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Rig Veda · 444 of 1027
Mandala 6: HYMN III. Agni.
1.TRUE, guardian of the Law, thy faithful servant wins ample light and dwells in peace, O Agni, Whom thou, as Varuṇa in accord with Mitra, guardest, O God, by banishing his trouble.
2.He hath paid sacrifices, toiled in worship, and offered gifts to wealth-increasing Agni. Him the displeasure of the famous moves not, outrage and scorn affect not such a mortal.
3.Bright God, whose look is free from stain like Sūrya’s, thou, swift, what time thou earnestly desirest, Hast gear to give us. Come with joy at evening, where, Child of Wood, thou mayest also tarry.
4.Fierce is his gait and vast his wondrous body: he champeth like a horse with bit and bridle, And, darting forth his tongue, as ’twere a hatchet, burning the woods, smelteth them like a smelter.
5.Archer-like, fain toshoot, he sets his arrow, and whets his splendour like the edge of iron: The messenger of night with brilliant pathway, like a tree-roosting bird of rapid pinion.
6.In beams of morn he clothes him like the singer, and bright as Mitra with his splendour crackles. Red in the night, by day the men’s possession: red, he belongs to men by day, Immortal.
7.Like Heaven’s when scattering beams his voice was uttered: among the plants the radiant Hero shouted, Who with his glow in rapid course came hither to fill both worlds, well-wedded Dames, with treasure.
8.Who, with supporting streams and rays that suit him, hath flashed like lightning with his native vigour. Like the deft Maker of the band of Maruts, the bright impetuous One hath shone refulgent.
Asked of Guide
Why does Agni get called both 'red in the night' and 'bright as Mitra' in this hymn?
The hymn describes Agni’s changing presence across times and roles: he is “red in the night” when he is the visible, warming fire and the household’s possession, and he is “bright as Mitra” by day when his splendour spreads like a divine, law-keeping radiance. The poem ties those images to concrete actions—he “burneth the woods,” “sets his arrow,” and “crackles”—so the colors signal how Agni operates in each mode, fierce and elemental at night, luminous and covenantal by day.
This movement between domestic flame and cosmic light echoes other Vedic hymns where Agni links the hearth to the gods; compare Book 1 Hymn 1, where Agni is the priestly mediator who carries offerings upward. The chapter keeps naming: Agni is both the fierce, tongued smelter and the radiant, trustee of law, and the epithets describe those simultaneous duties.
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