Hymn to Agni
Rigveda V.19 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 5 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. Toward the stages of being he is born forth; out of the wrapping, the wrapping itself becomes visible. In the lap of the mother he shines out.
2. Calling out, discerning, they guard the unsleeping vigor. They have entered the firm stronghold.
3. The people of Śvaitreya, the tribes, grow bright and strong. Niṣkagrīva and Bṛhaduktha, with this sweetness, like ones eager for the prize.
4. Dear as milk freshly milked, desirable — unrelated, yet joined together with the two sisters. Like the hot offering, full of strength, unharmed — yet a harm to the many.
5. Playing, O ray of light, arise for us, having found your way together with ash and wind. These flames of his are bold, sharp as blades, well-whetted, blazing in the breast, standing in the flanks.
Translator's note: Rigveda V.19 is one of the most compressed and riddle-like hymns in the Rigveda, built from proper names (Śvaitreya, Niṣkagrīva, Bṛhaduktha) and compound epithets whose referents are not stated outright. The Sanskrit is rendered here conservatively, word for word, rather than smoothed into a confident paraphrase. Verse 3 names figures (a patron lineage and two individuals) whose exact roles in the rite are not recoverable from the hymn alone. Verse 4's "two sisters" and verse 5's "ray of light, ash, and wind" are kept as the Sanskrit presents them, without supplying an interpretation the text itself does not give.
Colophon
Rigveda V.19 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 V.19
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.
abhy avasthāḥ pra jāyante pra vavrer vavriś ciketa |
upasthe mātur vi caṣṭe || 1 ||
juhure vi citayanto 'nimiṣaṁ nṛmṇam pānti |
ā dṛḻhām puraṁ viviśuḥ || 2 ||
ā śvaitreyasya jantavo dyumad vardhanta kṛṣṭayaḥ |
niṣkagrīvo bṛhaduktha enā madhvā na vājayuḥ || 3 ||
priyaṁ dugdhaṁ na kāmyam ajāmi jāmyoḥ sacā |
gharmo na vājajaṭharo 'dabdhaḥ śaśvato dabhaḥ || 4 ||
krīḻan no raśma ā bhuvaḥ sam bhasmanā vāyunā vevidānaḥ |
tā asya san dhṛṣajo na tigmāḥ susaṁśitā vakṣyo vakṣaṇesthāḥ || 5 ||
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).