Hymn to Agni
Rigveda II.9 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. The priest, knowing, has taken his seat in the seat of the hotṛ — flashing, shining, very skillful: Agni, whose care for the sacred order is undeceived, most excellent, bearing a thousandfold bounty, with a pure and bright tongue.
2. You are the messenger, and you are our protector from afar; you, O bull, are the one who leads toward good things. O Agni, for the continuance of our offspring and our own bodies, be — unfailing and shining — our watchful guardian.
3. May we worship you, O Agni, in your highest birth; may we worship with hymns of praise in the nearer dwelling-place. From the womb out of which you arose — that source I honor — into you, once kindled, they have poured their oblations.
4. Agni, sacrifice with the oblation, you who are most worthy of worship; readily proclaim the gift, the bounty. For you are the lord of riches, of all riches; you are the one who fashions the bright, clear word.
5. Both kinds of your wealth do not diminish, O wondrous one, you who are born anew day after day. Make the singer rich in sustenance, Agni; make him lord of wealth with good offspring.
6. With your host of flames, bountiful toward us, the worshipper of the gods, most excellent at sacrifice, bringing well-being; an undeceived guardian and our protector from afar — Agni, shine gloriously and richly.
Translator's note: verse 3's "yaje" (I worship/honor) is rendered as a first-person aside describing the source-womb of Agni's birth, following the most natural reading of the clause; the phrase remains compact in the Sanskrit and admits some latitude. Verse 5's "ubhayaṁ ... vasavyam" ("both kinds of wealth") is left general, as the text does not specify which two kinds are meant.
Colophon
Rigveda II.9 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.9
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.
ni hotā hotṛṣadane vidānas tveṣo dīdivām̐ asadat sudakṣaḥ |
adabdhavratapramatir vasiṣṭhaḥ sahasrambharaḥ śucijihvo agniḥ || 1 ||
tvaṁ dūtas tvam u naḥ paraspās tvaṁ vasya ā vṛṣabha praṇetā |
agne tokasya nas tane tanūnām aprayucchan dīdyad bodhi gopāḥ || 2 ||
vidhema te parame janmann agne vidhema stomair avare sadhasthe |
yasmād yoner udārithā yaje tam pra tve havīṁṣi juhure samiddhe || 3 ||
agne yajasva haviṣā yajīyāñ chruṣṭī deṣṇam abhi gṛṇīhi rādhaḥ |
tvaṁ hy asi rayipatī rayīṇāṁ tvaṁ śukrasya vacaso manotā || 4 ||
ubhayaṁ te na kṣīyate vasavyaṁ dive-dive jāyamānasya dasma |
kṛdhi kṣumantaṁ jaritāram agne kṛdhi patiṁ svapatyasya rāyaḥ || 5 ||
sainānīkena suvidatro asme yaṣṭā devām̐ āyajiṣṭhaḥ svasti |
adabdho gopā uta naḥ paraspā agne dyumad uta revad didīhi || 6 ||
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).