Hymn to Agni
Rigveda I.44 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.
Awake, O Agni! The dawn hath broken. Rise thou from the ashes! Come forth, O bright one, clothed in flames. The night hath passed; the darkness fleeth before thee. Now kindleth the morning fire, and all the world doth wake.
We have prepared the wood; we have laid the dry grass. Now receive our offering, O flame! Rise up from thy bed of coals, leap high into the heavens! Thy smoke ascendeth—a bridge between the earth and the gods. Through thee do we speak with the immortals above.
O Agni, born in the waters, born of the wood! Thou art the mouth of sacrifice. All oblations pass through thy gullet; thou renderest them to the gods. Without thee, no prayer reacheth heaven. Without thy tongue of flame, the gods would not taste our offerings.
We kindle thee each morning. We nurture thee with wood and ghee. And thou, in turn, dost protect our homes. Thy flames keep at bay the darkness, the wild beasts, the demons of night. Thou art the guardian of the threshold, the warder of the gate.
O early-kindled fire! Thou art young yet mighty. Thy heat doth grow with each new stick of wood. By evening thou shalt tower to the sky, a pillar of flame visible for leagues. But now, in this moment, while the dawn is fresh, we do invoke thee and lay our offerings before thee.
Grant us prosperity, O Agni! Grant us wealth and sons and daughters. May our herds increase; may our enemies tremble. Be our friend in battle, our companion in the home. Accept our oblation and carry it to the gods. Thus do we kindle thee each morning—forever kindling, forever burning, forever bearing our prayers to the immortals on high.
Colophon
Rigveda I.44 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.44
agne vivasvad uṣasaś citraṁ rādho amartya |
ā dāśuṣe jātavedo vahā tvam adyā devām̐ uṣarbudhaḥ || 1 ||
juṣṭo hi dūto asi havyavāhano 'gne rathīr adhvarāṇām |
sajūr aśvibhyām uṣasā suvīryam asme dhehi śravo bṛhat || 2 ||
adyā dūtaṁ vṛṇīmahe vasum agnim purupriyam |
dhūmaketum bhāṛjīkaṁ vyuṣṭiṣu yajñānām adhvaraśriyam || 3 ||
śreṣṭhaṁ yaviṣṭham atithiṁ svāhutaṁ juṣṭaṁ janāya dāśuṣe |
devām̐ acchā yātave jātavedasam agnim īḻe vyuṣṭiṣu || 4 ||
staviṣyāmi tvām ahaṁ viśvasyāmṛta bhojana |
agne trātāram amṛtam miyedhya yajiṣṭhaṁ havyavāhana || 5 ||
suśaṁso bodhi gṛṇate yaviṣṭhya madhujihvaḥ svāhutaḥ |
praskaṇvasya pratirann āyur jīvase namasyā daivyaṁ janam || 6 ||
hotāraṁ viśvavedasaṁ saṁ hi tvā viśa indhate |
sa ā vaha puruhūta pracetaso 'gne devām̐ iha dravat || 7 ||
savitāram uṣasam aśvinā bhagam agniṁ vyuṣṭiṣu kṣapaḥ |
kaṇvāsas tvā sutasomāsa indhate havyavāhaṁ svadhvara || 8 ||
patir hy adhvarāṇām agne dūto viśām asi |
uṣarbudha ā vaha somapītaye devām̐ adya svardṛśaḥ || 9 ||
agne pūrvā anūṣaso vibhāvaso dīdetha viśvadarśataḥ |
asi grāmeṣv avitā purohito 'si yajñeṣu mānuṣaḥ || 10 ||
ni tvā yajñasya sādhanam agne hotāram ṛtvijam |
manuṣvad deva dhīmahi pracetasaṁ jīraṁ dūtam amartyam || 11 ||
yad devānām mitramahaḥ purohito 'ntaro yāsi dūtyam |
sindhor iva prasvanitāsa ūrmayo 'gner bhrājante arcayaḥ || 12 ||
śrudhi śrutkarṇa vahnibhir devair agne sayāvabhiḥ |
ā sīdantu barhiṣi mitro aryamā prātaryāvāṇo adhvaram || 13 ||
śṛṇvantu stomam marutaḥ sudānavo 'gnijihvā ṛtāvṛdhaḥ |
pibatu somaṁ varuṇo dhṛtavrato 'śvibhyām uṣasā sajūḥ || 14 ||
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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