Hymn to Agni
Rigveda VIII.74 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 8 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 thoughts of vigor I praise Agni, your household fire, the guest of every clan, dear to many, as I set forth this word.
2. Whom the oblation-bearing people praise with their praises, like a friend anointed with a pouring of ghee.
3. The admirable Jātavedas, who with the offering raised up sent the oblations to heaven, toward the gods.
4. We have come to Agni, best slayer of Vṛtra, the eldest, the Ānava — in whose front rank the great Śrutarvan, descendant of Ṛkṣa, flourishes.
5. The immortal Jātavedas, visible through the darkness, to whom ghee is poured, worthy of praise.
6. Whom these people, thronging close, call on with oblations, Agni, pouring their offerings with ladles held out.
7. This newest hymn, O Agni, has been set before you by us — joyous one, well-born, wise, undeceived, wondrous guest.
8. Let that hymn, O Agni, be most soothing, most delighting, and dear to you; by it, well-praised, grow strong.
9. May that hymn, splendid with splendors, bring ever more glory upon glory, greatly, in the conquest of foes.
10. The horse indeed, the cow, the one who fills the chariot, brilliant like Indra, the true lord — whose fame you surpass, and whom the peoples call most praiseworthy of the praiseworthy.
11. You whom Gopavana has delighted with song, O Agni, O Aṅgiras — hear this call, O purifying one.
12. You whom the people, thronging, call on for the winning of strength — be attentive in the conquest of foes.
13. I, called upon, in Ārkṣa Śrutarvan, the joy-stirring one — like troops of tufted ones, I have stroked the heads of the four.
14. May the four swift, running steeds of the mightiest one, well-yoked to the chariot, carry me toward the feast, as [the birds once carried] Tugra's son.
15. Truly, O great river Paruṣṇī, I have declared of you: no mortal is a greater giver of horses than the mightiest one, nor are the waters.
Translator's note: verse 13 is one of the most obscure in the Rigveda — "tufted ones" (stukāvinām) and "the four" (caturṇām) have no clear referent from the Sanskrit alone (possibly ram fleece-tufts, possibly a riddle image); it is rendered here conservatively, word for word. Verses 10–15 shift from direct praise of Agni into gift-praise (dānastuti) for the patron Śrutarvan, descendant of Ṛkṣa, and are correspondingly compressed and allusive in the source; renderings there stay close to the Sanskrit syntax rather than smoothing the images into plainer narrative.
Colophon
Rigveda VIII.74 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 VIII.74
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.
viśo-viśo vo atithiṁ vājayantaḥ purupriyam |
agniṁ vo duryaṁ vacaḥ stuṣe śūṣasya manmabhiḥ || 1 ||
yaṁ janāso haviṣmanto mitraṁ na sarpirāsutim |
praśaṁsanti praśastibhiḥ || 2 ||
panyāṁsaṁ jātavedasaṁ yo devatāty udyatā |
havyāny airayad divi || 3 ||
āganma vṛtrahantamaṁ jyeṣṭham agnim ānavam |
yasya śrutarvā bṛhann ārkṣo anīka edhate || 4 ||
amṛtaṁ jātavedasaṁ tiras tamāṁsi darśatam |
ghṛtāhavanam īḍyam || 5 ||
sabādho yaṁ janā ime3 'gniṁ havyebhir īḻate |
juhvānāso yatasrucaḥ || 6 ||
iyaṁ te navyasī matir agne adhāyy asmad ā |
mandra sujāta sukrato 'mūra dasmātithe || 7 ||
sā te agne śaṁtamā caniṣṭhā bhavatu priyā |
tayā vardhasva suṣṭutaḥ || 8 ||
sā dyumnair dyumninī bṛhad upopa śravasi śravaḥ |
dadhīta vṛtratūrye || 9 ||
aśvam id gāṁ rathaprāṁ tveṣam indraṁ na satpatim |
yasya śravāṁsi tūrvatha panyam-panyaṁ ca kṛṣṭayaḥ || 10 ||
yaṁ tvā gopavano girā caniṣṭhad agne aṅgiraḥ |
sa pāvaka śrudhī havam || 11 ||
yaṁ tvā janāsa īḻate sabādho vājasātaye |
sa bodhi vṛtratūrye || 12 ||
ahaṁ huvāna ārkṣe śrutarvaṇi madacyuti |
śardhāṁsīva stukāvinām mṛkṣā śīrṣā caturṇām || 13 ||
māṁ catvāra āśavaḥ śaviṣṭhasya dravitnavaḥ |
surathāso abhi prayo vakṣan vayo na tugryam || 14 ||
satyam it tvā mahenadi paruṣṇy ava dediśam |
nem āpo aśvadātaraḥ śaviṣṭhād asti martyaḥ || 15 ||
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).