Hymn to Agni
Rigveda I.99 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.
O Agni! Lord of all fires! We invoke thee in this moment, made sacred by thy presence. Hear us, O golden one. Hear us, O beloved of the gods.
Thou art the first of all the divinities, the first to be invoked in every sacrifice. In every ritual, thy name is called before all others. We kindle thy flames and pour forth the soma. We make our offerings upon thy altar. Through thee do we commune with the greater gods.
Accept our humble prayers. We are but mortals, small and weak compared to thy magnificence. Yet do we dare to lift our voices unto thee. We call upon thee in our need. We seek thy protection. We crave thy blessing.
May thy sacred fire burn eternal within the hearts of all who honor thee. May thy light guide us through all the darkness of this world. May thy warmth sustain us when cold and despair do threaten to overwhelm us.
We bow before thee, O Agni. We offer unto thee the finest of what we possess. Accept these tokens of our devotion. In return, grant us thy favor and protection. May we dwell forever in thy mercy.
Colophon
Rigveda I.99 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.99
jātavedase sunavāma somam arātīyato ni dahāti vedaḥ |
sa naḥ parṣad ati durgāṇi viśvā nāveva sindhuṁ duritāty agniḥ || 1 ||
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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