Hymn to Agni
Rigveda II.4 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 2 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.
Agni, thou art the divine priest of all sacrifices! No offering may be made save through thy golden tongue. The gods elected thee before the worlds were formed; they crowned thee with the light of heaven and bade thee be the mouth of all devotion.
Thou sittest at the center of the cosmos — at the navel of the earth, upon the high altar where the three worlds meet. From here, thou seest all that is and all that shall be. The gods confide in thee; the mortals pray through thee; the ancestors listen when thy voice crieth out.
When the devotee poureth ghee and speaketh his prayer, thou takest his words and utterest them in the language of heaven. The Aśvins hear thy call; Indra riseth from his soma-sleep; Varuṇa stirs in his watery realm; Sūrya maketh ready his chariot. All heaven attendeth when Agni speaketh.
Thou art wise, O flame! Thou knowest every secret rite, every hidden word of power. The mantras were uttered by thee long ago, when first the sacrificial fires were kindled. Thou rememberest the ancient pacts between gods and men. Thou guardest the covenant of ṛta.
Come now and sit before us! Accept the ghee that we pour! Receive our praises with gladness! Stand at our altar and be our mediator with the gods. Through thy mouth, let our hopes be spoken. Through thy flame, let our offerings reach the halls of immortality. Thou art the priest, the poet, the sage — thou whom no god may deny, thou whom all creation honoreth.
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.
🌲
Source Text: ṛgveda II.4
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.
huve vaḥ sudyotmānaṁ suvṛktiṁ viśām agnim atithiṁ suprayasam |
mitra iva yo didhiṣāyyo bhūd deva ādeve jane jātavedāḥ || 1 ||
imaṁ vidhanto apāṁ sadhasthe dvitādadhur bhṛgavo vikṣv ā3yoḥ |
eṣa viśvāny abhy astu bhūmā devānām agnir aratir jīrāśvaḥ || 2 ||
agniṁ devāso mānuṣīṣu vikṣu priyaṁ dhuḥ kṣeṣyanto na mitram |
sa dīdayad uśatīr ūrmyā ā dakṣāyyo yo dāsvate dama ā || 3 ||
asya raṇvā svasyeva puṣṭiḥ saṁdṛṣṭir asya hiyānasya dakṣoḥ |
vi yo bharibhrad oṣadhīṣu jihvām atyo na rathyo dodhavīti vārān || 4 ||
ā yan me abhvaṁ vanadaḥ panantośigbhyo nāmimīta varṇam |
sa citreṇa cikite raṁsu bhāsā jujurvām̐ yo muhur ā yuvā bhūt || 5 ||
ā yo vanā tātṛṣāṇo na bhāti vār ṇa pathā rathyeva svānīt |
kṛṣṇādhvā tapū raṇvaś ciketa dyaur iva smayamāno nabhobhiḥ || 6 ||
sa yo vy asthād abhi dakṣad urvīm paśur naiti svayur agopāḥ |
agniḥ śociṣmām̐ atasāny uṣṇan kṛṣṇavyathir asvadayan na bhūma || 7 ||
nū te pūrvasyāvaso adhītau tṛtīye vidathe manma śaṁsi |
asme agne saṁyadvīram bṛhantaṁ kṣumantaṁ vājaṁ svapatyaṁ rayiṁ dāḥ || 8 ||
tvayā yathā gṛtsamadāso agne guhā vanvanta uparām̐ abhi ṣyuḥ |
suvīrāso abhimātiṣāhaḥ smat sūribhyo gṛṇate tad vayo dhāḥ || 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).
🌲