Hymn to Agni
Rigveda II.5 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. The hymn is addressed to Agni under the figure of the sacrifice itself: it moves through the priestly offices — Hotṛ, Potṛ, Neṣṭṛ, Adhvaryu — the way a wheel-rim moves around its wheel.
1. The perceptive Hotṛ priest was born as a father for the fathers, for their help. Seeking to sacrifice, may we lay hold of the noble wealth — the guiding rein of the vigorous one.
2. In him the seven reins are stretched out, in him, the leader of the sacrifice — as for Manu, so the eighth, the divine one: the Potṛ priest sets all of that in motion.
3. When it ran its course, or when it spoke the sacred formulas along the way, that bird flew on; it went around all the poets' wisdom as a rim goes around a wheel.
4. For, pure together with the pure one, the director was born through his ordaining will. Knowing his fixed ordinances, one climbs up along them as a creeper climbs.
5. The milk-cows follow the color of living Āyu, the Neṣṭṛ's color. Do the sisters who have come to this choose out the best from the three?
6. When the sister, bearing ghee, took her stand close by the mother, at their arrival the Adhvaryu rejoices, as barley rejoices in the rain.
7. Let each prepare, for his own nourishment, priest matched to priest; the hymn of praise and the sacrifice, in due order — may we win it; we have offered it.
8. As the one who knows makes it fit for all the worshipful gods — this sacrifice, Agni, that we have made, rests here in you.
Translator's note: this hymn is a deliberately riddling description of the sacrifice and its priestly offices, and several words admit more than one reading. "Yama" in verse 1 (from the root meaning "to check, restrain, guide") is rendered as "rein"; it is not the god Yama. "Sapta raśmayaḥ" in verse 2 ("seven reins" or "seven rays") is left literal. "Ver" in verse 3 (bird) and the relations among the "sisters," "milk-cows," and "mother" in verses 5–6 are part of the hymn's riddle-imagery and are translated conservatively, word for word, rather than resolved into a single confident reading.
Colophon
Rigveda II.5 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.5
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.
hotājaniṣṭa cetanaḥ pitā pitṛbhya ūtaye |
prayakṣañ jenyaṁ vasu śakema vājino yamam || 1 ||
ā yasmin sapta raśmayas tatā yajñasya netari |
manuṣvad daivyam aṣṭamam potā viśvaṁ tad invati || 2 ||
dadhanve vā yad īm anu vocad brahmāṇi ver u tat |
pari viśvāni kāvyā nemiś cakram ivābhavat || 3 ||
sākaṁ hi śucinā śuciḥ praśāstā kratunājani |
vidvām̐ asya vratā dhruvā vayā ivānu rohate || 4 ||
tā asya varṇam āyuvo neṣṭuḥ sacanta dhenavaḥ |
kuvit tisṛbhya ā varaṁ svasāro yā idaṁ yayuḥ || 5 ||
yadī mātur upa svasā ghṛtam bharanty asthita |
tāsām adhvaryur āgatau yavo vṛṣṭīva modate || 6 ||
svaḥ svāya dhāyase kṛṇutām ṛtvig ṛtvijam |
stomaṁ yajñaṁ cād araṁ vanemā rarimā vayam || 7 ||
yathā vidvām̐ araṁ karad viśvebhyo yajatebhyaḥ |
ayam agne tve api yaṁ yajñaṁ cakṛmā vayam || 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).