Hymn to Agni
Rigveda X.51 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 10 of the Rigveda, one of the 1,028 hymns organized within the ten books of the oldest Veda. The Rigveda was composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE in Vedic Sanskrit and preserved through oral transmission across millennia.
This is a Good Works Translation produced by the New Tianmu Anglican Church from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension.
Great was the veil, and strong it was, wherein thou didst descend into the waters.
All thy shapes and manifold forms, O Agni Jātavedas, were beheld by one god alone.
Who beheld me? What god was he that fully saw all forms I wear?
Where now, O Mitra and Varuṇa, lie all the kindling-sticks of Agni— those that lead the way unto the gods?
We sought thee in many places, O Jātavedas— thee who had slipped into the waters, into the growing green, O Agni.
Yama beheld thy shining, bright as flame, reaching farther than ten spans of earth.
In dread of the priestly yoke I fled, O Varuṇa, lest the gods bind me to that office.
My forms did hide in many places.
I, Agni, tended not to this work, nor bore I mind to it.
Come forth! Manu, the god-loving, longeth for the rite, and he hath made it ready.
Yet thou, Agni, tarriest in gloom.
Make plain the paths to the gods; carry the gift with favor and light the way.
My elder kindred, the fire-born, did roll after this toil before me, as a charioteer along the dusted track.
And fearing this, O Varuṇa, I turned far aside.
I shrank away as a buffalo from the stretched string of the bowman.
A span of life shall we grant thee, Agni—one not touched by age or harm, that, yoked to thy charge, thou be not wearied, O Jātavedas.
Then wilt thou, with kindness shown, bear forth their shares to the gods?
Let the first-fruits and the last be mine alone, the fattening part of the gift, the "butter" from the streams, the "man" from the herbs— and let long life be mine, O gods.
So be it. Let the fore-offering and the after-offering be thine, the choicest share of the oblation.
Thine be this whole rite, O Agni.
Unto thee let all the four quarters bow.
Colophon
This hymn is drawn from the Śākala recension of the Rigveda, composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE. This is a Good Works Translation produced by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, translated independently from the Sanskrit. Reference translations consulted during original translation are to be documented during audit.
Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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Source Text: ṛgveda X.51
Sanskrit source text from the Aufrecht edition (1877) via GRETIL (Van Nooten & Holland input). Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.
mahat tad ulbaṁ sthaviraṁ tad āsīd yenāviṣṭitaḥ praviveśithāpaḥ |
viśvā apaśyad bahudhā te agne jātavedas tanvo deva ekaḥ || 1 ||
ko mā dadarśa katamaḥ sa devo yo me tanvo bahudhā paryapaśyat |
kvāha mitrāvaruṇā kṣiyanty agner viśvāḥ samidho devayānīḥ || 2 ||
aicchāma tvā bahudhā jātavedaḥ praviṣṭam agne apsv oṣadhīṣu |
taṁ tvā yamo acikec citrabhāno daśāntaruṣyād atirocamānam || 3 ||
hotrād ahaṁ varuṇa bibhyad āyaṁ ned eva mā yunajann atra devāḥ |
tasya me tanvo bahudhā niviṣṭā etam arthaṁ na ciketāham agniḥ || 4 ||
ehi manur devayur yajñakāmo 'raṁkṛtyā tamasi kṣeṣy agne |
sugān pathaḥ kṛṇuhi devayānān vaha havyāni sumanasyamānaḥ || 5 ||
agneḥ pūrve bhrātaro artham etaṁ rathīvādhvānam anv āvarīvuḥ |
tasmād bhiyā varuṇa dūram āyaṁ gauro na kṣepnor avije jyāyāḥ || 6 ||
kurmas ta āyur ajaraṁ yad agne yathā yukto jātavedo na riṣyāḥ |
athā vahāsi sumanasyamāno bhāgaṁ devebhyo haviṣaḥ sujāta || 7 ||
prayājān me anuyājām̐ś ca kevalān ūrjasvantaṁ haviṣo datta bhāgam |
ghṛtaṁ cāpām puruṣaṁ cauṣadhīnām agneś ca dīrgham āyur astu devāḥ || 8 ||
tava prayājā anuyājāś ca kevala ūrjasvanto haviṣaḥ santu bhāgāḥ |
tavāgne yajño3 'yam astu sarvas tubhyaṁ namantām pradiśaś catasraḥ || 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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