Hymn to Agni
Rigveda V.21 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. As Manu did, we set you in place; as Manu did, we kindle you together. O Agni, Aṅgiras — as Manu did, sacrifice to the gods on behalf of the one who seeks the gods.
2. For you, Agni, well pleased, are kindled among the people of Manu. The ladles come to you in unbroken order, well-born one, at the pouring of the ghee.
3. All the gods, of one mind, made you their messenger. Honoring you, O seer, they call on you as god at the sacrifices.
4. Let the mortal invoke Agni, your god, with the worship due the gods. Kindled, bright one, blaze forth — you have taken your seat in the womb of the cosmic order, you have taken your seat in the womb of the ripening grain.
Translator's note: "Aṅgiras" (v.1) is a proper epithet of Agni, treated here as a vocative name rather than translated. "Ṛtasya yonim" and "sasasya yonim" (v.4) are rendered literally as "the womb of the cosmic order" and "the womb of the ripening grain" — both mean the place where Agni is born or takes his seat, in the sacrificial order and in the growing crop.
Colophon
Rigveda V.21 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.21
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.
manuṣvat tvā ni dhīmahi manuṣvat sam idhīmahi |
agne manuṣvad aṅgiro devān devayate yaja || 1 ||
tvaṁ hi mānuṣe jane 'gne suprīta idhyase |
srucas tvā yanty ānuṣak sujāta sarpirāsute || 2 ||
tvāṁ viśve sajoṣaso devāso dūtam akrata |
saparyantas tvā kave yajñeṣu devam īḻate || 3 ||
devaṁ vo devayajyayāgnim īḻīta martyaḥ |
samiddhaḥ śukra dīdihy ṛtasya yonim āsadaḥ sasasya yonim āsadaḥ || 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).