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Dhammapada · narration sample

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Rig Veda · 240 of 1027

Mandala 3: HYMN VI. Agni.

1.URGED on by deep devotion, O ye singers, bring, pious ones, the God-approaching ladle. Borne onward to the right it travels eastward, and, filled with oil, to Agni bears oblation.

2.Thou at thy birth didst fill both earth and heaven, yea, Most Adorable, thou didst exceed them. Even through the heaven’s and through the earth’s expanses let thy swift seventongued flames roll on, O Agni.

3.Both Heaven and Earth and Gods who should be worshipped establish thee as Priest for every dwelling, Whenever human families, God-devoted, bringing oblations; laud thy splendid lustre.

4.Firm in the Gods’ home is the Mighty seated, between vast Heaven and Earth the well-beloved- Those Cows who yield, unharmed, their nectar, Spouses of the Far-Strider, everyoung, united.

5.Great are the deeds of thee, the Great, O Agni: thou by thy power hast spread out earth and heaven. As soon as thou wast born thou wast an envoy, thou, Mighty One, was Leader of the people.

6.Bind to the pole with cords of holy Order the long-maned ruddy steeds who sprinkle fatness. Bring hithier, O thou God, all Gods together: provide them noble worship, Jātavedas.

7.Even from the sky thy brilliant lights shone hither: still hast thou beamed through many a radiant morning, That the Gods praised their joyous Herald’s labour eagerly burning, Agni, in the forests.

8.The Gods who take delight in air’s wide region, or those the dwellers in heaven’s realm of brightness, Or those, the Holy, prompt to hear, our helpers, who, carborne, turn their horses hither, Agni—-

9.With these, borne on one ear, Agni, approach us, or borne on many, for thy steeds are able. Bring, witb their Dames, the Gods, the Three and-Thirty, after thy Godlike nature, and be joyful.

10.He is the Priest at whose repeated worship even wide Heaven and Earth sing out for increase. They fair and true and holy coming forward stand at his sacrifice who springs from Order.

11.As holy food, Agni, to thine invoker give wealth in cattle, lasting, rich in marvels. To us be born a son and spreading offspring. Agni, be this thy gracious will to usward.

Asked of Guide

Why does this hymn call Agni a priest and envoy who brings the gods together?

The hymn makes Agni the sacrificial mediator: he is “Priest” because he carries offerings—“born…an envoy,” the text says—and by his flames the Gods are invited and made present at the household rite. Lines about his lights shining “even from the sky” and his bringing “the Gods, the Three and-Thirty” show the poet treating Agni as the channel through which heaven and earth meet.

Because Agni connects worshippers to divine blessing, the hymn asks him for concrete returns—wealth, cattle, offspring—promises tied to his role as ritual bridge. This emphasis on priestly function and reward echoes the household-sacrifice focus found elsewhere in the Rigveda and in later Brāhmaṇa passages that treat Agni as the indispensable mediator of vrata and blessing.

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