Hymn to Agni
Rigveda I.60 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.
Thou ancient flame, O Agni! How long hath thy fire burned? Since the beginning of all things, surely! Before the mountains rose from the earth, thou wast already burning. Before the seas filled their basins, thou wast already kindling. And when all the world shall pass away, when mountains have worn down to dust and seas have evaporated, still shall thy fire burn—eternal, unchanging, forever.
The mortals come and go. We are born, we live our brief span of years, we die and pass into shadow. Our houses decay; our kingdoms crumble; our names are forgotten. But thou remainest, O eternal fire! Each generation kindle thee anew, not knowing that they kindle what their ancestors kindled, and what their descendants shall kindle after them. Thou art the link that bindeth all generations together.
What is a human lifetime compared to thine eternity? A single breath, O Agni! The spark that flies from thy flame at dawn—by evening it hath fallen back into the coals and is consumed. So brief is human life measured against thy continuous burning.
Yet we do not despair at this knowledge. Nay, we find comfort in it! For we know that we are part of something greater than ourselves. The fire that warmeth us today shall warm our grandchildren's children. The smoke that riseth from our sacrifice shall mingle with smoke from sacrifices yet to come, all reaching upward to the gods in one eternal column.
We are but the kindlers of the fire. We are but the tenders of the eternal flame. We receive it from those who came before; we pass it onward to those who shall come after. In this way, we participate in something immortal.
O Agni, ancient flame! Thou art older than memory, older than the oldest stories, older than time itself. Yet thou burnest fresh and bright each morning, as though newly kindled. Teach us this mystery, O eternal fire. Teach us how to be both ancient and ever-new, both eternally constant and forever changing. Thus do we praise thee, O Agni—the flame eternal among mortals.
Colophon
Rigveda I.60 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.
🌲
Source Text: ṛgveda I.60
vahniṁ yaśasaṁ vidathasya ketuṁ suprāvyaṁ dūtaṁ sadyoartham |
dvijanmānaṁ rayim iva praśastaṁ rātim bharad bhṛgave mātariśvā || 1 ||
asya śāsur ubhayāsaḥ sacante haviṣmanta uśijo ye ca martāḥ |
divaś cit pūrvo ny asādi hotāpṛcchyo viśpatir vikṣu vedhāḥ || 2 ||
taṁ navyasī hṛda ā jāyamānam asmat sukīrtir madhujihvam aśyāḥ |
yam ṛtvijo vṛjane mānuṣāsaḥ prayasvanta āyavo jījananta || 3 ||
uśik pāvako vasur mānuṣeṣu vareṇyo hotādhāyi vikṣu |
damūnā gṛhapatir dama ām̐ agnir bhuvad rayipatī rayīṇām || 4 ||
taṁ tvā vayam patim agne rayīṇām pra śaṁsāmo matibhir gotamāsaḥ |
āśuṁ na vājambharam marjayantaḥ prātar makṣū dhiyāvasur jagamyāt || 5 ||
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).
🌲