Hymn to Agni
Rigveda V.12 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.
Behold him! Agni cometh forth most shining!
His light doth break the bonds of endless darkness,
His flames ascend like unto a great mountain,
A peak of fire that reacheth toward the heavens.
What darkness can withstand him? What shadow
Can dare to linger when he shineth forth?
The gloom doth flee away before his coming,
As demons scatter at the sound of prayer.
O Agni, thou art brilliant beyond measure!
Thy brightness maketh pale the very sun,
For thou art older far than that great orb,
And burnest with a holier kind of fire.
When thou art kindled in the morning hours,
All creatures wake and stir into their labors.
The birds do sing more sweetly in thy presence,
The fields themselves seem glad to see thy light.
And when the night doth come and thou dost wane,
The world doth seem to hold its very breath,
Awaiting thy return in morning's breaking,
That thou might'st light the world anew again.
Thy shining is not like the light of torches,
Nor like the pale reflection of the moon.
But rather like the light of pure existence,
The brightness of all truth made manifest.
All that is hidden by the night of ignorance,
All secrets that the darkness doth conceal,
Shall be illumined by thy golden splendor,
And brought to light for all the world to see.
O shining one, illuminate our spirits!
Let thy bright flame shine deeply in our hearts,
That we may see ourselves as thou dost see us,
Most clearly and most honestly and true.
For he whose heart is lit by thy bright fire,
Who beareth thy great light within his being,
Shall never stumble, never go astray,
But walk forever in the way of truth.
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.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.
prāgnaye bṛhate yajñiyāya ṛtasya vṛṣṇe asurāya manma |
ghṛtaṁ na yajña āsye3 supūtaṁ giram bhare vṛṣabhāya pratīcīm || 1 ||
ṛtaṁ cikitva ṛtam ic cikiddhy ṛtasya dhārā anu tṛndhi pūrvīḥ |
nāhaṁ yātuṁ sahasā na dvayena ṛtaṁ sapāmy aruṣasya vṛṣṇaḥ || 2 ||
kayā no agna ṛtayann ṛtena bhuvo navedā ucathasya navyaḥ |
vedā me deva ṛtupā ṛtūnāṁ nāham patiṁ sanitur asya rāyaḥ || 3 ||
ke te agne ripave bandhanāsaḥ ke pāyavaḥ saniṣanta dyumantaḥ |
ke dhāsim agne anṛtasya pānti ka āsato vacasaḥ santi gopāḥ || 4 ||
sakhāyas te viṣuṇā agna ete śivāsaḥ santo aśivā abhūvan |
adhūrṣata svayam ete vacobhir ṛjūyate vṛjināni bruvantaḥ || 5 ||
yas te agne namasā yajñam īṭṭa ṛtaṁ sa pāty aruṣasya vṛṣṇaḥ |
tasya kṣayaḥ pṛthur ā sādhur etu prasarsrāṇasya nahuṣasya śeṣaḥ || 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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