Hymn to Agni
Rigveda IV.15 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, eternal flame! Though we mortals shall pass away, though our bones shall crumble to dust and our names be forgotten, thy fire shall burn on. We are but the kindlers of thy sacred fire. We are but a moment in thy vast eternity. When we are gone, others shall come. When they are gone, still others shall come. But thou—thou shalt remain.
This is the covenant: that every generation shall kindle thee anew. That every man who learns to strike the sticks shall call thee forth from thy hidden dwelling. That every woman who tends the hearth shall honour thee. That every child born into this world shall know thy warmth. Thus thou art reborn in each age, yet thou art always the same eternal fire.
O Agni, we who kindle thee this day are grateful. We know that we are but links in an endless chain stretching from the first man who discovered thee all the way to the end of time itself. We are honoured to be thy servants. We are blessed to know thy name. We are privileged to make offerings at thy altar.
When our time cometh to lay down the kindling and rest, we shall pass the duty to those who come after. We shall teach them as we have been taught. We shall show them how to strike the sticks, how to feed the flame, how to speak thy name with reverence. Thus the fire shall not be extinguished. Thus the chain shall not be broken.
O eternal one! Burn brightly through all the ages! Consume the offerings of mankind! Carry our prayers to the throne of the gods! Transform all that is earthly into that which is divine! Be thou the bridge between heaven and earth, the priest eternal, the god immortal! Let this hymn of Vāmadeva endure. Let thy sacred fire never go out. From age to age, from generation to generation, from the depths of time to the end of all things—O Agni, thou flame that never dies!
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.15
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.
agnir hotā no adhvare vājī san pari ṇīyate |
devo deveṣu yajñiyaḥ || 1 ||
pari triviṣṭy adhvaraṁ yāty agnī rathīr iva |
ā deveṣu prayo dadhat || 2 ||
pari vājapatiḥ kavir agnir havyāny akramīt |
dadhad ratnāni dāśuṣe || 3 ||
ayaṁ yaḥ sṛñjaye puro daivavāte samidhyate |
dyumām̐ amitradambhanaḥ || 4 ||
asya ghā vīra īvato 'gner īśīta martyaḥ |
tigmajambhasya mīḻhuṣaḥ || 5 ||
tam arvantaṁ na sānasim aruṣaṁ na divaḥ śiśum |
marmṛjyante dive-dive || 6 ||
bodhad yan mā haribhyāṁ kumāraḥ sāhadevyaḥ |
acchā na hūta ud aram || 7 ||
uta tyā yajatā harī kumārāt sāhadevyāt |
prayatā sadya ā dade || 8 ||
eṣa vāṁ devāv aśvinā kumāraḥ sāhadevyaḥ |
dīrghāyur astu somakaḥ || 9 ||
taṁ yuvaṁ devāv aśvinā kumāraṁ sāhadevyam |
dīrghāyuṣaṁ kṛṇotana || 10 ||
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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