Hymn to Agni, Who Is All the Gods
Rigveda II.1 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 2 of the Rigveda, one of the 1,028 hymns organized within the ten books of the oldest Veda. The Rigveda was composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE in Vedic Sanskrit and preserved through oral transmission across millennia.
This is a Good Works Translation produced for the Good Works Library from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension.
1. You, Agni, are born pure by the days, blazing of yourself, from the waters, from stone, from the woods, from the plants — you, lord of men, are born pure.
2. Yours, Agni, is the office of hotṛ; yours the seasonal office of potṛ; yours the office of neṣṭṛ; you are the fire-kindler of the one who follows the sacred order; yours the office of praśāstṛ; you act as adhvaryu; and you are the brahman-priest and the house-lord in our home.
3. You, Agni, are Indra, the bull among the good; you are Viṣṇu, the wide-strider, worthy of homage; you are the wealth-finding brahman, O lord of the sacred formula; you, the ordainer, keep company with abundance.
4. You, Agni, are King Varuṇa of firm ordinances; you are Mitra, the wondrous one, worthy of praise; you are Aryaman, the true lord whose gift is to be shared; you are Aṁśa, O god, the giver of portions at the sacred gathering.
5. You, Agni, are Tvaṣṭṛ, giving fine strength of sons to the one who worships; yours, O you who are as great as Mitra, are the divine wives, the kinship; you, swift driver, have granted good horses; you are the very troop of men, rich in goods.
6. You, Agni, are Rudra, the asura of the great sky; you rule the Marut host and its nourishment; you travel with the red winds, bringing ease; you, as Pūṣan, truly protect the worshiper by yourself.
7. You, Agni, are the giver of wealth to the one who prepares the rite; you are the god Savitṛ, the bestower of treasure; you, lord of men, rule over goods; you are the protector in the house of whoever has worshiped you.
8. You, Agni, the clans in the house honor as lord of the clan; you they honor as king, rich in good gifts; you, fair-faced one, rule over all things; you rule over thousands, hundreds, tens.
9. You, Agni, men approach with offerings as a father; you, radiant in body, for brotherhood through ritual labor; you become a son to whoever has worshiped you; you, a most kind friend, protect from assault.
10. You, Agni, are Ṛbhu, near at hand, worthy of homage; you rule the wealth of abundant strength; you shine forth, skillful to give; you, eager to aid, extend the sacrifice.
11. You, Agni, are Aditi, O god, to the one who gives; you, as the hotrā Bhāratī, are strengthened by the hymn; you are Iḷā, of a hundred winters, for skill; you, lord of wealth, are Vṛtra-slaying Sarasvatī.
12. You, Agni, well-tended, are the highest vigor; in your desired hue is the beauty of your appearance; you are the far-reaching, lofty prize; you are the abundant wealth, wide on every side.
13. You, Agni, the Ādityas have made their mouth; the pure ones have made you their tongue, O sage; those who come with gifts follow you at the rites; in you the gods eat the offered oblation.
14. In you, Agni, all the immortal, guileless gods eat the offered oblation with their mouth; through you mortals relish the libation; you, pure, were born as the child of the plants.
15. You match them and equal them in greatness, Agni, well-born, and yet, O god, you surpass them; when your nourishing power spreads here by its might, both worlds, heaven and earth, follow it.
16. Those patrons who, Agni, bestow on the praisers a gift led by cattle and adorned with horses — lead both us and them onward to good things; may we, rich in good heroes, speak loudly at the sacred gathering.
Translator's note: this hymn's core device is the anaphora "tvam agne" ("you, Agni, are...") through which Agni is named as each priestly office (hotṛ, potṛ, neṣṭṛ, agnīdh, praśāstṛ, adhvaryu, brahman, gṛhapati) and each major god in turn (Indra, Viṣṇu, Brahmaṇaspati, Varuṇa, Mitra, Aryaman, Aṁśa, Tvaṣṭṛ, Rudra, the Maruts, Pūṣan, Savitṛ, Bhaga, Ṛbhu, Aditi, Bhāratī, Iḷā, Sarasvatī). Several of these divine and priestly names are kept untranslated where an English equivalent would misrepresent a specific title rather than clarify it.
Colophon
Rigveda II.1 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 II.1
Sanskrit source text from the Aufrecht edition (1877) via GRETIL (Van Nooten & Holland input). Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.
tvam agne dyubhis tvam āśuśukṣaṇis tvam adbhyas tvam aśmanas pari |
tvaṁ vanebhyas tvam oṣadhībhyas tvaṁ nṛṇāṁ nṛpate jāyase śuciḥ || 1 ||
tavāgne hotraṁ tava potram ṛtviyaṁ tava neṣṭraṁ tvam agnid ṛtāyataḥ |
tava praśāstraṁ tvam adhvarīyasi brahmā cāsi gṛhapatiś ca no dame || 2 ||
tvam agna indro vṛṣabhaḥ satām asi tvaṁ viṣṇur urugāyo namasyaḥ |
tvam brahmā rayivid brahmaṇas pate tvaṁ vidhartaḥ sacase puraṁdhyā || 3 ||
tvam agne rājā varuṇo dhṛtavratas tvam mitro bhavasi dasma īḍyaḥ |
tvam aryamā satpatir yasya sambhujaṁ tvam aṁśo vidathe deva bhājayuḥ || 4 ||
tvam agne tvaṣṭā vidhate suvīryaṁ tava gnāvo mitramahaḥ sajātyam |
tvam āśuhemā rariṣe svaśvyaṁ tvaṁ narāṁ śardho asi purūvasuḥ || 5 ||
tvam agne rudro asuro maho divas tvaṁ śardho mārutam pṛkṣa īśiṣe |
tvaṁ vātair aruṇair yāsi śaṁgayas tvam pūṣā vidhataḥ pāsi nu tmanā || 6 ||
tvam agne draviṇodā araṁkṛte tvaṁ devaḥ savitā ratnadhā asi |
tvam bhago nṛpate vasva īśiṣe tvam pāyur dame yas te 'vidhat || 7 ||
tvām agne dama ā viśpatiṁ viśas tvāṁ rājānaṁ suvidatram ṛñjate |
tvaṁ viśvāni svanīka patyase tvaṁ sahasrāṇi śatā daśa prati || 8 ||
tvām agne pitaram iṣṭibhir naras tvām bhrātrāya śamyā tanūrucam |
tvam putro bhavasi yas te 'vidhat tvaṁ sakhā suśevaḥ pāsy ādhṛṣaḥ || 9 ||
tvam agna ṛbhur āke namasya1s tvaṁ vājasya kṣumato rāya īśiṣe |
tvaṁ vi bhāsy anu dakṣi dāvane tvaṁ viśikṣur asi yajñam ātaniḥ || 10 ||
tvam agne aditir deva dāśuṣe tvaṁ hotrā bhāratī vardhase girā |
tvam iḻā śatahimāsi dakṣase tvaṁ vṛtrahā vasupate sarasvatī || 11 ||
tvam agne subhṛta uttamaṁ vayas tava spārhe varṇa ā saṁdṛśi śriyaḥ |
tvaṁ vājaḥ prataraṇo bṛhann asi tvaṁ rayir bahulo viśvatas pṛthuḥ || 12 ||
tvām agna ādityāsa āsya1ṁ tvāṁ jihvāṁ śucayaś cakrire kave |
tvāṁ rātiṣāco adhvareṣu saścire tve devā havir adanty āhutam || 13 ||
tve agne viśve amṛtāso adruha āsā devā havir adanty āhutam |
tvayā martāsaḥ svadanta āsutiṁ tvaṁ garbho vīrudhāṁ jajñiṣe śuciḥ || 14 ||
tvaṁ tān saṁ ca prati cāsi majmanāgne sujāta pra ca deva ricyase |
pṛkṣo yad atra mahinā vi te bhuvad anu dyāvāpṛthivī rodasī ubhe || 15 ||
ye stotṛbhyo goagrām aśvapeśasam agne rātim upasṛjanti sūrayaḥ |
asmāñ ca tām̐ś ca pra hi neṣi vasya ā bṛhad vadema vidathe suvīrāḥ || 16 ||
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).