Hymn to Agni
Rigveda IV.1 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 4 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. You indeed, Agni — the gods of one purpose have always sent you forth as their divine envoy; by their will they sent you forth. The immortal one, worthy of worship among mortals — the gods engendered the god, the wise one; the gods engendered the universal god, the wise one.
2. Agni, turn your brother Varuṇa here toward the gods with kindly favor — the eldest lover of sacrifice, the lover of sacrifice, the truthful one, the Āditya, the sustainer of the peoples, the king, the sustainer of the peoples.
3. Friend, turn your friend toward us swiftly, like a wheel driven by a charioteer — swiftly for us, worker of wonders, swiftly. Agni, find mercy together with Varuṇa, among the Maruts bright in every direction. For our children and our line, O blazing one, make good fortune for us; worker of wonders, make good fortune.
4. You, Agni, knowing the way, turn aside the god Varuṇa's anger from us. Best of sacrificers, foremost carrier of offerings, blazing bright — free us from every hostility.
5. So be our closest helper, Agni, nearest to us at this dawn's breaking. Appease Varuṇa for us, being generous; grant us mercy; be one easily called by us.
6. This fortunate god's appearance is the best, most marvelous among mortals — pure, like heated ghee from the cow that must not be slain, desirable like the yield of a milk-cow, this god's gift.
7. Threefold are these highest, true, desirable births of the god Agni. Wrapped within the boundless, he arrived — pure, bright, radiant, lordly.
8. As messenger he seeks out all dwellings, the priest with the golden chariot, his tongue delighting. With red horses, marvelous in form, far-shining, forever joyful, like a gathering rich in food.
9. He, awakening insight in Manu's kin, the bond of sacrifice — they lead him forth with a great rein. He settles, working well, in his houses; the god has won companionship with mortal man.
10. May this Agni, knowing the way, lead us to the treasure shared out by the gods, that treasure of his — the one all the immortals fashioned with their thought, which Father Sky, the begetter, poured out in truth.
11. He was born first among the households, at the foundation of this great mid-space, in its source — footless, headless, concealing his hinder part, drawing close within the bull's lair.
12. The troop rose up first, worthy of praise, in the womb of the cosmic order, in the bull's lair. Desirable, young, marvelous in form, far-shining — the seven beloved ones gave birth to him for the bull.
13. Here our human forefathers sat down, longing eagerly for the cosmic order. With their fold of stone, rich in milk, within the hidden pen, they drove the ruddy cows upward, calling out to the dawns.
14. Having broken through, they polished the rock; others told this story of them all around. Bound to their herds, they sang out at the task; they found the light, they longed for it with their thoughts.
15. With minds craving cattle, they opened the firm, tightly-bound rock that held the cows enclosed, that lay around them. With divine speech the men, the eager ones, threw open the firm pen full of cows.
16. They conceived the first name of the milk-cow; they discovered the mother's thrice-seven highest things. Knowing this, the assembled ones cried out toward it; the ruddy ones became visible through the glory of the cow.
17. The unsettled darkness vanished; the sky grew bright; the radiance of the divine dawn rose up. The sun climbed onto the vast plains, watching over both the straight and the crooked among mortals.
18. Then, afterward, waking, they looked out and saw clearly; then indeed they held fast the treasure granted from the sky. May all the gods be present in all our houses — Mitra, Varuṇa — let there be truth for our devotion.
19. Let me speak out to the blazing Agni, the priest, the sustainer of all, the best sacrificer — as one draws forth the pure udder of the cows, like the purified, poured-out juice of the soma stalk.
20. The Aditi of all those worthy of worship, the guest of all humankind — may Agni, calling upon the gods' favor, be truly merciful, he who knows all creatures.
Translator's note: several epithets resist a single fixed English equivalent and are rendered conservatively — aratím (v.1, a title of Agni as swift envoy or charioteer), ādevam (v.1, "god-from-gods," of uncertain force), adri (vv.11–15, the rock/mountain confining the cattle, sometimes also the pressing-stone), and jātavedāḥ (v.20, "knower of all creatures/beings," a standing epithet of Agni). Verses 11–17 draw on the Vala myth, in which the fathers or Aṅgirases sing open the rock that hides the cows and the dawns; the hymn shifts here from direct address to narrative without naming every actor explicitly, as the Sanskrit itself does.
Colophon
Rigveda IV.1 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 IV.1
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.
tvāṁ hy agne sadam it samanyavo devāso devam aratiṁ nyerira iti kratvā nyerire |
amartyaṁ yajata martyeṣv ā devam ādevaṁ janata pracetasaṁ viśvam ādevaṁ janata pracetasam || 1 ||
sa bhrātaraṁ varuṇam agna ā vavṛtsva devām̐ acchā sumatī yajñavanasaṁ jyeṣṭhaṁ yajñavanasam |
ṛtāvānam ādityaṁ carṣaṇīdhṛtaṁ rājānaṁ carṣaṇīdhṛtam || 2 ||
sakhe sakhāyam abhy ā vavṛtsvāśuṁ na cakraṁ rathyeva raṁhyāsmabhyaṁ dasma raṁhyā |
agne mṛḻīkaṁ varuṇe sacā vido marutsu viśvabhānuṣu |
tokāya tuje śuśucāna śaṁ kṛdhy asmabhyaṁ dasma śaṁ kṛdhi || 3 ||
tvaṁ no agne varuṇasya vidvān devasya heḻo 'va yāsisīṣṭhāḥ |
yajiṣṭho vahnitamaḥ śośucāno viśvā dveṣāṁsi pra mumugdhy asmat || 4 ||
sa tvaṁ no agne 'vamo bhavotī nediṣṭho asyā uṣaso vyuṣṭau |
ava yakṣva no varuṇaṁ rarāṇo vīhi mṛḻīkaṁ suhavo na edhi || 5 ||
asya śreṣṭhā subhagasya saṁdṛg devasya citratamā martyeṣu |
śuci ghṛtaṁ na taptam aghnyāyāḥ spārhā devasya maṁhaneva dhenoḥ || 6 ||
trir asya tā paramā santi satyā spārhā devasya janimāny agneḥ |
anante antaḥ parivīta āgāc chuciḥ śukro aryo rorucānaḥ || 7 ||
sa dūto viśved abhi vaṣṭi sadmā hotā hiraṇyaratho raṁsujihvaḥ |
rohidaśvo vapuṣyo vibhāvā sadā raṇvaḥ pitumatīva saṁsat || 8 ||
sa cetayan manuṣo yajñabandhuḥ pra tam mahyā raśanayā nayanti |
sa kṣety asya duryāsu sādhan devo martasya sadhanitvam āpa || 9 ||
sa tū no agnir nayatu prajānann acchā ratnaṁ devabhaktaṁ yad asya |
dhiyā yad viśve amṛtā akṛṇvan dyauṣ pitā janitā satyam ukṣan || 10 ||
sa jāyata prathamaḥ pastyāsu maho budhne rajaso asya yonau |
apād aśīrṣā guhamāno antāyoyuvāno vṛṣabhasya nīḻe || 11 ||
pra śardha ārta prathamaṁ vipanyām̐ ṛtasya yonā vṛṣabhasya nīḻe |
spārho yuvā vapuṣyo vibhāvā sapta priyāso 'janayanta vṛṣṇe || 12 ||
asmākam atra pitaro manuṣyā abhi pra sedur ṛtam āśuṣāṇāḥ |
aśmavrajāḥ sudughā vavre antar ud usrā ājann uṣaso huvānāḥ || 13 ||
te marmṛjata dadṛvāṁso adriṁ tad eṣām anye abhito vi vocan |
paśvayantrāso abhi kāram arcan vidanta jyotiś cakṛpanta dhībhiḥ || 14 ||
te gavyatā manasā dṛdhram ubdhaṁ gā yemānam pari ṣantam adrim |
dṛḻhaṁ naro vacasā daivyena vrajaṁ gomantam uśijo vi vavruḥ || 15 ||
te manvata prathamaṁ nāma dhenos triḥ sapta mātuḥ paramāṇi vindan |
taj jānatīr abhy anūṣata vrā āvir bhuvad aruṇīr yaśasā goḥ || 16 ||
neśat tamo dudhitaṁ rocata dyaur ud devyā uṣaso bhānur arta |
ā sūryo bṛhatas tiṣṭhad ajrām̐ ṛju marteṣu vṛjinā ca paśyan || 17 ||
ād it paścā bubudhānā vy akhyann ād id ratnaṁ dhārayanta dyubhaktam |
viśve viśvāsu duryāsu devā mitra dhiye varuṇa satyam astu || 18 ||
acchā voceya śuśucānam agniṁ hotāraṁ viśvabharasaṁ yajiṣṭham |
śucy ūdho atṛṇan na gavām andho na pūtam pariṣiktam aṁśoḥ || 19 ||
viśveṣām aditir yajñiyānāṁ viśveṣām atithir mānuṣāṇām |
agnir devānām ava āvṛṇānaḥ sumṛḻīko bhavatu jātavedāḥ || 20 ||
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).