthātuś ca ratham ṛtapravītam || 7 ||
arādhi hotā sva1r niṣattaḥ kṛṇvan viśvāny apāṁsi satyā || 8 ||
goṣu praśastiṁ vaneṣu dhiṣe bharanta viśve baliṁ svar ṇaḥ || 9 ||
vi tvā naraḥ purutrā saparyan pitur na jivrer vi vedo bharanta || 10 ||
sādhur na gṛdhnur asteva śūro yāteva bhīmas tveṣaḥ samatsu || 11 ||
Source Colophon
Sanskrit text of the Rigveda, Śākala recension. The standard scholarly edition is the Bombay Oriental (Vishva Bandhu, 5 vols., 1963–66). IAST transliteration available from GRETIL (Göttingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages) and Vedaweb (University of Cologne). Both sources are open access. IAST transliteration from the Aufrecht edition (1877) via GRETIL (Van Nooten & Holland input, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).