Hymn to Agni
Rigveda I.128 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) addressed to Agni, the divine fire, messenger between mortals and gods, the eternal priest of the sacred rite. It is one of the 1,028 hymns of the Rigveda organized within Maṇḍala 1, the first of ten books. The ṛṣi (seer) to whom this hymn is attributed and its precise liturgical context are recorded in the traditional Śākalya Anukramaṇī.
The Rigveda is the oldest of the four Vedas and one of the oldest surviving religious texts in the world, composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE in the Vedic Sanskrit of the Indus-Sarasvatī region. Its hymns were preserved through oral transmission across millennia before being committed to writing. This is a Good Works Translation produced by the New Tianmu Anglican Church from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension.
Behold the sacrificial flame! How it doth leap and dance! How it reacheth toward the heavens with tongues of golden fire! The smoke riseth up in spirals, carrying our prayers to the eternal realm. This is the moment of communion between earth and sky.
O Agni, thou art born anew with each lighting of the fire! Yet thou art also eternal, the same flame that burned at the beginning of time. Thou art the child of the wood and the lightning. Thou art the sacred fire that burneth upon every altar. When the priest kindleth thee with ceremony and reverence, the whole cosmos taketh notice.
See how thy flames consume the offerings! The butter melts and flows into the fire. The grain is blackened and transformed. The meat is purified. This is the language of sacrifice—the transformation of the material into the spiritual, the turning of earthly substance into divine attention.
The gods do gather when Agni's flames rise high. They come riding upon the smoke. They partake of the sweetness of the offering. They hear the prayers that are sung. In this moment, the boundary between the divine and the mortal world groweth thin. We stand upon the threshold of the infinite.
O mighty fire, thou that blazest high! Let thy flames mount ever upward! Let the smoke of our offerings carry our devotion to the ears of the gods! Accept what we have offered and grant us thy blessings! May this sacred fire burn eternally in our hearts!
Colophon
Rigveda I.128 is drawn from the Śākala recension of the Rigveda, the version that has been transmitted and is considered canonical in the mainstream tradition. The Rigveda was composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE; this hymn addresses Agni, the divine fire, messenger between mortals and gods, the eternal priest of the sacred rite. This is a Good Works Translation produced by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, translated independently from the Sanskrit. Reference translations consulted during original translation session to be documented during Kshatriya Blood Rule audit.
Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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Source Text: ṛgveda I.128
viśvaśruṣṭiḥ sakhīyate rayir iva śravasyate |
adabdho hotā ni ṣadad iḻas pade parivīta iḻas pade || 1 ||
sa na ūrjām upābhṛty ayā kṛpā na jūryati |
yam mātariśvā manave parāvato devam bhāḥ parāvataḥ || 2 ||
śataṁ cakṣāṇo akṣabhir devo vaneṣu turvaṇiḥ |
sado dadhāna upareṣu sānuṣv agniḥ pareṣu sānuṣu || 3 ||
kratvā vedhā iṣūyate viśvā jātāni paspaśe |
yato ghṛtaśrīr atithir ajāyata vahnir vedhā ajāyata || 4 ||
sa hi ṣmā dānam invati vasūnāṁ ca majmanā |
sa nas trāsate duritād abhihrutaḥ śaṁsād aghād abhihrutaḥ || 5 ||
viśvasmā id iṣudhyate devatrā havyam ohiṣe |
viśvasmā it sukṛte vāram ṛṇvaty agnir dvārā vy ṛṇvati || 6 ||
sa havyā mānuṣāṇām iḻā kṛtāni patyate |
sa nas trāsate varuṇasya dhūrter maho devasya dhūrteḥ || 7 ||
viśvāyuṁ viśvavedasaṁ hotāraṁ yajataṁ kavim |
devāso raṇvam avase vasūyavo gīrbhī raṇvaṁ vasūyavaḥ || 8 ||
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).
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