Hymn to Agni
Rigveda VII.7 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) from Maṇḍala 7 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.
Agni, thou art immortal, O mighty one! The gods themselves cannot die, and neither can thy flame. We mortals wither and crumble to dust; our bodies return to the earth; our names are forgotten. But thou—thou art forever.
Yet thou dost dwell among us, O immortal god! In every hearth, in every altar, in every fire that burneth, thou art present. Thou livest with us; thou eatest with us; thou shareth in our joys and our sorrows. Though thou belongest to the gods, thou art also our companion.
How strange is this mystery, O Agni! That thou who art divine should care for mortals; that thou who art eternal should concern thyself with our brief lives. Yet thou dost care; thou dost concern thyself. Thou art the priest who mediates for us; thou art the guardian who protecteth us.
We do not know why the gods have granted thee to dwell among mortals. Perhaps it is an act of compassion. Perhaps it is a covenant written in the very beginning of time. Perhaps it is the way of the universe that immortal and mortal, divine and human, should be joined together.
Blessed art thou, O Agni, that thou dwellest in two worlds! Thou knowest the life of the gods; thou knowest also the life of mortals. Thou canst speak to both; thou canst translate between both. Because of thee, we are not entirely separated from the divine.
In thy presence, we feel something of immortality. When we gaze upon thy flames, we sense something eternal within ourselves. For a moment, we forget that we are mortal; we forget that our time is limited. We touch something beyond death, something that shall endure forever.
O Agni, immortal friend of mortals! Though we know that our lives are brief and our time is limited, thou hast given us hope. Through thee, we know that something survives death; something continues beyond the grave. The flame may die, but the fire eternal remaineth.
Come to us, O deathless one! Dwell in our homes! Protect us from the darkness of death! Let us know, even in our brief lives, that we are connected to something eternal, something immortal, something 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 VII.7
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.
pra vo devaṁ cit sahasānam agnim aśvaṁ na vājinaṁ hiṣe namobhiḥ |
bhavā no dūto adhvarasya vidvān tmanā deveṣu vivide mitadruḥ || 1 ||
ā yāhy agne pathyā3 anu svā mandro devānāṁ sakhyaṁ juṣāṇaḥ |
ā sānu śuṣmair nadayan pṛthivyā jambhebhir viśvam uśadhag vanāni || 2 ||
prācīno yajñaḥ sudhitaṁ hi barhiḥ prīṇīte agnir īḻito na hotā |
ā mātarā viśvavāre huvāno yato yaviṣṭha jajñiṣe suśevaḥ || 3 ||
sadyo adhvare rathiraṁ jananta mānuṣāso vicetaso ya eṣām |
viśām adhāyi viśpatir duroṇe3 'gnir mandro madhuvacā ṛtāvā || 4 ||
asādi vṛto vahnir ājaganvān agnir brahmā nṛṣadane vidhartā |
dyauś ca yam pṛthivī vāvṛdhāte ā yaṁ hotā yajati viśvavāram || 5 ||
ete dyumnebhir viśvam ātiranta mantraṁ ye vāraṁ naryā atakṣan |
pra ye viśas tiranta śroṣamāṇā ā ye me asya dīdhayann ṛtasya || 6 ||
nū tvām agna īmahe vasiṣṭhā īśānaṁ sūno sahaso vasūnām |
iṣaṁ stotṛbhyo maghavadbhya ānaḍ yūyam pāta svastibhiḥ sadā 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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