Hymn to Agni
Rigveda V.19 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 the slayer of the Dasyu! Thy flames consume the enemy in his hidden places. Where he lurks in shadow, plotting ruin against the righteous, thou dost expose him and burn away his malice.
The Dasyu is the slave of disorder, the servant of the dragon, the worshipper of nothing and no one. He hath no rites, no altars, no reverence for the sacred. His heart is twisted; his deeds are foul. Against such wickedness, O Agni, thou art the swift and terrible judge.
When thou walkest abroad in thy might, the Dasyu trembles. His fortresses crumble to ash. His weapons turn to rust in thy presence. The very earth beneath his feet grows hot and hostile. Birds flee from the smoke of thy wrath; beasts scatter before thy advance.
Yet thou art not cruel, O flame-bearer. Thou art justice incarnate. Thou burnest away the impure, the false, the treacherous. What remaineth after thy passage is cleansed and made fit for habitation by the righteous. The fields that thou hast purged grow greener still. The water that hath been touched by thy heat becometh sweet.
We, the faithful ones, fear not thy presence. We see in thy flames not destruction but purification. We welcome thee as liberator and friend. Guard us against the hidden enemy, O Agni. Expose the lies that are spoken against us. Burn away the curses that malice hath cast upon our names.
Thou art the warrior-god of fire, the destroyer of the wicked, the protector of the righteous. Stand thou at our borders, O mighty flame. Let no Dasyu breach our defenses. Let no false word spoken against us take root. Thy fire is our shield; thy heat is our strength.
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.19
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.
abhy avasthāḥ pra jāyante pra vavrer vavriś ciketa |
upasthe mātur vi caṣṭe || 1 ||
juhure vi citayanto 'nimiṣaṁ nṛmṇam pānti |
ā dṛḻhām puraṁ viviśuḥ || 2 ||
ā śvaitreyasya jantavo dyumad vardhanta kṛṣṭayaḥ |
niṣkagrīvo bṛhaduktha enā madhvā na vājayuḥ || 3 ||
priyaṁ dugdhaṁ na kāmyam ajāmi jāmyoḥ sacā |
gharmo na vājajaṭharo 'dabdhaḥ śaśvato dabhaḥ || 4 ||
krīḻan no raśma ā bhuvaḥ sam bhasmanā vāyunā vevidānaḥ |
tā asya san dhṛṣajo na tigmāḥ susaṁśitā vakṣyo vakṣaṇesthāḥ || 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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