Hymn to Agni
Rigveda III.24 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. Agni, overpower the hostile armies, drive off the malicious foes. Unconquerable, overcoming enmities, grant splendor to the one who carries forward the sacrifice.
2. Agni, you are kindled with the offering, immortal one who delights in the oblation. Take true pleasure in our rite.
3. Agni, wakeful one, with your brilliance — son of strength, invoked one — sit here on this sacrificial grass of mine.
4. Agni, together with all the fires and the gods, magnify our songs — you who watch over the sacrifices.
5. Agni, give the worshipper wealth abundant in heroic sons. Quicken us, who are blessed with sons.
Translator's note: verse 4's "cāyavaḥ" is a rare and uncertain form; it is rendered conservatively here as "watch over," following its likely root (√ci, "to observe, take note of"). Verse 5's "śiśīhi" (from √śā, "to sharpen, quicken, impel") is likewise kept close to its root sense rather than smoothed into an English idiom.
Colophon
Rigveda III.24 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.24
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.
agne sahasva pṛtanā abhimātīr apāsya |
duṣṭaras tarann arātīr varco dhā yajñavāhase || 1 ||
agna iḻā sam idhyase vītihotro amartyaḥ |
juṣasva sū no adhvaram || 2 ||
agne dyumnena jāgṛve sahasaḥ sūnav āhuta |
edam barhiḥ sado mama || 3 ||
agne viśvebhir agnibhir devebhir mahayā giraḥ |
yajñeṣu ya u cāyavaḥ || 4 ||
agne dā dāśuṣe rayiṁ vīravantam parīṇasam |
śiśīhi naḥ sūnumataḥ || 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).