Hymn to Agni
Rigveda IV.11 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. Fair is your face, O mighty Agni; it shines close by the sun's own light. Bright to see, it appears even by night — food not yet parched, lovely in form to look upon.
2. Prevail, O Agni, for the one who sings you wisdom — open yourself with eager inspiration, mighty-born one, as you are praised. What you have won together with all the gods, O bright one — grant that to us, O greatly mighty one: abundant thought.
3. From you, Agni, come poetic visions; from you, insights; from you, hymns are born, hymns that succeed. From you comes wealth adorned with heroic sons, for the mortal worshiper of right devotion.
4. From you is born the strong, prize-bringing steed, vast, aid-granting, of true vigor. From you comes wealth, driven by the gods, bringing delight; from you, O Agni, the swift courser that has sped forth.
5. You, Agni, first among the gods, mortals devoted to the gods seek to win with their prayers — immortal one, sweet-tongued, repeller of hostility, wise lord and guardian spirit of the house.
6. Far from us, folly; far, distress; far, all ill will — since you protect us from it. Kind by night, O son of strength, Agni, whom the gods themselves accompany with well-being.
Translator's note: verse 1's "arūkṣitam annam" (literally "unparched/undried food") likely refers to Agni's fuel or oblation rather than food in the ordinary sense; the phrase is rendered conservatively. Verse 2's "kham" ("opening/space") is rendered as "yourself" in the sense of Agni opening himself to the singer's prayer — a compressed image without a clean single-word English equivalent. Verse 5's "damūnasam" ("house-minded, domestic") is rendered as "guardian spirit of the house" to capture Agni's role as protector of the household.
Colophon
Rigveda IV.11 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.11
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.
bhadraṁ te agne sahasinn anīkam upāka ā rocate sūryasya |
ruśad dṛśe dadṛśe naktayā cid arūkṣitaṁ dṛśa ā rūpe annam || 1 ||
vi ṣāhy agne gṛṇate manīṣāṁ khaṁ vepasā tuvijāta stavānaḥ |
viśvebhir yad vāvanaḥ śukra devais tan no rāsva sumaho bhūri manma || 2 ||
tvad agne kāvyā tvan manīṣās tvad ukthā jāyante rādhyāni |
tvad eti draviṇaṁ vīrapeśā itthādhiye dāśuṣe martyāya || 3 ||
tvad vājī vājambharo vihāyā abhiṣṭikṛj jāyate satyaśuṣmaḥ |
tvad rayir devajūto mayobhus tvad āśur jūjuvām̐ agne arvā || 4 ||
tvām agne prathamaṁ devayanto devam martā amṛta mandrajihvam |
dveṣoyutam ā vivāsanti dhībhir damūnasaṁ gṛhapatim amūram || 5 ||
āre asmad amatim āre aṁha āre viśvāṁ durmatiṁ yan nipāsi |
doṣā śivaḥ sahasaḥ sūno agne yaṁ deva ā cit sacase svasti || 6 ||
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).