Hymn to Agni
Rigveda V.9 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, mortals bearing oblations invoke you as a god. I hold you to be Jātavedas, knower of all that is born — you shall carry the offerings through, in due order.
2. Agni is the invoking priest of the generous man's household, whose sacred grass is strewn. Toward him the sacrifices converge, and toward him converge the glory-seeking prizes.
3. And indeed it is he whom the two kindling-sticks brought forth like a newborn child — Agni, sustainer of the human clans, whose rite is good.
4. And indeed you are hard to seize, like a son among the winding, crooked ones — you who burn through many things, O Agni, [feeding on] the wood as cattle feed on the pasture.
5. Then indeed his smoky flames come together rightly, when Trita, up in heaven, blows upon him as one blows a fire, and he sharpens himself as at the two bellows.
6. By your help, O Agni, and by the praises of Mitra, may we cross over the hard passages that beset mortals, like those released from hostility.
7. Bring to us, O Agni — O men — that wealth, by force. May he impel it, may he foster it, may he stand ready for the winning of the prize, and be with us in battles for our strengthening.
Translator's note: Several phrases in this hymn are genuinely difficult. In verse 4, "durgṛbhīyase... putro na hvāryāṇām" (hard to seize, like a son of the crooked/winding ones) is rendered conservatively as a description of Agni's elusiveness. In verse 5, the reference to Trita blowing on Agni "as at the two bellows" (dhmātarī) is an obscure image connecting Agni's kindling to the smith's bellows; it is kept literal rather than smoothed over. In verse 7, "abhī naraḥ" (addressed to "the men") may refer to Agni's flames or to human helpers; the ambiguity is preserved rather than resolved.
Colophon
Rigveda V.9 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.9
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.
tvām agne haviṣmanto devam martāsa īḻate |
manye tvā jātavedasaṁ sa havyā vakṣy ānuṣak || 1 ||
agnir hotā dāsvataḥ kṣayasya vṛktabarhiṣaḥ |
saṁ yajñāsaś caranti yaṁ saṁ vājāsaḥ śravasyavaḥ || 2 ||
uta sma yaṁ śiśuṁ yathā navaṁ janiṣṭāraṇī |
dhartāram mānuṣīṇāṁ viśām agniṁ svadhvaram || 3 ||
uta sma durgṛbhīyase putro na hvāryāṇām |
purū yo dagdhāsi vanāgne paśur na yavase || 4 ||
adha sma yasyārcayaḥ samyak saṁyanti dhūminaḥ |
yad īm aha trito divy upa dhmāteva dhamati śiśīte dhmātarī yathā || 5 ||
tavāham agna ūtibhir mitrasya ca praśastibhiḥ |
dveṣoyuto na duritā turyāma martyānām || 6 ||
taṁ no agne abhī naro rayiṁ sahasva ā bhara |
sa kṣepayat sa poṣayad bhuvad vājasya sātaya utaidhi pṛtsu no vṛdhe || 7 ||
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).