Hymn to Agni
Rigveda V.10 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 5 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.
Ancient one! O Agni, thou art old
Beyond the measure of all human counting.
Thou burnest now as thou didst burn of old
When Manu made the first of all sacrifices.
What ages have passed since that first morning
When mortals first did kindle thy great fire,
And all the gods did gather round about
To see what strange and wondrous gift was wrought?
And thou art unchanged from that far age,
Immortal, ever-young, forever burning.
While empires rise and crumble into dust,
Thou burnest on, eternal and supreme.
How many generations have depended
Upon thy heat to warm them in the winter,
To cook their food and make it fit for eating,
To light their way when darkness covered all?
How many prayers hath thy flames borne upward
To the assembly of the Immortals?
How many blessings hath thou brought returning
To hearths and homes across this ancient land?
Thou art the witness to all human history,
The keeper of all secrets and all griefs.
No sorrow hath been shed beside thy fire
That thou hast not remembered and preserved.
Yet thou dost never tire, never falter,
Never complainest of thy long labor.
With perfect patience thou dost bear the burden
Of being bridge between the gods and men.
O ancient one, we bow before thy greatness!
We know not if this world shall last forever,
Nor if the stars shall burn until they crumble,
But thou—thou shalt endure when all else fails.
Accept our praise for thy unending service,
For being there when we have need of thee.
And grant that we may be, like thee, steadfast,
Unchanging in our faith and in our purpose.
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 V.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.
agna ojiṣṭham ā bhara dyumnam asmabhyam adhrigo |
pra no rāyā parīṇasā ratsi vājāya panthām || 1 ||
tvaṁ no agne adbhuta kratvā dakṣasya maṁhanā |
tve asurya1m āruhat krāṇā mitro na yajñiyaḥ || 2 ||
tvaṁ no agna eṣāṁ gayam puṣṭiṁ ca vardhaya |
ye stomebhiḥ pra sūrayo naro maghāny ānaśuḥ || 3 ||
ye agne candra te giraḥ śumbhanty aśvarādhasaḥ |
śuṣmebhiḥ śuṣmiṇo naro divaś cid yeṣām bṛhat sukīrtir bodhati tmanā || 4 ||
tava tye agne arcayo bhrājanto yanti dhṛṣṇuyā |
parijmāno na vidyutaḥ svāno ratho na vājayuḥ || 5 ||
nū no agna ūtaye sabādhasaś ca rātaye |
asmākāsaś ca sūrayo viśvā āśās tarīṣaṇi || 6 ||
tvaṁ no agne aṅgiraḥ stutaḥ stavāna ā bhara |
hotar vibhvāsahaṁ rayiṁ stotṛbhyaḥ stavase ca na utaidhi pṛtsu no vṛdhe || 7 ||
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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