Hymn to Agni
Rigveda VI.9 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.
Thou art Vaiśvānara, O flame most pure—the fire of every tribe, every nation. Thou dwellest in the heart of the Āryan, in the hearth of the foreigner, in the altar of all who kindle thy name. No people is foreign to thee, no kindred estranged. The merchant at the crossroads knows thee; the priest in the sanctuary knows thee; the shepherd on the steppe kindles thee with dung and wood alike.
Agni Vaiśvānara, thou universal bond! Through thee the Bhāradvāja and the rival clan stand as brothers when they sit before thy flame. The common fire unites what the tongue divides. All tongues speak thy glory; all races worship thee.
We praise thee, O Agni, who hast no boundary, no frontier. Thou art the light that burns the same in every land. The Dravidian and the Āryan warm their hands at the selfsame fire. In thee there is no distinction—all who approach with reverence are known to thee.
Bestow upon us, O Vaiśvānara, this gift: the power to see in every sacred fire our common kinship. Let the flame that binds us burn eternal. Let no people turn their back upon thy warmth, for in rejecting the universal fire, they reject their own breath, their own beating heart.
Accept our oblation, O Agni. Bind us together as the cord binds the wood to the stake, as the bond of flame holds the smoke skyward. We are many peoples, but we kindle thee as 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.9
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.
ahaś ca kṛṣṇam ahar arjunaṁ ca vi vartete rajasī vedyābhiḥ |
vaiśvānaro jāyamāno na rājāvātiraj jyotiṣāgnis tamāṁsi || 1 ||
nāhaṁ tantuṁ na vi jānāmy otuṁ na yaṁ vayanti samare 'tamānāḥ |
kasya svit putra iha vaktvāni paro vadāty avareṇa pitrā || 2 ||
sa it tantuṁ sa vi jānāty otuṁ sa vaktvāny ṛtuthā vadāti |
ya īṁ ciketad amṛtasya gopā avaś caran paro anyena paśyan || 3 ||
ayaṁ hotā prathamaḥ paśyatemam idaṁ jyotir amṛtam martyeṣu |
ayaṁ sa jajñe dhruva ā niṣatto 'martyas tanvā3 vardhamānaḥ || 4 ||
dhruvaṁ jyotir nihitaṁ dṛśaye kam mano javiṣṭham patayatsv antaḥ |
viśve devāḥ samanasaḥ saketā ekaṁ kratum abhi vi yanti sādhu || 5 ||
vi me karṇā patayato vi cakṣur vī3daṁ jyotir hṛdaya āhitaṁ yat |
vi me manaś carati dūraādhīḥ kiṁ svid vakṣyāmi kim u nū maniṣye || 6 ||
viśve devā anamasyan bhiyānās tvām agne tamasi tasthivāṁsam |
vaiśvānaro 'vatūtaye no 'martyo 'vatūtaye naḥ || 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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