Hymn to Agni
Rigveda V.24 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. It is one of the shortest hymns in the Rigveda, just four verses, a compact plea to Agni for closeness, protection, wealth, and favor.
1. O Agni, be our closest one, and our protector; be kind, be a shelter to us.
2. Agni the Good, of goodly fame — come near; give us the most brilliant wealth.
3. Be aware of us, hear our call; protect us fully from whoever means us harm.
4. You, most radiant, shining one — we now beg you for grace, for the sake of our friends.
Translator's note: verse 2's "acchā nakṣi" (come/approach toward) and verse 3's "aghāyataḥ" (one wishing harm, an evildoer) are rendered conservatively; both are common Rigvedic idioms without serious ambiguity.
Colophon
Rigveda V.24 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.24
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 tvaṁ no antama uta trātā śivo bhavā varūthyaḥ || 1 ||
vasur agnir vasuśravā acchā nakṣi dyumattamaṁ rayiṁ dāḥ || 2 ||
sa no bodhi śrudhī havam uruṣyā ṇo aghāyataḥ samasmāt || 3 ||
taṁ tvā śociṣṭha dīdivaḥ sumnāya nūnam īmahe sakhibhyaḥ || 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).