Hymn to Agni
Rigveda IV.10 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. O Agni, today with our songs of praise — as with a fine horse, as with an auspicious, heart-touching purpose — may we prosper through your inspired utterances.
2. For now indeed, O Agni, by your auspicious will, your skill, your success, you have become the charioteer of vast truth.
3. With these our songs of praise, turn toward us, like the light of heaven, O Agni — gracious, with all your flames.
4. With these songs, singing to you today, O Agni, may we offer worship; your mighty powers thunder forth, as if from heaven.
5. Your appearance, O Agni, is sweetest both by day and by night; for beauty it shines close at hand, like a golden ornament.
6. Your body is spotless like purified ghee, pure gold; that of yours shines like a golden ornament, O self-powerful one.
7. Even a hostility already done, you drive it utterly away from the mortal, O Agni — thus from the one who sacrifices, O truthful one.
8. May our friendships with you be kindly, O Agni, as with a brother, among you gods. That is our bond of kinship, in this one dwelling, at the source.
Translator's note: verse 1's "ohaiḥ" (instrumental plural, from a root meaning "carrying" or "course") is rendered as "inspired utterances," following its use elsewhere for the current or flow of praise-song; the sense is compressed and admits other readings. Verse 8's "ūdhan" (literally "udder") is kept close to its literal sense of source/wellspring rather than smoothed into an abstraction.
Colophon
Rigveda IV.10 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.
🌲
Source Text: ṛgveda IV.10
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 tam adyāśvaṁ na stomaiḥ kratuṁ na bhadraṁ hṛdispṛśam |
ṛdhyāmā ta ohaiḥ || 1 ||
adhā hy agne krator bhadrasya dakṣasya sādhoḥ |
rathīr ṛtasya bṛhato babhūtha || 2 ||
ebhir no arkair bhavā no arvāṅ sva1r ṇa jyotiḥ |
agne viśvebhiḥ sumanā anīkaiḥ || 3 ||
ābhiṣ ṭe adya gīrbhir gṛṇanto 'gne dāśema |
pra te divo na stanayanti śuṣmāḥ || 4 ||
tava svādiṣṭhāgne saṁdṛṣṭir idā cid ahna idā cid aktoḥ |
śriye rukmo na rocata upāke || 5 ||
ghṛtaṁ na pūtaṁ tanūr arepāḥ śuci hiraṇyam |
tat te rukmo na rocata svadhāvaḥ || 6 ||
kṛtaṁ cid dhi ṣmā sanemi dveṣo 'gna inoṣi martāt |
itthā yajamānād ṛtāvaḥ || 7 ||
śivā naḥ sakhyā santu bhrātrāgne deveṣu yuṣme |
sā no nābhiḥ sadane sasminn ūdhan || 8 ||
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).