Hymn to Agni
Rigveda VI.11 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 6 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 beautiful beyond utterance! The Bhāradvājas, skilled in praise, struggle to find words worthy of thy form. Yet we sing, for to remain silent would be a greater transgression than to speak imperfectly of thee.
Behold how thou dwellest in the wood before the kindling! Invisible, yet present—waiting, breathing—as a child sleeps before the dawn. Then the striker of the flame awakens thee, and thou springest forth in thy terrible and radiant glory. Thy seven tongues flicker and coil like serpents tasting the air. Red, orange, blue—each tongue a different prayer.
Thy face shines brighter than the sun at midday. Thy hair crackles and dances as the sacred syllables dance upon the lips of the priest. The smoke that rises from thee is the visible breath of the cosmos ascending toward the infinite. In that smoke, we see our own prayers transformed and lifted beyond the comprehension of mortal sense.
Thou art clothed in light, O Agni! Thy raiment is the flame itself, changing, never still, ever-living. The heat that emanates from thy being causes the earth to tremble and the sky to attend. Mitra and Varuṇa pause in their counsel to behold thee.
We bow before thy beauty, O sacred fire. The Bhāradvājas have no offering grand enough, no hymn magnificent enough, to properly honor what thou art. Yet we offer what we have—our voice, our breath, our reverent adoration. Accept this song as the offering of a people humbled by thy splendor.
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 VI.11
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.
yajasva hotar iṣito yajīyān agne bādho marutāṁ na prayukti |
ā no mitrāvaruṇā nāsatyā dyāvā hotrāya pṛthivī vavṛtyāḥ || 1 ||
tvaṁ hotā mandratamo no adhrug antar devo vidathā martyeṣu |
pāvakayā juhvā3 vahnir āsāgne yajasva tanva1ṁ tava svām || 2 ||
dhanyā cid dhi tve dhiṣaṇā vaṣṭi pra devāñ janma gṛṇate yajadhyai |
vepiṣṭho aṅgirasāṁ yad dha vipro madhu cchando bhanati rebha iṣṭau || 3 ||
adidyutat sv apāko vibhāvāgne yajasva rodasī urūcī |
āyuṁ na yaṁ namasā rātahavyā añjanti suprayasam pañca janāḥ || 4 ||
vṛñje ha yan namasā barhir agnāv ayāmi srug ghṛtavatī suvṛktiḥ |
amyakṣi sadma sadane pṛthivyā aśrāyi yajñaḥ sūrye na cakṣuḥ || 5 ||
daśasyā naḥ purvaṇīka hotar devebhir agne agnibhir idhānaḥ |
rāyaḥ sūno sahaso vāvasānā ati srasema vṛjanaṁ nāṁhaḥ || 6 ||
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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