Hymn to Agni
Rigveda V.16 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, thou art born anew each dawn, bright messenger between the worlds of men and gods. We kindle thee with sacred wood and grass; the flames leap upward in their spiral dance, and heaven takes note of thy ascending voice.
Thou art the channel through which mortals speak to the immortals. The sacrifice flows up through thee, smoke-borne and precious, to the assembly of the blessed. No god descends to us; thou climbest up on our behalf, bearing our prayers like precious cargo into the high temples of the sky.
The Dasyu shrieks to see thee, O flame-bearer! Thy light exposes all their hidden places. Where darkness held dominion, thou bringest forth the clarity of revelation. The weak become strong in thy presence, the fearful find courage in thy sacred heat.
Accept our offerings, O generous one. We pour the butter-stream; we cast the grain; we sing the ancient words our fathers taught. Bind us to the immortals with thy radiant cord. Let no malice, no spite, no curse of enemy reach us while thy fire burns bright.
Thou art the kindler of prosperity. Where thy flames touch the earth, the herds grow fat, the grain swells golden, the women bear strong sons. Thou art never absent, never failing—only transformed from night to morning, only changing shape as thou dost travel from sacrifice to sacrifice, house to house, through all the lands of men.
Hear us, O Agni, at this final invocation. Be thou our guardian through the dark hours approaching. Stand sentinel at our threshold. Let thy flame never weaken. So be it, O ancient and eternal fire.
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.16
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.
bṛhad vayo hi bhānave 'rcā devāyāgnaye |
yam mitraṁ na praśastibhir martāso dadhire puraḥ || 1 ||
sa hi dyubhir janānāṁ hotā dakṣasya bāhvoḥ |
vi havyam agnir ānuṣag bhago na vāram ṛṇvati || 2 ||
asya stome maghonaḥ sakhye vṛddhaśociṣaḥ |
viśvā yasmin tuviṣvaṇi sam arye śuṣmam ādadhuḥ || 3 ||
adhā hy agna eṣāṁ suvīryasya maṁhanā |
tam id yahvaṁ na rodasī pari śravo babhūvatuḥ || 4 ||
nū na ehi vāryam agne gṛṇāna ā bhara |
ye vayaṁ ye ca sūrayaḥ svasti dhāmahe sacotaidhi pṛtsu no vṛdhe || 5 ||
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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