Hymn to Agni
Rigveda VI.13 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 6 of the Rigveda, one of the 1,028 hymns organized within the ten books of the oldest Veda. Maṇḍala 6 is the family book of the Bhāradvājas, and this hymn addresses Agni, the fire-god, as the source of every blessing: wealth, victory, rain, and the flow of waters. It compares him to Bhaga and Mitra, calls him the distributor of good things and a partaker in the great cosmic order (ṛta), and closes with a plea for cattle, sons, and a long life of a hundred winters.
This is a Good Works Translation produced for the Good Works Library from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension.
1. From you, O fortunate Agni, all blessings spread out like branches from a tree: swift wealth, strength in the battle against the foe, rain from the sky, the praiseworthy flow of waters.
2. You, like Bhaga, indeed bring treasure for our nourishment; like one who circles the world, you dwell in wonder-working splendor. O Agni, like Mitra you belong to the great cosmic order; you are the distributor, O god, of abundant good things.
3. That true lord, by his strength, slays the obstructor; O Agni, the inspired one carries off the prize from the miser. Whomever you, O wise one born of the cosmic order, urge forward with wealth, in accord with the offspring of the waters.
4. Whatever mortal, O son of strength, has attained — with songs, hymns, and sacrifices — the proper kindling and knowledge of you, that one, O god Agni, gains every desired boon; he wins grain, he becomes master of riches.
5. Those fame-bringing gifts, O Agni rich in good sons, son of strength, you foster for men. You create, by your might, abundant cattle and vigor — even for the wolfish, hostile, wasting one.
6. O eloquent one, son of strength, mighty in expanse, O Agni, give us offspring and progeny; O vigorous one, give to us. With all our songs may I attain fulfillment; may we rejoice for a hundred winters, rich in good sons.
Translator's note: verse 3 ends without a clear resolving main clause in the Sanskrit itself (a relative clause left open), and the rendering follows that shape rather than supplying an ending not in the text. In verse 5, "vṛkāya araye jasuraye" (dative, "for the wolfish, hostile, wasting one") is kept literal; its exact sense — whether Agni's bounty reaches even a hostile party, or the phrase names something else — is not fully certain and is rendered conservatively.
Colophon
Rigveda VI.13 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 VI.13
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.
tvad viśvā subhaga saubhagāny agne vi yanti vanino na vayāḥ |
śruṣṭī rayir vājo vṛtratūrye divo vṛṣṭir īḍyo rītir apām || 1 ||
tvam bhago na ā hi ratnam iṣe parijmeva kṣayasi dasmavarcāḥ |
agne mitro na bṛhata ṛtasyāsi kṣattā vāmasya deva bhūreḥ || 2 ||
sa satpatiḥ śavasā hanti vṛtram agne vipro vi paṇer bharti vājam |
yaṁ tvam praceta ṛtajāta rāyā sajoṣā naptrāpāṁ hinoṣi || 3 ||
yas te sūno sahaso gīrbhir ukthair yajñair marto niśitiṁ vedyānaṭ |
viśvaṁ sa deva prati vāram agne dhatte dhānya1m patyate vasavyaiḥ || 4 ||
tā nṛbhya ā sauśravasā suvīrāgne sūno sahasaḥ puṣyase dhāḥ |
kṛṇoṣi yac chavasā bhūri paśvo vayo vṛkāyāraye jasuraye || 5 ||
vadmā sūno sahaso no vihāyā agne tokaṁ tanayaṁ vāji no dāḥ |
viśvābhir gīrbhir abhi pūrtim aśyām madema śatahimāḥ suvīrāḥ || 6 ||
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).