Hymn to Agni
Rigveda VI.6 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. With a fresh sacrificial hymn he goes forth to the son of strength, seeking a path down — to the wood-cleaving one, whose track is black, the bright one; with the offering he approaches the divine priest.
2. He, gleaming, standing in the light amid thunder, the youngest, with unaging, roaring flames — Agni the purifier, most abundant, goes on devouring many broad things.
3. Your flames, O Agni, wind-driven, bright one, move in all directions, bright ones themselves — mighty crushers, divine, ever-advancing, they consume the forests, boldly breaking through.
4. Your bright, pure, radiant ones — unleashed horses — strew across the earth. Then your whirling flame shines out wide, driving onward over the ridge of the dappled land.
5. Then the tongue of the bull flies forth, fighting amid the herds, like a missile let loose. Like the onrush of a hero is the burning of Agni — fearsome, hard to restrain, he devours the forests.
6. With your radiance you have boldly stretched out the earthly expanses of your great driving-force. Drive fear away with your might; burn down the rivals, you who strive against the striving foes.
7. O wondrous one, grant us the wondrous wealth that makes itself known, O you of wondrous power, most wondrous, life-bestowing one; grant shining wealth, rich in many sons, vast — O shining one, with your shining rays, to the one who sings your praise.
Translator's note: verse 3's "navagvā" (literally "new-going" or, elsewhere in the Rigveda, the name of a group of ancient priestly seers) is rendered here by its descriptive sense, "ever-advancing," since the verse's grammatical subject is Agni's flames rather than a named group of priests. Verse 4's "pṛśni" (dappled/spotted) is left as "dappled land," its most common referent for earth or a variegated surface in this context. Verse 5's "day-" (dayate) can mean either "divide/apportion" or "consume/waste away"; "devours" was chosen to match the destructive imagery of the surrounding verses.
Colophon
Rigveda VI.6 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.
🌲
Source Text: ṛgveda VI.6
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.
pra navyasā sahasaḥ sūnum acchā yajñena gātum ava icchamānaḥ |
vṛścadvanaṁ kṛṣṇayāmaṁ ruśantaṁ vītī hotāraṁ divyaṁ jigāti || 1 ||
sa śvitānas tanyatū rocanasthā ajarebhir nānadadbhir yaviṣṭhaḥ |
yaḥ pāvakaḥ purutamaḥ purūṇi pṛthūny agnir anuyāti bharvan || 2 ||
vi te viṣvag vātajūtāso agne bhāmāsaḥ śuce śucayaś caranti |
tuvimrakṣāso divyā navagvā vanā vananti dhṛṣatā rujantaḥ || 3 ||
ye te śukrāsaḥ śucayaḥ śuciṣmaḥ kṣāṁ vapanti viṣitāso aśvāḥ |
adha bhramas ta urviyā vi bhāti yātayamāno adhi sānu pṛśneḥ || 4 ||
adha jihvā pāpatīti pra vṛṣṇo goṣuyudho nāśaniḥ sṛjānā |
śūrasyeva prasitiḥ kṣātir agner durvartur bhīmo dayate vanāni || 5 ||
ā bhānunā pārthivāni jrayāṁsi mahas todasya dhṛṣatā tatantha |
sa bādhasvāpa bhayā sahobhiḥ spṛdho vanuṣyan vanuṣo ni jūrva || 6 ||
sa citra citraṁ citayantam asme citrakṣatra citratamaṁ vayodhām |
candraṁ rayim puruvīram bṛhantaṁ candra candrābhir gṛṇate yuvasva || 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).