Hymn to Agni, Son of the Waters
Rigveda III.9 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. As friends, we mortals have chosen you, the god, for our help — the Son of Waters, the fortunate one, brightly blazing, easily triumphant, flawless.
2. Desiring the woods, you went to the waters, your mothers. That return of yours is not forgotten, Agni — how, being far away, you were here as well.
3. You have grown beyond the fierce flame, and yet you remain well-disposed. Some go forth again and again, others sit close by — those in whose friendship you are firmly set.
4. Him who had passed beyond failures, past the many who pursued him — the watchful, guileless ones found him, lodged in the waters like a lion.
5. Agni, who had slipped away as if of his own will, thus hidden — Mātariśvan led him back from afar, churned forth for the gods.
6. Mortals seized you for the gods, O carrier of oblations, since you watch over all the sacrifices of men by your own power, youngest one.
7. That good deed of yours, through your wondrous skill, delights even the simple, when, Agni, the creatures gather around you, kindled, in the depth of night.
8. Offer to him of the good rites, the keen one, of purifying flame; worship promptly the swift messenger, untiring, ancient, worthy of praise — the god.
9. Three hundred, three thousand, and thirty and nine gods honored Agni. They sprinkled him with ghee, they strewed the sacred grass for him, and then indeed they seated him down as the Hotṛ priest.
Translator's note: verse 2's "mothers" (mātṝḥ) are the waters, into which Agni is said to go and from which he is drawn forth — a recurring image for Agni as Apām Napāt, "Son of the Waters." Verse 5's mathitam ("churned") echoes the fire-drilling by which Agni is physically produced. The count of gods in verse 9 (339) is conventional and not elaborated further in the hymn.
Colophon
Rigveda III.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 III.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.
sakhāyas tvā vavṛmahe devam martāsa ūtaye |
apāṁ napātaṁ subhagaṁ sudīditiṁ supratūrtim anehasam || 1 ||
kāyamāno vanā tvaṁ yan mātṝr ajagann apaḥ |
na tat te agne pramṛṣe nivartanaṁ yad dūre sann ihābhavaḥ || 2 ||
ati tṛṣṭaṁ vavakṣithāthaiva sumanā asi |
pra-prānye yanti pary anya āsate yeṣāṁ sakhye asi śritaḥ || 3 ||
īyivāṁsam ati sridhaḥ śaśvatīr ati saścataḥ |
anv īm avindan nicirāso adruho 'psu siṁham iva śritam || 4 ||
sasṛvāṁsam iva tmanāgnim itthā tirohitam |
ainaṁ nayan mātariśvā parāvato devebhyo mathitam pari || 5 ||
taṁ tvā martā agṛbhṇata devebhyo havyavāhana |
viśvān yad yajñām̐ abhipāsi mānuṣa tava kratvā yaviṣṭhya || 6 ||
tad bhadraṁ tava daṁsanā pākāya cic chadayati |
tvāṁ yad agne paśavaḥ samāsate samiddham apiśarvare || 7 ||
ā juhotā svadhvaraṁ śīram pāvakaśociṣam |
āśuṁ dūtam ajiram pratnam īḍyaṁ śruṣṭī devaṁ saparyata || 8 ||
trīṇi śatā trī sahasrāṇy agniṁ triṁśac ca devā nava cāsaparyan |
aukṣan ghṛtair astṛṇan barhir asmā ād id dhotāraṁ ny asādayanta || 9 ||
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).