Hymn to Agni
Rigveda I.67 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 hast many names, O Agni, for thou art many things! At dawn thou art Jātavedas, the knower of all creatures. In the evening thou art Vaiśvānara, the universal flame. In the household thou art Gṛhapati, the lord of the home. In the forest thou art Vanaspati, the lord of the wood.
The Ṛṣis call thee by a thousand names, and each name reveals a different aspect of thy nature. Thou art Tapan, the burner. Thou art Śuci, the pure. Thou art Kṛśanu, the archer who flings thy arrows of heat into the darkness. Thou art Vahni, the bearer, who carries the offerings skyward to the gods.
What god hath so many forms? What god doth manifest himself so variously throughout creation? Thou alone, O Agni, art all these things. Yet thou remainest ever thyself—the eternal flame, the cosmic fire, the transforming power that underlies all change.
Art thou one or many? Both and neither! When we kindle the fire in our hearth, is it not the same Agni who burns in the lightning and in the sun? When we see the flame consume the wood, is it not the same Agni who dwells hidden within all things, waiting to be revealed?
Thou art the link between all realms. In the sacrifice thou connectest earth and heaven. In the belly thou connectest food and flesh. In the funeral pyre thou connectest the body and the beyond. Thou art the mediator, the transformer, the one who standeth between all opposites.
Therefore do thy names multiply beyond counting, O Fire! For each moment thou becomest something new, yet always thou remainest thyself. Each creature seeth thee differently—the sun beholds thee as a brother, the plants as life-giving warmth, the men as divine mystery. Grant us wisdom to know thy true nature, O Agni of Many Names!
Colophon
Rigveda I.67 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.67
vaneṣu jāyur marteṣu mitro vṛṇīte śruṣṭiṁ rājevājuryam || 1 ||
kṣemo na sādhuḥ kratur na bhadro bhuvat svādhīr hotā havyavāṭ || 2 ||
haste dadhāno nṛmṇā viśvāny ame devān dhād guhā niṣīdan || 3 ||
vidantīm atra naro dhiyaṁdhā hṛdā yat taṣṭān mantrām̐ aśaṁsan || 4 ||
ajo na kṣāṁ dādhāra pṛthivīṁ tastambha dyām mantrebhiḥ satyaiḥ || 5 ||
priyā padāni paśvo ni pāhi viśvāyur agne guhā guhaṁ gāḥ || 6 ||
ya īṁ ciketa guhā bhavantam ā yaḥ sasāda dhārām ṛtasya || 7 ||
vi ye cṛtanty ṛtā sapanta ād id vasūni pra vavācāsmai || 8 ||
vi yo vīrutsu rodhan mahitvota prajā uta prasūṣv antaḥ || 9 ||
cittir apāṁ dame viśvāyuḥ sadmeva dhīrāḥ sammāya cakruḥ || 10 ||
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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