THE TEXT · ATHARVAVEDA
Hymns discussed in this article
Begin with the verses shown here. Open the other cited hymns to compare their images and aims.
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK III IN FOCUS
For success in trade
I stir up (cud) the trader Indra; let him come to us, be our forerunner; thrusting [away] the niggard, the waylaying wild animal, let him, having the power (īç), be giver of riches to me.
The many roads, travelled by the gods, that go about (sam-car) between heaven-and-earth—let them enjoy me with milk, with ghee, that dealing (krī) I may get (ā-hṛ) riches.
With fuel, O Agni, with ghee, I, desiring, offer the oblation, in order to energy (táras), to strength;—revering with worship (bráhman), so far as I am able—this divine prayer (dhī́), in order to hundred-fold winning.
This offense (? çaráṇi) of ours mayest thou, O Agni, bear with (mṛṣ), what distant road we have gone. Successful (çuná) for us be bargain and sale; let return-dealing make me fruitful; do ye two enjoy this oblation in concord; successful for us be our going about and rising.
Read the remaining 4 verses of III.15
With what riches I practise (car) bargaining, seeking riches with riches, ye gods—let that become more for me, not less; O Agni, put down (ni-sidh) with the oblation the gain-slaying gods.
With what riches I practise bargaining, seeking riches with riches, ye gods—therein let Indra assign me pleasure (? rúci), let Prajāpati, Savitar, Soma, Agni.
Unto thee with homage do we, O priest Vāiçvānara ('for all men'), give praise; do thou watch over our progeny, our selves, our kine, our breaths.
Every day may we bring constantly for thee as for a standing horse, O Jātavedas; rejoicing together with abundance of wealth, with food, may we thy neighbors, O Agni, take no harm.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read III.15 at Wikisource ↗
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK VI ALSO CITED
For relief from guilt or debt
Read comparison hymn VI.117 (3 verses)
What I eat (?) that is borrowed, that is not given back; with what tribute of Yama I go about—now, O Agni, I become guiltless (anṛṇá) as to that; thou knowest how to unfasten all fetters.
Being just here we give it back; living, we pay it in (ni-hṛ) for the living; what grain I have devoured having borrowed [it], now, O Agni, I become guiltless as to that.
Guiltless in this [world], guiltless in the higher, guiltless in the third world may we be; the worlds traversed by the gods and traversed by the Fathers—all the roads may we abide in guiltless.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read VI.117 at Wikisource ↗
The route comes before the price
III.15 opens with a request that Indra, imagined as a trader, go first and clear the path of a niggard and a dangerous animal. The second verse invokes many roads and hopes to acquire riches through dealing. These first moves show why trade is not simply a verbal wish for profit: goods and people must travel, meet, and survive uncertainty. A seller using an online listing has different hazards, but the old poem's sequence still reminds us that an asking price cannot produce a transaction by itself. There must be a route to a buyer and a deal that both parties are prepared to make.
Bargain is a relationship
In verse 4 the speaker wants bargain and sale to be successful and return dealing to prove fruitful. Verse 5 hopes the wealth staked in bargaining will increase rather than shrink. The fact that a bargain is sought means its outcome is not already fixed. Whitney's note even discusses a textual issue in verse 4 and an alternate rendering of its reward language, so it would be careless to extract a rigid technique for securing one price. The poem asks for a good commercial result. It does not describe a seller issuing a number and a buyer automatically obeying. The modern phrase asking price expresses one party's opening position.
Debt begins after a different event
VI.117 concerns what was borrowed and not given back. Its second verse speaks of returning borrowed grain while alive. That is a relationship in which an obligation already exists. Before a sale is agreed, no buyer owes the seller the asking price. If the buyer accepts and then fails to pay, the situation changes and repayment language becomes more relevant. This temporal difference is the key analytical reason to include the debt hymn as a comparison rather than as the main source. Conflating bargaining with debt would falsely imply that anyone shown a price has already promised to pay it.
The modern seller's wish
The attached spell asks that a customer pay the seller's asking price. This is an original contemporary intention; neither ancient hymn defines a fixed retail price, an online listing, or a customer compelled to accept. The honest connection is that III.15 takes the uncertainty of sale seriously and asks for gain after a venture. The honest limit is that a favorable bargain may involve negotiation, refusal, or a different amount. A reader looking for Vedic context can learn how the hymn arranges road, encounter, and return. They should not be told that the text predicts any particular buyer's offer or validates a modern valuation.
WORKED READING
Worked reading: before and after agreement
A potter asks ten units for a vessel. While shoppers consider it, III.15 is the apt comparison: there is a hoped-for sale and a price exposed to negotiation. VI.117 is not apt, because nobody has borrowed the vessel or owes the potter anything yet. If a shopper accepts ten units, takes the vessel, and later fails to pay, the situation moves toward an unfulfilled obligation, and VI.117 becomes more illuminating. The same object can pass through two economic stages. The modern spell belongs to the first stage, the hoped-for agreement at the seller's chosen price.