Hymn to Agni
Rigveda X.88 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.
The draught, unwithering and sweet, hath been poured unto Agni, he who seeketh out the sun and reacheth the height of heaven.
That he might bear and uphold the world, the gods stretched it wide by power not borrowed, but their own.
The world lay swallowed in shade and hidden deep in dark; then was the sun made plain, when Agni was brought forth.
The gods rejoiced in his fellowship, and Earth and Heaven, and waters, and herbs were glad in him.
Now, stirred by gods meet for the rite, I lift my song to Agni, ageless and high of name, whose beams stretch forth through earth and sky, across the twain world-halves and the broad mid-realm.
He was the first to bear the flame, delightful to the gods,
whom they did anoint with butter and choose to stand as priest.
He made the flying things and those that walk, the still and the stirred, to thrive—Agni Jātavedas.
When thou, Agni Jātavedas, stood at the world’s forefront in thy shining, we roused thee with thought, and hymn, and chant.
Thou becamest meet for the rite, filling the sky and the earth with thy might.
By night, Agni is head of the world;
from him is born the sun, rising early at dawn.
Behold this wise working of the sacrificial gods— the swift one followeth his path, well knowing the way.
He who gleamed bright and fair in fullness of flame, whose womb is heaven—he, the radiant, in him did the gods, warders of flesh,
pour their gift with words well-spoken.
First did the gods beget speech rightly uttered, and after that, the flame, and after that, the gift.
This was their rite, their shield of flesh.
This knoweth Heaven, this knoweth Earth, this the Waters.
The flame the gods begot—Agni—
in whom all beings offered up their gifts, who shot straight and true, scorched both earth and sky with his greatness.
With song and strength, the gods in heaven begot the fire who filleth the world.
And for the world’s sake made him thrice-formed— he who ripeneth all growth and kind.
When the gods meet for the rite set him in heaven as the Sun,
the child of Aditi, and when the twin wanderers came to be,
then first did all living flesh behold the way before them.
For the whole world’s sake the gods made Agni Vaiśvānara a beacon through the days.
He passeth through the gleaming dawns, driving out the dark with his flame.
The gods, wise poets of the rite, begot Agni Vaiśvānara, ageless and shining, the first star, who strayeth not from law, great and high, the watcher of marvels.
With words of power we call Agni Vaiśvānara, the seer who shineth in all places— a god whose greatness doth enwrap the two wide realms, above and below.
I have heard from those before us that there be two paths: one of gods,
and one of men.
All that moveth walketh these together—
all that lieth between the Father and the Mother.
As one, they bear the wanderer, born of the head, touched by thought.
He standeth forth to all beings, withheld not from any,
but gleaming, passeth on his way.
When the lower and the higher do strive with one another, they ask: “Of the two lords of the rite, which among us knoweth all?”
Have our fellows found their joy together?
Have they known the offering?
Who shall speak of it in this place?
“How many flames are there, and how many suns?
How many dawns, and how many waters?”
O forefathers, I speak not with double tongue; O seers, I ask in truth, that I might know.
So long as the fine-maned ones clothe themselves as in the blush of Dawn, O Mātariśvan, so long doth the Brahmin set the flame,
drawing nigh the rite and taking seat beside the bearer of fire.
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.88
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.
haviṣ pāntam ajaraṁ svarvidi divispṛśy āhutaṁ juṣṭam agnau |
tasya bharmaṇe bhuvanāya devā dharmaṇe kaṁ svadhayā paprathanta || 1 ||
gīrṇam bhuvanaṁ tamasāpagūḻham āviḥ svar abhavaj jāte agnau |
tasya devāḥ pṛthivī dyaur utāpo 'raṇayann oṣadhīḥ sakhye asya || 2 ||
devebhir nv iṣito yajñiyebhir agniṁ stoṣāṇy ajaram bṛhantam |
yo bhānunā pṛthivīṁ dyām utemām ātatāna rodasī antarikṣam || 3 ||
yo hotāsīt prathamo devajuṣṭo yaṁ samāñjann ājyenā vṛṇānāḥ |
sa patatrītvaraṁ sthā jagad yac chvātram agnir akṛṇoj jātavedāḥ || 4 ||
yaj jātavedo bhuvanasya mūrdhann atiṣṭho agne saha rocanena |
taṁ tvāhema matibhir gīrbhir ukthaiḥ sa yajñiyo abhavo rodasiprāḥ || 5 ||
mūrdhā bhuvo bhavati naktam agnis tataḥ sūryo jāyate prātar udyan |
māyām ū tu yajñiyānām etām apo yat tūrṇiś carati prajānan || 6 ||
dṛśenyo yo mahinā samiddho 'rocata diviyonir vibhāvā |
tasminn agnau sūktavākena devā havir viśva ājuhavus tanūpāḥ || 7 ||
sūktavākam prathamam ād id agnim ād id dhavir ajanayanta devāḥ |
sa eṣāṁ yajño abhavat tanūpās taṁ dyaur veda tam pṛthivī tam āpaḥ || 8 ||
yaṁ devāso 'janayantāgniṁ yasminn ājuhavur bhuvanāni viśvā |
so arciṣā pṛthivīṁ dyām utemām ṛjūyamāno atapan mahitvā || 9 ||
stomena hi divi devāso agnim ajījanañ chaktibhī rodasiprām |
tam ū akṛṇvan tredhā bhuve kaṁ sa oṣadhīḥ pacati viśvarūpāḥ || 10 ||
yaded enam adadhur yajñiyāso divi devāḥ sūryam āditeyam |
yadā cariṣṇū mithunāv abhūtām ād it prāpaśyan bhuvanāni viśvā || 11 ||
viśvasmā agnim bhuvanāya devā vaiśvānaraṁ ketum ahnām akṛṇvan |
ā yas tatānoṣaso vibhātīr apo ūrṇoti tamo arciṣā yan || 12 ||
vaiśvānaraṁ kavayo yajñiyāso 'gniṁ devā ajanayann ajuryam |
nakṣatram pratnam aminac cariṣṇu yakṣasyādhyakṣaṁ taviṣam bṛhantam || 13 ||
vaiśvānaraṁ viśvahā dīdivāṁsam mantrair agniṁ kavim acchā vadāmaḥ |
yo mahimnā paribabhūvorvī utāvastād uta devaḥ parastāt || 14 ||
dve srutī aśṛṇavam pitṝṇām ahaṁ devānām uta martyānām |
tābhyām idaṁ viśvam ejat sam eti yad antarā pitaram mātaraṁ ca || 15 ||
dve samīcī bibhṛtaś carantaṁ śīrṣato jātam manasā vimṛṣṭam |
sa pratyaṅ viśvā bhuvanāni tasthāv aprayucchan taraṇir bhrājamānaḥ || 16 ||
yatrā vadete avaraḥ paraś ca yajñanyoḥ kataro nau vi veda |
ā śekur it sadhamādaṁ sakhāyo nakṣanta yajñaṁ ka idaṁ vi vocat || 17 ||
katy agnayaḥ kati sūryāsaḥ katy uṣāsaḥ katy u svid āpaḥ |
nopaspijaṁ vaḥ pitaro vadāmi pṛcchāmi vaḥ kavayo vidmane kam || 18 ||
yāvanmātram uṣaso na pratīkaṁ suparṇyo3 vasate mātariśvaḥ |
tāvad dadhāty upa yajñam āyan brāhmaṇo hotur avaro niṣīdan || 19 ||
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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