Hymn to Agni
Rigveda V.5 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, guest of every hearth and home!
In humble dwellings thou art ever welcome,
The honored visitor who comes unbidden,
And none dare turn thee from their door away.
What king could claim such welcome in his travels?
What warrior, coming home from distant battle,
Hath ever found a greeting quite so certain,
A place so sure awaiting him always?
Yet thou art never burdensome, O Fire,
Though thou dost eat and eat and still demand more.
The poorest household giveth what it hath—
A stick of wood—and thou art satisfied.
And having taken sustenance from mortals,
Thou givest back a hundredfold in return.
Thou warmest those who sit beside thy burning,
Thou cookest food and makest it most sweet.
Thou art the witness to all human secrets,
The keeper of the confidences spoken
In whispered words beside the hearth-fire's glow,
When all the household gathereth at night.
Yet thou art also god. Immortal. Eternal.
In every mortal home thou dwellest, burning,
And yet thy true self shineth in the heavens,
Beyond the reach of human touch or time.
What marvel is this? That the divine
Should dwell so humbly in the cottage-corner,
Accepting gifts from hands most crude and rough,
And answering with blessings manifold?
O Agni, guest eternal, be our friend!
Let every member of this household prosper,
Let children born beside thy fire grow mighty,
And let our grain be plenteous year on year.
For thou art not a stranger to our dwelling—
Thou art the brother, father, truest counselor,
The immortal heart that keepeth our hearth burning,
The bridge between the mortal and divine.
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.5
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.
susamiddhāya śociṣe ghṛtaṁ tīvraṁ juhotana |
agnaye jātavedase || 1 ||
narāśaṁsaḥ suṣūdatīmaṁ yajñam adābhyaḥ |
kavir hi madhuhastyaḥ || 2 ||
īḻito agna ā vahendraṁ citram iha priyam |
sukhai rathebhir ūtaye || 3 ||
ūrṇamradā vi prathasvābhy a1rkā anūṣata |
bhavā naḥ śubhra sātaye || 4 ||
devīr dvāro vi śrayadhvaṁ suprāyaṇā na ūtaye |
pra-pra yajñam pṛṇītana || 5 ||
supratīke vayovṛdhā yahvī ṛtasya mātarā |
doṣām uṣāsam īmahe || 6 ||
vātasya patmann īḻitā daivyā hotārā manuṣaḥ |
imaṁ no yajñam ā gatam || 7 ||
iḻā sarasvatī mahī tisro devīr mayobhuvaḥ |
barhiḥ sīdantv asridhaḥ || 8 ||
śivas tvaṣṭar ihā gahi vibhuḥ poṣa uta tmanā |
yajñe-yajñe na ud ava || 9 ||
yatra vettha vanaspate devānāṁ guhyā nāmāni |
tatra havyāni gāmaya || 10 ||
svāhāgnaye varuṇāya svāhendrāya marudbhyaḥ |
svāhā devebhyo haviḥ || 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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