Hymn to Agni
Rigveda VII.12 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. We have come with great homage to the youngest god, who blazes, kindled in his own house — of brilliant light, between the two wide worlds, well-offered-to, facing every direction.
2. He, having by his greatness overcome all misfortunes, Agni Jātavedas, is praised in the home. May he guard us from misfortune, from blame — us who sing his praise, and our generous patrons too.
3. You, Agni, are Varuṇa, and you are Mitra; the Vasiṣṭhas strengthen you with their hymns. May goods easy to win rest in you. Protect us always, all of you, with blessings.
Translator's note: "jātavedāḥ" (2) is a standing epithet of Agni, literally "knower of all born things"; it is left untranslated as a proper epithet rather than rendered awkwardly into English. The closing line of verse 3 ("yūyam pāta svastibhiḥ sadā naḥ," "protect us always, all of you, with blessings") is a fixed Vasiṣṭha refrain addressing the gods in the plural even where the verse has just addressed Agni alone — the shift from singular to plural is in the Sanskrit, not an error introduced here.
Colophon
Rigveda VII.12 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.12
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.
aganma mahā namasā yaviṣṭhaṁ yo dīdāya samiddhaḥ sve duroṇe |
citrabhānuṁ rodasī antar urvī svāhutaṁ viśvataḥ pratyañcam || 1 ||
sa mahnā viśvā duritāni sāhvān agniḥ ṣṭave dama ā jātavedāḥ |
sa no rakṣiṣad duritād avadyād asmān gṛṇata uta no maghonaḥ || 2 ||
tvaṁ varuṇa uta mitro agne tvāṁ vardhanti matibhir vasiṣṭhāḥ |
tve vasu suṣaṇanāni santu yūyam pāta svastibhiḥ sadā naḥ || 3 ||
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).