Agni, Messenger and Priest of the Sacrifice
Rigveda IV.9 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, be gracious — you are great, you who have come to the god-seeking people, to sit on the sacred grass.
2. He, unassailable, immortal, has aided the human tribes; he has become the messenger of all the gods.
3. He is led around the sacrificial seat as the joyful invoking priest in the rites that seek heaven; and he also sits down as the purifying priest.
4. And in the sacrifice Agni is the priestess of the divine wives, and in the home he is the lord of the house; and he also sits as the brahman priest.
5. You indeed attend to those who carry out the rite, the advocate of the people, and to the oblations of men.
6. You indeed undertake his errand as messenger — his, whose sacrifice you have delighted in — to carry the mortal's offering.
7. Delight in our sacrifice, our offering, O Aṅgiras; hear our call.
8. May your unassailable chariot, with which you protect those who give offerings, reach us from every side.
Translator's note: verse 4's "gnā" names a priestly office associated with the divine wives (gnāḥ) of the gods in the ritual; Agni is said to fill that role as well as those of house-lord and brahman priest. The rendering "priestess of the divine wives" is conservative — the exact ritual function is not fully certain.
Colophon
Rigveda IV.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 IV.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.
agne mṛḻa mahām̐ asi ya īm ā devayuṁ janam |
iyetha barhir āsadam || 1 ||
sa mānuṣīṣu dūḻabho vikṣu prāvīr amartyaḥ |
dūto viśveṣām bhuvat || 2 ||
sa sadma pari ṇīyate hotā mandro diviṣṭiṣu |
uta potā ni ṣīdati || 3 ||
uta gnā agnir adhvara uto gṛhapatir dame |
uta brahmā ni ṣīdati || 4 ||
veṣi hy adhvarīyatām upavaktā janānām |
havyā ca mānuṣāṇām || 5 ||
veṣīd v asya dūtya1ṁ yasya jujoṣo adhvaram |
havyam martasya voḻhave || 6 ||
asmākaṁ joṣy adhvaram asmākaṁ yajñam aṅgiraḥ |
asmākaṁ śṛṇudhī havam || 7 ||
pari te dūḻabho ratho 'smām̐ aśnotu viśvataḥ |
yena rakṣasi dāśuṣaḥ || 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).