Hymn to Agni
Rigveda I.95 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) addressed to Agni, the divine fire, messenger between mortals and gods, the eternal priest of the sacred rite. The hymn dwells on Agni's twofold birth — kindled by the ten fingers working the fire-sticks, and born again from the waters — and follows him from his hidden origin to his rising as bright flame on the altar. 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. Two of unlike form move about, each toward its own end, each in turn giving suck to the calf. In one he becomes tawny, self-sustaining; in the other he is seen bright, brilliantly shining.
2. These ten tireless young women give birth to this embryo of Tvaṣṭṛ, borne about, sharp-faced, glorious in his own right among the people, shining forth — they carry him around.
3. Three births attend upon him: one in the ocean, one in heaven, one in the waters. Following the eastern quarter of the earthly regions, ruling the seasons, he has ordained them each in due order.
4. Who among you has perceived this hidden thing? The calf has begotten his own mothers by his own power. The great seer, sustained by his own strength, goes forth as the child from the lap of the many working waters.
5. Entering among them, the lovely one grows, upright in the lap of the bending ones, glorious in his own right. Both halves of Tvaṣṭṛ's world feared him at his birth; turning toward him, they take pleasure in the lion.
6. The two auspicious ones take pleasure in him like two wise women; like lowing cows they have come near on their courses. He has become the lord of skill among the skilled — him they anoint on the right hand with oblations.
7. He raises up his arms as Savitṛ does; fearsome, he strains at both hems, drawing them taut. He drives off his old bright garment; newly clothed, he leaves behind the garments of his mothers.
8. He makes his higher form vivid and fierce, mingling in his seat with the cows and the waters. The seer polishes the base all around; that insight has become a gathering-place among the gods.
9. Wide is your course, going round the base, the shining dwelling-place of the mighty bull. O Agni, kindled with all your self-glorious, undeceivable guardians, protect us.
10. On the dry ground he makes a stream, a path, a wave; with bright waves he reaches toward the earth. He holds all ancient gains within his belly; he moves within the ever-new mothers still to bear.
11. So, O Agni, growing strong through our kindling-wood, shine widely for us, O purifier, toward wealth and fame. May Mitra and Varuṇa grant us this, and Aditi, the River, Earth, and Heaven.
Translator's note: "dve virūpe" (v.1) and "ubhe" (vv.5–7) name a recurring pair — read by the tradition as Night and Dawn, or as the two halves of the cosmos — who nurse and clothe Agni; the Sanskrit itself leaves the pair unnamed, so this translation keeps them as "the two" rather than supplying an identification. "sinam" in v.7 (rendered "old") and "sanāni" in v.10 ("ancient gains") are terse and admit other readings; the renderings here are conservative rather than certain.
Colophon
Rigveda I.95 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.95
dve virūpe carataḥ svarthe anyānyā vatsam upa dhāpayete |
harir anyasyām bhavati svadhāvāñ chukro anyasyāṁ dadṛśe suvarcāḥ || 1 ||
daśemaṁ tvaṣṭur janayanta garbham atandrāso yuvatayo vibhṛtram |
tigmānīkaṁ svayaśasaṁ janeṣu virocamānam pari ṣīṁ nayanti || 2 ||
trīṇi jānā pari bhūṣanty asya samudra ekaṁ divy ekam apsu |
pūrvām anu pra diśam pārthivānām ṛtūn praśāsad vi dadhāv anuṣṭhu || 3 ||
ka imaṁ vo niṇyam ā ciketa vatso mātṝr janayata svadhābhiḥ |
bahvīnāṁ garbho apasām upasthān mahān kavir niś carati svadhāvān || 4 ||
āviṣṭyo vardhate cārur āsu jihmānām ūrdhvaḥ svayaśā upasthe |
ubhe tvaṣṭur bibhyatur jāyamānāt pratīcī siṁham prati joṣayete || 5 ||
ubhe bhadre joṣayete na mene gāvo na vāśrā upa tasthur evaiḥ |
sa dakṣāṇāṁ dakṣapatir babhūvāñjanti yaṁ dakṣiṇato havirbhiḥ || 6 ||
ud yaṁyamīti saviteva bāhū ubhe sicau yatate bhīma ṛñjan |
uc chukram atkam ajate simasmān navā mātṛbhyo vasanā jahāti || 7 ||
tveṣaṁ rūpaṁ kṛṇuta uttaraṁ yat sampṛñcānaḥ sadane gobhir adbhiḥ |
kavir budhnam pari marmṛjyate dhīḥ sā devatātā samitir babhūva || 8 ||
uru te jrayaḥ pary eti budhnaṁ virocamānam mahiṣasya dhāma |
viśvebhir agne svayaśobhir iddho 'dabdhebhiḥ pāyubhiḥ pāhy asmān || 9 ||
dhanvan srotaḥ kṛṇute gātum ūrmiṁ śukrair ūrmibhir abhi nakṣati kṣām |
viśvā sanāni jaṭhareṣu dhatte 'ntar navāsu carati prasūṣu || 10 ||
evā no agne samidhā vṛdhāno revat pāvaka śravase vi bhāhi |
tan no mitro varuṇo māmahantām aditiḥ sindhuḥ pṛthivī uta dyauḥ || 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).