Hymn to Agni
Rigveda V.20 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. O Agni, greatest winner of the prize — the wealth that you yourself judge worthy, make that known among the gods through our songs, glorious, as our ally.
2. Those, Agni, who do not rouse you — grown great through fierce power though they are — keep away from hatred, keep away from the crookedness of one who follows other vows.
3. We choose you, Agni, as our invoking priest, accomplisher of skill and strength. At the sacrifices, the foremost one, we call you with song, bringing our offerings.
4. So may we have your help, day after day, O mighty one, for wealth and for right order, O wise one — may we, with cattle, be your feast-companions; may we, with sons, be your feast-companions.
Translator's note: verse 2 is the most obscure in the hymn — "nerayanti" (who do not rouse / drive / impel) and "saścire" (they follow, cling to, or keep away from, depending on how "apa" is read with it) both admit more than one construction. The rendering above keeps the verse's own syntax and takes "apa...saścire" as "they keep clear of," but a reader consulting other renderings may see the clauses attached differently.
Colophon
Rigveda V.20 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 V.20
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.
yam agne vājasātama tvaṁ cin manyase rayim |
taṁ no gīrbhiḥ śravāyyaṁ devatrā panayā yujam || 1 ||
ye agne nerayanti te vṛddhā ugrasya śavasaḥ |
apa dveṣo apa hvaro 'nyavratasya saścire || 2 ||
hotāraṁ tvā vṛṇīmahe 'gne dakṣasya sādhanam |
yajñeṣu pūrvyaṁ girā prayasvanto havāmahe || 3 ||
itthā yathā ta ūtaye sahasāvan dive-dive |
rāya ṛtāya sukrato gobhiḥ ṣyāma sadhamādo vīraiḥ syāma sadhamādaḥ || 4 ||
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).