Hymn to Agni
Rigveda VII.10 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 7 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. Like the lover of Dawn, he has spread his splendor wide, flashing, blazing, shining bright. The tawny bull, pure, shines with his own radiance; urging on the eager prayers, he has roused them.
2. Like heaven's light at the dawning of the dawns he has shone forth, drawing out the sacrifice like the thought of the eager priests. Agni, the god who knows all generations, runs as messenger, seeking the gods, most zealous.
3. Toward him the songs, the god-seeking thoughts, go to Agni, begging for riches — fair to see, fair-faced, gracious, the carrier of offerings, the close kinsman of men.
4. Agni, bring to us Indra together with the Vasus, of one accord; bring mighty Rudra with the Rudras; bring Aditi, mother of all people, with the Ādityas; bring Bṛhaspati with the singers, granter of every wish.
5. The clans worship at the rites the joyous priest, the youngest of the eager ones, Agni. For he has become the keeper of riches, the untiring messenger who carries worship to the gods.
Translator's note: in verse 3, "aratim" (rendered "close kinsman") is a difficult word that can also be read as "spoke of the wheel" or "charioteer" in other Rigvedic contexts; "kinsman/friend" is the more conservative sense here. In verse 1, "dhiyaḥ ... uśatīḥ ajīgaḥ" is compact — "he has roused the eager prayers/thoughts" — and could equally be read as Agni himself being roused by them; the verb's subject is ambiguous in the Sanskrit.
Colophon
Rigveda VII.10 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 VII.10
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.
uṣo na jāraḥ pṛthu pājo aśred davidyutad dīdyac chośucānaḥ |
vṛṣā hariḥ śucir ā bhāti bhāsā dhiyo hinvāna uśatīr ajīgaḥ || 1 ||
sva1r ṇa vastor uṣasām aroci yajñaṁ tanvānā uśijo na manma |
agnir janmāni deva ā vi vidvān dravad dūto devayāvā vaniṣṭhaḥ || 2 ||
acchā giro matayo devayantīr agniṁ yanti draviṇam bhikṣamāṇāḥ |
susaṁdṛśaṁ supratīkaṁ svañcaṁ havyavāham aratim mānuṣāṇām || 3 ||
indraṁ no agne vasubhiḥ sajoṣā rudraṁ rudrebhir ā vahā bṛhantam |
ādityebhir aditiṁ viśvajanyām bṛhaspatim ṛkvabhir viśvavāram || 4 ||
mandraṁ hotāram uśijo yaviṣṭham agniṁ viśa īḻate adhvareṣu |
sa hi kṣapāvām̐ abhavad rayīṇām atandro dūto yajathāya devān || 5 ||
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).