Hymn to Agni
Rigveda IV.12 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, the immortal among mortals! All else that liveth must perish. Kings die. Heroes fall. Even the gods who dwell in heaven shall pass away when the ages end. But thou, O fire—thou shalt not die! When the world hath burned to ash, when the mountains have crumbled and the seas have dried up, when even the gods have returned to the unmanifest—thy flame shall still burn somewhere, somehow, in some form.
We mortals are as grass in the field. The wind bendeth us. The frost killeth us. Our life is but a span, a handful of years. We are born, we grow, we wither, we fall. Such is the nature of all flesh. But thou art not bound by this law. Thou art the exception, O Agni. Thou art the god who cannot die.
Other gods may grow weary. Indra may tire of warfare. Varuṇa may grow bored with his ocean realm. But thou, O fire, art never weary! Each day thou burnest with the same fierce hunger. Each night thou gloweth with the same patient light. Thou art renewed each moment, yet forever the same.
This is why we love thee, O Agni! Because thou art eternal, our offerings have eternal meaning. Because thou dost not die, our prayers are not lost to the void. Because thou shalt burn forever, the sacrifices we make today shall echo through the ages. We mortals shall perish, but our service to thee shall remain. Our descendants shall kindle thee as we have done. Their descendants shall kindle thee. Forever and ever, the flame shall pass from hand to hand, from generation to generation.
O immortal one! Though we are mortal, let us walk in thy light. Though we shall die, let us kindle thee while we live. Make us worthy to serve thee. Make us worthy to kindle thy sacred fire. Then, though our bodies return to dust, our spirit shall rise with thy smoke to touch the eternal throne.
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.12
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.
yas tvām agna inadhate yatasruk tris te annaṁ kṛṇavat sasminn ahan |
sa su dyumnair abhy astu prasakṣat tava kratvā jātavedaś cikitvān || 1 ||
idhmaṁ yas te jabharac chaśramāṇo maho agne anīkam ā saparyan |
sa idhānaḥ prati doṣām uṣāsam puṣyan rayiṁ sacate ghnann amitrān || 2 ||
agnir īśe bṛhataḥ kṣatriyasyāgnir vājasya paramasya rāyaḥ |
dadhāti ratnaṁ vidhate yaviṣṭho vy ānuṣaṅ martyāya svadhāvān || 3 ||
yac cid dhi te puruṣatrā yaviṣṭhācittibhiś cakṛmā kac cid āgaḥ |
kṛdhī ṣv a1smām̐ aditer anāgān vy enāṁsi śiśratho viṣvag agne || 4 ||
mahaś cid agna enaso abhīka ūrvād devānām uta martyānām |
mā te sakhāyaḥ sadam id riṣāma yacchā tokāya tanayāya śaṁ yoḥ || 5 ||
yathā ha tyad vasavo gauryaṁ cit padi ṣitām amuñcatā yajatrāḥ |
evo ṣv a1sman muñcatā vy aṁhaḥ pra tāry agne prataraṁ na āyuḥ || 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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