Hymn to Agni
Rigveda V.3 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. You, Agni, are Varuna when you are born; you become Mitra once you are kindled. In you, son of strength, dwell all the gods; you are Indra to the mortal who makes offering.
2. You become Aryaman when you carry the secret name of young women, self-sufficient one. They anoint you as a well-placed friend, as with milk, when you join husband and wife into one mind.
3. For your splendor the Maruts adorn themselves, Rudra, since your birth is beautiful and marvelous. Because the highest step of Vishnu was set down, by that you guard the secret name of the cows.
4. By your splendor, fair-seeing god, the gods, holding abundance, share in the immortal draught. Men have seated Agni as their hotṛ-priest, the eager ones honoring the praise-song of mankind.
5. No priest before you, Agni, sacrifices better; none surpasses you in poetic skill, self-sufficient one. And whatever people's guest you become, that people conquers other mortals through sacrifice.
6. May we, Agni, helped by you, desiring wealth, win the prize, waking at dawn with our oblation. May we prevail in the contest, in the daily rites; may we surpass other mortals in riches, son of strength.
7. Whoever brings guilt and sin against us, or lays evil upon us with a curse — strike down this curse, watchful one; strike, Agni, whoever harms us through deceit.
8. At this dawn, god, the ancients of old worshipped you with oblations, making you their messenger. When you go, Agni, to the gathering-place of riches, you go as a god kindled by mortals together with the Vasus.
9. Overcome the rival, fight him, knowing one — you who are called the son of Strength. When, wise one, will you look upon us, Agni? When, seer of truth, will you set us right?
10. Praising you, one bestows on you many a name, Vasu, father — if you will delight in that. Surely, rejoicing in the god's might, Agni, growing strong, wins favor for us.
11. You indeed, youngest one, carry the singer safely through every hardship, Agni. Thieves and deceivers have appeared among the people; men of unknown intent have turned crooked.
12. These paths have turned toward you; or else that very offense was declared to the Vasu. This Agni is not given over to cursing us; growing strong, he does not abandon us to the one who would injure us.
Translator's note: several verses (2, 3, 9, 12) are terse and allusive in the Sanskrit, touching on ritual and mythic references (the "secret name" of maidens and of cows, Vishnu's highest step, a contest with a "father" or rival) that are not fully recoverable without extended commentary. These have been rendered conservatively, following the grammar and the plain sense of the words rather than any interpretive tradition.
Colophon
Rigveda V.3 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.3
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.
tvam agne varuṇo jāyase yat tvam mitro bhavasi yat samiddhaḥ |
tve viśve sahasas putra devās tvam indro dāśuṣe martyāya || 1 ||
tvam aryamā bhavasi yat kanīnāṁ nāma svadhāvan guhyam bibharṣi |
añjanti mitraṁ sudhitaṁ na gobhir yad dampatī samanasā kṛṇoṣi || 2 ||
tava śriye maruto marjayanta rudra yat te janima cāru citram |
padaṁ yad viṣṇor upamaṁ nidhāyi tena pāsi guhyaṁ nāma gonām || 3 ||
tava śriyā sudṛśo deva devāḥ purū dadhānā amṛtaṁ sapanta |
hotāram agnim manuṣo ni ṣedur daśasyanta uśijaḥ śaṁsam āyoḥ || 4 ||
na tvad dhotā pūrvo agne yajīyān na kāvyaiḥ paro asti svadhāvaḥ |
viśaś ca yasyā atithir bhavāsi sa yajñena vanavad deva martān || 5 ||
vayam agne vanuyāma tvotā vasūyavo haviṣā budhyamānāḥ |
vayaṁ samarye vidatheṣv ahnāṁ vayaṁ rāyā sahasas putra martān || 6 ||
yo na āgo abhy eno bharāty adhīd agham aghaśaṁse dadhāta |
jahī cikitvo abhiśastim etām agne yo no marcayati dvayena || 7 ||
tvām asyā vyuṣi deva pūrve dūtaṁ kṛṇvānā ayajanta havyaiḥ |
saṁsthe yad agna īyase rayīṇāṁ devo martair vasubhir idhyamānaḥ || 8 ||
ava spṛdhi pitaraṁ yodhi vidvān putro yas te sahasaḥ sūna ūhe |
kadā cikitvo abhi cakṣase no 'gne kadām̐ ṛtacid yātayāse || 9 ||
bhūri nāma vandamāno dadhāti pitā vaso yadi taj joṣayāse |
kuvid devasya sahasā cakānaḥ sumnam agnir vanate vāvṛdhānaḥ || 10 ||
tvam aṅga jaritāraṁ yaviṣṭha viśvāny agne duritāti parṣi |
stenā adṛśran ripavo janāso 'jñātaketā vṛjinā abhūvan || 11 ||
ime yāmāsas tvadrig abhūvan vasave vā tad id āgo avāci |
nāhāyam agnir abhiśastaye no na rīṣate vāvṛdhānaḥ parā dāt || 12 ||
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).