Hymn to Agni
Rigveda II.7 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 mighty fortress against the rākṣasas — those demons that hunger for human flesh and thirst for the blood of the righteous! When they swarm about our dwellings seeking to devour us, thou ridest forth in thy chariot of flame and scatterest them like autumn leaves before the gale.
These creatures of terror, these shape-shifters and night-prowlers, know well thy power. They have felt thy burning tongue lashing against their very essence. Many times hath thou driven them back into the void from whence they came. Many times hath thy roar made them cower and whimper like beaten dogs.
Yet thou dost more than merely defend us. Thou trainest us in the ways of strength. Through thee, we learn to face our fears. Through thy example of undaunted courage, we too become warriors. The man who tends thy fire with devotion doth partake of thy own fearlessness. His heart becometh stone; his spirit becometh steel.
The rākṣasas know that where Agni burneth brightly, they cannot hold dominion. They know that the devoted man, standing at thy altar with pure heart, is protected by a power they cannot overcome. Thus doth thy very existence gall them and drive them mad with fury.
Guard us, O Agni, from these devouring ones! Stand thou eternal at the gate of our homes! Let no rākṣasa creep past thy flame! When we kindle thee, we kindle also the warrior-spirit within ourselves. When we pour ghee upon thy altar, we strengthen the walls that keep the chaos at bay. Through thee, we are safe. Through thee, we are whole.
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 II.7
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.
śreṣṭhaṁ yaviṣṭha bhāratāgne dyumantam ā bhara |
vaso puruspṛhaṁ rayim || 1 ||
mā no arātir īśata devasya martyasya ca |
parṣi tasyā uta dviṣaḥ || 2 ||
viśvā uta tvayā vayaṁ dhārā udanyā iva |
ati gāhemahi dviṣaḥ || 3 ||
śuciḥ pāvaka vandyo 'gne bṛhad vi rocase |
tvaṁ ghṛtebhir āhutaḥ || 4 ||
tvaṁ no asi bhāratāgne vaśābhir ukṣabhiḥ |
aṣṭāpadībhir āhutaḥ || 5 ||
drvannaḥ sarpirāsutiḥ pratno hotā vareṇyaḥ |
sahasas putro adbhutaḥ || 6 ||
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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