Hymn to Agni
Rigveda I.97 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 it burn evil away from us! O Agni, blaze forth wealth for us. May it burn evil away from us.
2. We worship you, desiring good land, an easy path, and goods. May it burn evil away from us.
3. When the most gracious among these, and our own patrons, go forward and prosper — may it burn evil away from us.
4. So that we, O Agni, may thrive as your patrons, and we ourselves go forward with you — may it burn evil away from us.
5. When the rays of mighty Agni go out in every direction — may it burn evil away from us.
6. For you, facing every direction, surround and encompass all things from every side. May it burn evil away from us.
7. O you facing every direction, carry us across our foes as a boat carries across a river. May it burn evil away from us.
8. Carry us across, as over a river by boat, to safety and well-being. May it burn evil away from us.
Translator's note: verses 3–4 are elliptical in the Sanskrit — the syntax gives no finite verb of motion beyond "pra" ("forth"), so "go forward and prosper" and "thrive" render the implied sense conservatively rather than adding specific action the text does not state.
Colophon
Rigveda I.97 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.97
apa naḥ śośucad agham agne śuśugdhy ā rayim |
apa naḥ śośucad agham || 1 ||
sukṣetriyā sugātuyā vasūyā ca yajāmahe |
apa naḥ śośucad agham || 2 ||
pra yad bhandiṣṭha eṣām prāsmākāsaś ca sūrayaḥ |
apa naḥ śośucad agham || 3 ||
pra yat te agne sūrayo jāyemahi pra te vayam |
apa naḥ śośucad agham || 4 ||
pra yad agneḥ sahasvato viśvato yanti bhānavaḥ |
apa naḥ śośucad agham || 5 ||
tvaṁ hi viśvatomukha viśvataḥ paribhūr asi |
apa naḥ śośucad agham || 6 ||
dviṣo no viśvatomukhāti nāveva pāraya |
apa naḥ śośucad agham || 7 ||
sa naḥ sindhum iva nāvayāti parṣā svastaye |
apa naḥ śośucad agham || 8 ||
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).