Hymn to Agni
Rigveda VII.42 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. The priests, the Aṅgirases, come forward. Let the thunder of the rain-cloud go forth. Let the water-flowing cows bellow forth. Let the two pressing-stones be yoked — the ornament of the rite.
2. Your path is easy, Agni, long known. Yoke, now the soma is pressed, your bay horses and your red ones — or those ruddy ones in your seat that carry heroes. Seated here, I call the generations of the gods.
3. Magnifying your sacrifice with acts of homage, the joyful Hotar-priest has drawn close, excelling. Worship the gods well, forward-facing one; turn the worshipful Devotion here.
4. When in the house of a wealthy hero the guest who rests at ease has been seen — Agni, well-pleased, well-placed within the house — he gives the clan a gift so great, a thing worth choosing.
5. Accept this our rite, Agni; make us glorious among the Maruts and Indra. Let Night and Dawn sit here on the sacred grass; worship here the eager Mitra and Varuṇa.
6. So Vasiṣṭha, desiring wealth, praised Agni the mighty, the all-nourishing one. May he spread food, riches, strength for us. Protect us always with your blessings.
Translator's note: "purvaṇīka" (v. 3) and "syonaśīḥ" (v. 4) are compound epithets of Agni rendered conservatively as "forward-facing" and "resting at ease"; both admit narrower technical readings. The closing line, addressed to "you" in the plural, is a standard formulaic refrain and is kept as such even though the hymn itself is addressed to Agni alone.
Colophon
Rigveda VII.42 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.42
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 brahmāṇo aṅgiraso nakṣanta pra krandanur nabhanyasya vetu |
pra dhenava udapruto navanta yujyātām adrī adhvarasya peśaḥ || 1 ||
sugas te agne sanavitto adhvā yukṣvā sute harito rohitaś ca |
ye vā sadmann aruṣā vīravāho huve devānāṁ janimāni sattaḥ || 2 ||
sam u vo yajñam mahayan namobhiḥ pra hotā mandro ririca upāke |
yajasva su purvaṇīka devān ā yajñiyām aramatiṁ vavṛtyāḥ || 3 ||
yadā vīrasya revato duroṇe syonaśīr atithir āciketat |
suprīto agniḥ sudhito dama ā sa viśe dāti vāryam iyatyai || 4 ||
imaṁ no agne adhvaraṁ juṣasva marutsv indre yaśasaṁ kṛdhī naḥ |
ā naktā barhiḥ sadatām uṣāsośantā mitrāvaruṇā yajeha || 5 ||
evāgniṁ sahasya1ṁ vasiṣṭho rāyaskāmo viśvapsnyasya staut |
iṣaṁ rayim paprathad vājam asme yūyam pāta svastibhiḥ sadā naḥ || 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).