Hymn to Agni
Rigveda V.4 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 the radiant one! O Agni, shining!
Thy flames do leap as high as heaven's dome,
Illuminating all the earth beneath thee,
Making the darkness flee as thou dost rise.
There is no place where thy great light reacheth not,
No corner so remote, no crevice dark,
That when thou blazest forth thy golden splendor,
The shadows do not scatter and give way.
Upon the altar how thy flames do tremble!
Like dancers in the grip of sacred madness,
They twist and sway and leap toward the heavens,
Each one a separate prayer made manifest.
The butter melts and drips upon thy coals,
And thou dost roar in answer to our praise.
The smoke ascendeth like a living ladder,
A bridge on which the oblations climb on high.
What beauty in destruction! What great glory
In thy consuming all that men do give!
The wood doth crackle, break, and turn to ashes,
And from that death, the sacred smoke ascends.
Thou showeth us the truth of all existence—
That nothing lasteth, all things turn to flame,
Yet in that burning something immortal shineth,
A glory that no death shall ever touch.
O radiant one, illuminate our spirits!
Let thy great light burn through our foolish darkness,
That we may see the truth of things as thou dost,
And learn to give ourselves as freely up.
For he who giveth all unto thy fire,
Who holds back nothing from thy hungry heat,
Shall find that in the burning he surviveth,
Made pure and bright and radiant as thee.
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.4
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.
tvām agne vasupatiṁ vasūnām abhi pra mande adhvareṣu rājan |
tvayā vājaṁ vājayanto jayemābhi ṣyāma pṛtsutīr martyānām || 1 ||
havyavāḻ agnir ajaraḥ pitā no vibhur vibhāvā sudṛśīko asme |
sugārhapatyāḥ sam iṣo didīhy asmadrya1k sam mimīhi śravāṁsi || 2 ||
viśāṁ kaviṁ viśpatim mānuṣīṇāṁ śucim pāvakaṁ ghṛtapṛṣṭham agnim |
ni hotāraṁ viśvavidaṁ dadhidhve sa deveṣu vanate vāryāṇi || 3 ||
juṣasvāgna iḻayā sajoṣā yatamāno raśmibhiḥ sūryasya |
juṣasva naḥ samidhaṁ jātaveda ā ca devān haviradyāya vakṣi || 4 ||
juṣṭo damūnā atithir duroṇa imaṁ no yajñam upa yāhi vidvān |
viśvā agne abhiyujo vihatyā śatrūyatām ā bharā bhojanāni || 5 ||
vadhena dasyum pra hi cātayasva vayaḥ kṛṇvānas tanve3 svāyai |
piparṣi yat sahasas putra devānt so agne pāhi nṛtama vāje asmān || 6 ||
vayaṁ te agna ukthair vidhema vayaṁ havyaiḥ pāvaka bhadraśoce |
asme rayiṁ viśvavāraṁ sam invāsme viśvāni draviṇāni dhehi || 7 ||
asmākam agne adhvaraṁ juṣasva sahasaḥ sūno triṣadhastha havyam |
vayaṁ deveṣu sukṛtaḥ syāma śarmaṇā nas trivarūthena pāhi || 8 ||
viśvāni no durgahā jātavedaḥ sindhuṁ na nāvā duritāti parṣi |
agne atrivan namasā gṛṇāno3 'smākam bodhy avitā tanūnām || 9 ||
yas tvā hṛdā kīriṇā manyamāno 'martyam martyo johavīmi |
jātavedo yaśo asmāsu dhehi prajābhir agne amṛtatvam aśyām || 10 ||
yasmai tvaṁ sukṛte jātaveda u lokam agne kṛṇavaḥ syonam |
aśvinaṁ sa putriṇaṁ vīravantaṁ gomantaṁ rayiṁ naśate svasti || 11 ||
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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