Hymn to Agni
Rigveda V.14 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.
O Agni, friend most cherished of the Atris!
We have kept thy sacred flame alive now
Through countless generations of our kindred,
Since first our ancestor did kindle thee.
What bond existeth between us and thee?
Deeper than friendship, stronger far than kinship,
For thou art tied to us by sacred covenant,
Made fast by fire and butter, prayer and praise.
We know thy nature as a father knoweth
The ways and moods and secret depths of his son.
We know when thou art pleased and when thou burnest
With righteous anger at our negligence.
We know that thou dost care for us with passion,
That thou dost long to hear our voice in prayer,
That thou art jealous of our loyalty,
That thou dost grieve when we neglect thy fire.
And we in turn do hold thee most beloved,
Our first thought in the morning is of thee,
Our last prayer ere we seek our evening slumber
Is always a petition to thy flames.
Forgive us when we stumble, O our fire!
Forgive us when our devotion grows lax,
When through the press of everyday affairs
We fail to tend thy altar as we ought.
We do repent! We come before thee humbly,
With offerings and with sincere hearts contrite.
Accept our shame, burn it away completely,
And grant us grace to be more faithful still.
For who else can we trust the way we trust thee?
Who else hath been so constant through the ages?
Who else hath never failed us, never abandoned,
Though we have failed a thousand times before?
O Agni, take our hearts into thy fire!
Make them as true and strong as is thy burning,
That we may serve thee with undying passion,
Till on that day when all things pass to ashes.
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.14
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.
agniṁ stomena bodhaya samidhāno amartyam |
havyā deveṣu no dadhat || 1 ||
tam adhvareṣv īḻate devam martā amartyam |
yajiṣṭham mānuṣe jane || 2 ||
taṁ hi śaśvanta īḻate srucā devaṁ ghṛtaścutā |
agniṁ havyāya voḻhave || 3 ||
agnir jāto arocata ghnan dasyūñ jyotiṣā tamaḥ |
avindad gā apaḥ svaḥ || 4 ||
agnim īḻenyaṁ kaviṁ ghṛtapṛṣṭhaṁ saparyata |
vetu me śṛṇavad dhavam || 5 ||
agniṁ ghṛtena vāvṛdhuḥ stomebhir viśvacarṣaṇim |
svādhībhir vacasyubhiḥ || 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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