Hymn to Agni
Rigveda III.28 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 3 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.
O Agni, thou who dwellest in the prepared space, in the sacred circle drawn upon the earth, in the carefully arranged stones and the ritually purified ground—we honor thee as the keeper of the threshold where worlds do meet.
This ground upon which thy flames do rise is not merely earth and stone and dust. It is sanctified, made holy by the intention of those who gather here. The Ṛṣis of old did mark out such places and consecrate them unto the gods. In each such place, the veil betwixt worlds groweth thin. The boundary between the material and the immaterial becometh permeable. That which is solid taketh on a luminous quality. That which is spirit draweth closer to manifestation.
Thou art the keeper of this sacred space, O Agni. It is thy flames that do consecrate it anew with each lighting. It is thy presence that doth maintain its holiness. Through thy agency, this humble plot of earth becometh a portion of heaven. Those mortals who gather here are lifted above their ordinary existence and made to touch something eternal.
The four directions meet in thy flames. The sky presseth down and the earth presseth up, creating a space wherein dwelleth neither one nor the other, but a fusion of both. All who enter this space with reverent hearts do enter into communion with powers far beyond themselves. All who approach thy altar do approach the threshold of divinity itself.
We honor thee, O Agni, as the sanctifier. Maintain thou this place in holiness. Let no profane thing approach these fires. Let no one with uncleansed heart or wicked intention draw near unto thy flames. Yet for all who come with faith and sincere desire, let this ground be transformed into a holy temple, a dwelling place of the divine, a point of contact betwixt mortal and immortal realms. Through thy power, let this earth become heaven.
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 III.28
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.
agne juṣasva no haviḥ puroḻāśaṁ jātavedaḥ |
prātaḥsāve dhiyāvaso || 1 ||
puroḻā agne pacatas tubhyaṁ vā ghā pariṣkṛtaḥ |
taṁ juṣasva yaviṣṭhya || 2 ||
agne vīhi puroḻāśam āhutaṁ tiroahnyam |
sahasaḥ sūnur asy adhvare hitaḥ || 3 ||
mādhyaṁdine savane jātavedaḥ puroḻāśam iha kave juṣasva |
agne yahvasya tava bhāgadheyaṁ na pra minanti vidatheṣu dhīrāḥ || 4 ||
agne tṛtīye savane hi kāniṣaḥ puroḻāśaṁ sahasaḥ sūnav āhutam |
athā deveṣv adhvaraṁ vipanyayā dhā ratnavantam amṛteṣu jāgṛvim || 5 ||
agne vṛdhāna āhutim puroḻāśaṁ jātavedaḥ |
juṣasva tiroahnyam || 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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