Hymn to Agni
Rigveda I.58 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.
Hear us, O Agni, thou fire of the sacrifice! Thou burnest eternal—not merely for a night or a day, but from the beginning of time until time itself shall cease. The fires that kindled before the first humans walked the earth—art thou not descended from those ancient flames? The fires that shall burn after we mortals have turned to dust—shall they not carry within them the spark of thy eternal being?
Thou art the cosmic force incarnate, O Agni! All heat, all light, all transformation floweth from thee. The sun in the sky is but a reflection of thy radiance. The stars are but sparks flying upward from thy eternal flame.
Thou art both small and mighty. The tiny flame that we kindle in our hearths—is it not thee? The roaring inferno that consumeth a forest—is it not also thee? How strange that the same god appeareth in such different forms! The housewife's cooking fire and the raging wildfire—both are Agni, both are thy manifestation.
In thee all things are transformed. The raw wood becometh ash and smoke and heat. The raw flesh becometh nourishment for the body. The crude ore becometh burnished metal. Nothing remaineth unchanged when it passeth through thy domain. Thou art the god of transformation, the changer of forms, the revealer of hidden essences.
And thou art merciful, O ancient one! Thou warmest the cold on the winter night. Thou cookest the food that sustaineth us. Thou burnest away the impurities, leaveth only the pure behind. Thy transformation, though it may seem fierce, doth bring forth good.
We kindle thee each day, O eternal fire! We feed thee wood and ghee. We speak thy name. And thou receivest our offerings and carriest them to the gods above. Thus do we praise thee, O Agni—ancient, eternal, transform all, purifier, bearer of our prayers to the divine realm.
Colophon
Rigveda I.58 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.58
nū cit sahojā amṛto ni tundate hotā yad dūto abhavad vivasvataḥ |
vi sādhiṣṭhebhiḥ pathibhī rajo mama ā devatātā haviṣā vivāsati || 1 ||
ā svam adma yuvamāno ajaras tṛṣv aviṣyann ataseṣu tiṣṭhati |
atyo na pṛṣṭham pruṣitasya rocate divo na sānu stanayann acikradat || 2 ||
krāṇā rudrebhir vasubhiḥ purohito hotā niṣatto rayiṣāḻ amartyaḥ |
ratho na vikṣv ṛñjasāna āyuṣu vy ānuṣag vāryā deva ṛṇvati || 3 ||
vi vātajūto ataseṣu tiṣṭhate vṛthā juhūbhiḥ sṛṇyā tuviṣvaṇiḥ |
tṛṣu yad agne vanino vṛṣāyase kṛṣṇaṁ ta ema ruśadūrme ajara || 4 ||
tapurjambho vana ā vātacodito yūthe na sāhvām̐ ava vāti vaṁsagaḥ |
abhivrajann akṣitam pājasā rajaḥ sthātuś caratham bhayate patatriṇaḥ || 5 ||
dadhuṣ ṭvā bhṛgavo mānuṣeṣv ā rayiṁ na cāruṁ suhavaṁ janebhyaḥ |
hotāram agne atithiṁ vareṇyam mitraṁ na śevaṁ divyāya janmane || 6 ||
hotāraṁ sapta juhvo3 yajiṣṭhaṁ yaṁ vāghato vṛṇate adhvareṣu |
agniṁ viśveṣām aratiṁ vasūnāṁ saparyāmi prayasā yāmi ratnam || 7 ||
acchidrā sūno sahaso no adya stotṛbhyo mitramahaḥ śarma yaccha |
agne gṛṇantam aṁhasa uruṣyorjo napāt pūrbhir āyasībhiḥ || 8 ||
bhavā varūthaṁ gṛṇate vibhāvo bhavā maghavan maghavadbhyaḥ śarma |
uruṣyāgne aṁhaso gṛṇantam prātar makṣū dhiyāvasur jagamyāt || 9 ||
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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