Hymn to Agni
Rigveda I.76 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. What approach would best suit your mind's desire, Agni — what thought would please you most? Who has grasped your full power through sacrifices? With what intention should we make our offering to you?
2. Come, Agni, sit down here as our hotṛ priest, unopposed; be our good leader who goes before us. May the two world-halves, which sustain all things, favor you. Sacrifice to the great gods, for their good will toward us.
3. Burn away all the rākṣasas thoroughly, Agni; be the guardian of our sacrifices against false accusation. Then bring here, with your two bay steeds, the lord of soma; we have prepared a guest-offering for him, the generous giver.
4. With speech that brings forth offspring, I call you, the carrier, with my own mouth — sit down here among the gods. You take up the office of hotṛ and of potṛ both, worthy of worship; attend to us, giver, begetter of good things.
5. As, being a seer among seers, you once worshipped the gods with the oblations of Manu, the inspired one — so now, Agni, truest of hotṛ priests, make the offering today with your pleasing tongue.
Translator's note: verse 4's "vahniḥ" (the carrier/bearer, an epithet of Agni) and "juhvā" in verse 5 (the tongue of flame, which doubles as the name of the offering-ladle) are compact epithets rendered here for sense rather than word-for-word; no content is added or removed.
Colophon
Rigveda I.76 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.76
kā ta upetir manaso varāya bhuvad agne śaṁtamā kā manīṣā |
ko vā yajñaiḥ pari dakṣaṁ ta āpa kena vā te manasā dāśema || 1 ||
ehy agna iha hotā ni ṣīdādabdhaḥ su puraetā bhavā naḥ |
avatāṁ tvā rodasī viśvaminve yajā mahe saumanasāya devān || 2 ||
pra su viśvān rakṣaso dhakṣy agne bhavā yajñānām abhiśastipāvā |
athā vaha somapatiṁ haribhyām ātithyam asmai cakṛmā sudāvne || 3 ||
prajāvatā vacasā vahnir āsā ca huve ni ca satsīha devaiḥ |
veṣi hotram uta potraṁ yajatra bodhi prayantar janitar vasūnām || 4 ||
yathā viprasya manuṣo havirbhir devām̐ ayajaḥ kavibhiḥ kaviḥ san |
evā hotaḥ satyatara tvam adyāgne mandrayā juhvā yajasva || 5 ||
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).