Hymn to Agni
Rigveda III.19 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 3 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. I choose Agni as the invoking priest for the sacrifice — the skilled poet who knows all things and is never deceived. May he, most fit of all to worship among the gods, sacrifice on our behalf, and win for us wealth and the rewards of strength.
2. O Agni, I send toward you this oblation-laden hymn — bright, generous, dripping with ghee. Turning to the right in reverence, embracing the service of the gods, he has joined the sacrifice together with gifts and goods.
3. Aided by you with a keener mind, grant us also the help of the bountiful one blessed with good offspring. O Agni, may we stand in the abundance of the most heroic wealth, and may the fine praises, and the goods, be yours.
4. Many are the faces of the god that the sacrificing people have set in you, O Agni. Bring here the service of the gods, youngest one, since today you will worship the heavenly host.
5. When the gods, seating you at the offering, anointed you as their invoking priest for the sacrifice, then, Agni, be here our protector; place glory and renown upon our bodies.
Translator's note: verse 4's "many faces of the god" (bhūrīṇi ... anīkā ... devasya) is a compressed phrase describing the many aspects or forms the worshippers attribute to Agni; rendered here conservatively rather than expanded. Verse 3's "śikṣoḥ" (bountiful, liberal) and "śikṣa" (grant) share a root and are kept close in sense in translation.
Colophon
Rigveda III.19 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 III.19
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.
agniṁ hotāram pra vṛṇe miyedhe gṛtsaṁ kaviṁ viśvavidam amūram |
sa no yakṣad devatātā yajīyān rāye vājāya vanate maghāni || 1 ||
pra te agne haviṣmatīm iyarmy acchā sudyumnāṁ rātinīṁ ghṛtācīm |
pradakṣiṇid devatātim urāṇaḥ saṁ rātibhir vasubhir yajñam aśret || 2 ||
sa tejīyasā manasā tvota uta śikṣa svapatyasya śikṣoḥ |
agne rāyo nṛtamasya prabhūtau bhūyāma te suṣṭutayaś ca vasvaḥ || 3 ||
bhūrīṇi hi tve dadhire anīkāgne devasya yajyavo janāsaḥ |
sa ā vaha devatātiṁ yaviṣṭha śardho yad adya divyaṁ yajāsi || 4 ||
yat tvā hotāram anajan miyedhe niṣādayanto yajathāya devāḥ |
sa tvaṁ no agne 'viteha bodhy adhi śravāṁsi dhehi nas tanūṣu || 5 ||
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).