Hymn to Agni
Rigveda V.3 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.
Thou art the hotṛ, O Agni, the divine priest!
Above all priests thou standest in thy office,
For thou dost speak the words that bind the gods,
That call the Immortals down to the altar.
What priest can claim such honor? What man dare
Presume to stand as thou dost stand between
The realm of gods and realm of mortal men?
Yet thou art humble, thou who art most great.
Thou wearest not the rich and woven garments
That lesser priests do don before the altar.
Thy raiment is the flame itself, most splendid—
A robe of light that none can tear or stain.
Thy voice is softer than the whispered prayer,
Yet louder than the roar of congregations.
For when thou speakest, all the gods do listen,
And bend their heads to hear thy sacred words.
Thou knowest all the rituals and the verses,
The proper ways to make the offerings rise.
No mistake escapes thee, no false motion—
Thy eye is always watching, always keen.
The gods do trust thee as they trust no other.
Indra doth lean upon thy counsel well,
And Varuṇa comes down from his high heaven
To sit beside thy fire and speak with thee.
What mortal priest could ask for such an honor?
To be the mediator, the bridge, the voice
Through which all sacrifice doth find its passage
To those who dwell immortal in the sky?
O Agni, let us honor thee this morning,
We servants of the sacred flame and word.
Accept our praise, O holiest of priests!
And carry our devotion to the gods.
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.3
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.
tvam agne varuṇo jāyase yat tvam mitro bhavasi yat samiddhaḥ |
tve viśve sahasas putra devās tvam indro dāśuṣe martyāya || 1 ||
tvam aryamā bhavasi yat kanīnāṁ nāma svadhāvan guhyam bibharṣi |
añjanti mitraṁ sudhitaṁ na gobhir yad dampatī samanasā kṛṇoṣi || 2 ||
tava śriye maruto marjayanta rudra yat te janima cāru citram |
padaṁ yad viṣṇor upamaṁ nidhāyi tena pāsi guhyaṁ nāma gonām || 3 ||
tava śriyā sudṛśo deva devāḥ purū dadhānā amṛtaṁ sapanta |
hotāram agnim manuṣo ni ṣedur daśasyanta uśijaḥ śaṁsam āyoḥ || 4 ||
na tvad dhotā pūrvo agne yajīyān na kāvyaiḥ paro asti svadhāvaḥ |
viśaś ca yasyā atithir bhavāsi sa yajñena vanavad deva martān || 5 ||
vayam agne vanuyāma tvotā vasūyavo haviṣā budhyamānāḥ |
vayaṁ samarye vidatheṣv ahnāṁ vayaṁ rāyā sahasas putra martān || 6 ||
yo na āgo abhy eno bharāty adhīd agham aghaśaṁse dadhāta |
jahī cikitvo abhiśastim etām agne yo no marcayati dvayena || 7 ||
tvām asyā vyuṣi deva pūrve dūtaṁ kṛṇvānā ayajanta havyaiḥ |
saṁsthe yad agna īyase rayīṇāṁ devo martair vasubhir idhyamānaḥ || 8 ||
ava spṛdhi pitaraṁ yodhi vidvān putro yas te sahasaḥ sūna ūhe |
kadā cikitvo abhi cakṣase no 'gne kadām̐ ṛtacid yātayāse || 9 ||
bhūri nāma vandamāno dadhāti pitā vaso yadi taj joṣayāse |
kuvid devasya sahasā cakānaḥ sumnam agnir vanate vāvṛdhānaḥ || 10 ||
tvam aṅga jaritāraṁ yaviṣṭha viśvāny agne duritāti parṣi |
stenā adṛśran ripavo janāso 'jñātaketā vṛjinā abhūvan || 11 ||
ime yāmāsas tvadrig abhūvan vasave vā tad id āgo avāci |
nāhāyam agnir abhiśastaye no na rīṣate vāvṛdhānaḥ parā dāt || 12 ||
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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