Hymn to Agni
Rigveda IV.10 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 4 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, purifier! Thou cleanest away all that is foul, all that is impure, all that is evil. The offering is nothing until thou consumest it. The butter is but fat. The grain is but seed. The animal flesh is but meat. But when thy fire toucheth them, they are transformed! They become divine. They rise up as sacred smoke, blessed, sanctified, fit to be offered to the gods.
This is thy great work, O Agni! Not merely to burn, but to transform. Not merely to consume, but to elevate. Thou takest that which is earthly and makest it heavenly. Thou takest that which is mortal and givest it immortality. In thy flames, the mean becomes sublime. The humble becomes exalted.
A man cometh with guilt upon his heart. He hath spoken a lie. He hath been unjust to his brother. He hath broken his oath. Can he be forgiven? Yes! If he maketh the proper offering and if thou, O Agni, burnest it away with thy purifying flames. His guilt is consumed. His sin is transformed into ash. His heart is made clean.
O transformer of all things! When the grain is laid upon thy altar and thou consumest it, it becometh sustenance for the gods themselves. The butter that burneth drippeth down in sacrifice, and behold—the gods are nourished! The flesh that crackles and smokes is changed into something far greater than itself.
We are defiled by the world, O Agni. We are stained by our own weakness. Our desires, our fears, our failures cling to us like mud. But thou art the washing fire! Cleanse us, O Agni! Burn away our impurity! Transform our feeble offerings into something worthy of the gods! Make us pure so that we might stand before thee and not be afraid. Thou art the purifier. Thou art the transformer. Thou art the sacred alchemy itself.
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 IV.10
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 tam adyāśvaṁ na stomaiḥ kratuṁ na bhadraṁ hṛdispṛśam |
ṛdhyāmā ta ohaiḥ || 1 ||
adhā hy agne krator bhadrasya dakṣasya sādhoḥ |
rathīr ṛtasya bṛhato babhūtha || 2 ||
ebhir no arkair bhavā no arvāṅ sva1r ṇa jyotiḥ |
agne viśvebhiḥ sumanā anīkaiḥ || 3 ||
ābhiṣ ṭe adya gīrbhir gṛṇanto 'gne dāśema |
pra te divo na stanayanti śuṣmāḥ || 4 ||
tava svādiṣṭhāgne saṁdṛṣṭir idā cid ahna idā cid aktoḥ |
śriye rukmo na rocata upāke || 5 ||
ghṛtaṁ na pūtaṁ tanūr arepāḥ śuci hiraṇyam |
tat te rukmo na rocata svadhāvaḥ || 6 ||
kṛtaṁ cid dhi ṣmā sanemi dveṣo 'gna inoṣi martāt |
itthā yajamānād ṛtāvaḥ || 7 ||
śivā naḥ sakhyā santu bhrātrāgne deveṣu yuṣme |
sā no nābhiḥ sadane sasminn ūdhan || 8 ||
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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