Hymn to Agni
Rigveda VI.3 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. 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. Agni — he who guards the sacred order, born of that order, devoted to the gods, shall dwell secure and reach your wide light. That mortal you, O god, together with Mitra and Varuṇa, of one accord, protect from harm, from distress.
2. He who has offered with sacrifices, labored with ritual works, given worship to Agni the increaser of goods — that mortal is reached by neither the displeasure of the glorious ones, nor distress, nor recklessness.
3. Like the sun, whose gaze is without blemish, fearsome is the vision that comes when you, the blazing one, arrive. Of the rushing one, the sheltering one — this one is not a creature of the night; delightful is his dwelling anywhere, he who is born of the wood.
4. Sharp indeed is his course, great is his form; he devours like a horse held in check by the mouth. Gaping wide, his tongue like an axe, like a smelter he melts — burning the wood.
5. He indeed, like an archer taking aim, eager to shoot, sharpens his edge like the blade of iron. Of wondrous course, the mover, who by night, like a bird perched on a tree, is swift of flight, swift-footed.
6. He indeed, like a singer, clothes himself facing the dawns; with his flame he murmurs on, great as a friend. He who by night is red, who by day is for men — the immortal red one, who by day is for men.
7. Like heaven's own — whose worshipper has cried aloud — the bull, blazing, has roared among the plants. Like a glow, going with swift course and flight, to the two world-halves, to the house with its good lord, with wealth he comes.
8. Or he who, with fitting hymns as his nourishment, has flashed like lightning with his own fierce powers; or he who has fashioned the host of the Maruts — like Ṛbhu, brilliant, impetuous, he has shone.
Translator's note: Verse 3 (heṣasvataḥ śurudhaḥ) and verse 7 (ghṛṇā na yo dhrajasā patmanā) contain rare, disputed vocabulary; both are rendered conservatively, following the most literal sense of the roots rather than any smoothed paraphrase. Verse 6 repeats its final pāda in the Sanskrit itself (naktaṁ...divā nṝn / amartyo...divā nṝn); the repetition is preserved here rather than treated as an error.
Colophon
Rigveda VI.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 VI.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.
agne sa kṣeṣad ṛtapā ṛtejā uru jyotir naśate devayuṣ ṭe |
yaṁ tvam mitreṇa varuṇaḥ sajoṣā deva pāsi tyajasā martam aṁhaḥ || 1 ||
īje yajñebhiḥ śaśame śamībhir ṛdhadvārāyāgnaye dadāśa |
evā cana taṁ yaśasām ajuṣṭir nāṁho martaṁ naśate na pradṛptiḥ || 2 ||
sūro na yasya dṛśatir arepā bhīmā yad eti śucatas ta ā dhīḥ |
heṣasvataḥ śurudho nāyam aktoḥ kutrā cid raṇvo vasatir vanejāḥ || 3 ||
tigmaṁ cid ema mahi varpo asya bhasad aśvo na yamasāna āsā |
vijehamānaḥ paraśur na jihvāṁ dravir na drāvayati dāru dhakṣat || 4 ||
sa id asteva prati dhād asiṣyañ chiśīta tejo 'yaso na dhārām |
citradhrajatir aratir yo aktor ver na druṣadvā raghupatmajaṁhāḥ || 5 ||
sa īṁ rebho na prati vasta usrāḥ śociṣā rārapīti mitramahāḥ |
naktaṁ ya īm aruṣo yo divā nṝn amartyo aruṣo yo divā nṝn || 6 ||
divo na yasya vidhato navīnod vṛṣā rukṣa oṣadhīṣu nūnot |
ghṛṇā na yo dhrajasā patmanā yann ā rodasī vasunā daṁ supatnī || 7 ||
dhāyobhir vā yo yujyebhir arkair vidyun na davidyot svebhiḥ śuṣmaiḥ |
śardho vā yo marutāṁ tatakṣa ṛbhur na tveṣo rabhasāno adyaut || 8 ||
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).