Hymn to Agni
Rigveda VI.5 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.
Behold! The flames leap upward, reaching toward the vault of heaven. Each tongue of fire stretcheth higher, burning with urgent hunger for the sky. Agni burneth as though he would tear open the veil between this world and the realm of the deathless ones. His heat driveth upward. His force knoweth no resistance.
The smoke gathereth in clouds, coiling and twisting like serpents ascending. The red and golden light illuminateth the night. All around the fire, faces shine with reflected glory. We stand in the presence of something that reacheth beyond us, that belongeth to a realm we can only glimpse through heat and light and smoke.
Thou art the pillar, O Agni, the great column that connecteth earth to heaven. Thy base is planted in the wood, in the tinder, in the offering-bowl. But thy crown — thy crown reacheth into the stars themselves. The gods look downward from their seats of cloud and recognize thee as their brother, their kinsman, their representative in this lower realm.
The flames writhe and dance with terrible beauty. Gold, orange, red, yellow — all the colors of the sunset burn in thy form. Thou hast the shape of no living thing and the essence of all living things. Thou art hunger and satisfaction. Thou art destruction and creation in one terrible, beautiful instant.
Higher, higher still! Let thy flames stretch toward Indra's heaven. Let them pierce through the clouds. Let them kindle the stars. Thou art the mediator, the one who speaketh between worlds, the sacred fire that joineth what is separated. Through thee, O Agni, the mortal realm and the immortal realm are made one.
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.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.
huve vaḥ sūnuṁ sahaso yuvānam adroghavācam matibhir yaviṣṭham |
ya invati draviṇāni pracetā viśvavārāṇi puruvāro adhruk || 1 ||
tve vasūni purvaṇīka hotar doṣā vastor erire yajñiyāsaḥ |
kṣāmeva viśvā bhuvanāni yasmin saṁ saubhagāni dadhire pāvake || 2 ||
tvaṁ vikṣu pradivaḥ sīda āsu kratvā rathīr abhavo vāryāṇām |
ata inoṣi vidhate cikitvo vy ānuṣag jātavedo vasūni || 3 ||
yo naḥ sanutyo abhidāsad agne yo antaro mitramaho vanuṣyāt |
tam ajarebhir vṛṣabhis tava svais tapā tapiṣṭha tapasā tapasvān || 4 ||
yas te yajñena samidhā ya ukthair arkebhiḥ sūno sahaso dadāśat |
sa martyeṣv amṛta pracetā rāyā dyumnena śravasā vi bhāti || 5 ||
sa tat kṛdhīṣitas tūyam agne spṛdho bādhasva sahasā sahasvān |
yac chasyase dyubhir akto vacobhis taj juṣasva jaritur ghoṣi manma || 6 ||
aśyāma taṁ kāmam agne tavotī aśyāma rayiṁ rayivaḥ suvīram |
aśyāma vājam abhi vājayanto 'śyāma dyumnam ajarājaraṁ te || 7 ||
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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