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 VI IN FOCUS
For relief from guilt or debt
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 ↗
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK VI ALSO CITED
For relief from guilt
Read comparison hymn VI.118 (3 verses)
If (yát) with our hands we have done offenses, desiring to take up the course (?) of the dice, let the two Apsarases, fierce-(ugrá-)seeing, fierce-conquering, forgive today that guilt (ṛṇá) of ours.
O fierce-seeing one! realm-bearing one! [our] offenses, what happened at the dice—forgive ye that to us; may there not come in Yama's world one having a rope on, desiring to win from us debt (ṛṇá) from debt.
To whom [I owe] debt, whose wife I approach, to whom I go begging (yāc), O gods—let them not speak words superior to me; ye (two) Apsarases, wives of gods, take notice!
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read VI.118 at Wikisource ↗
ATHARVAVEDA · BOOK II ALSO CITED
To expiate errors in the sacrifice: to Viçvakarman
Read comparison hymn II.35 (5 verses)
They who, partaking [of soma] (bhakṣ), did not prosper (ṛdh) in good things, whom the fires of the sacrificial hearth were distressed about (anu-tapya-)—what was the expiation (avayá) of their ill-sacrifice, may Viçvakarman ('the all-worker') make that for us a good sacrifice.
The seers declare the master (-páti) of the sacrifice by reason of sin disportioned, distressed about [his] offspring. What honeyed drops he offended in (? apa-rādh), with them let Viçvakarman unite (sam-sṛj) us.
Thinking the soma-drinkers to be unworthy of gifts (? adānyá), [though] knowing of the sacrifice, [he is] not wise (dhī́ra) in the conjuncture (samayá); in that this man is bound having committed a sin, do thou, O Viçvakarman, release him for his well-being.
Terrible [are] the seers; homage be to them! what sight [is] theirs, and the actuality (satyá) of their mind. For Brihaspati, O bull (mahiṣá), [be] bright (dyumánt) homage; O Viçvakarman, homage to thee! protect thou us.
The sacrifice's eye, commencement, and face: with voice, hearing, mind I make oblation. To this sacrifice, extended by Viçvakarman, let the gods come, well-willing.
Whitney–Lanman translation as printed (1905) · Read II.35 at Wikisource ↗
The first verse names an unpaid obligation
VI.117.1 asks about what was borrowed and left unreturned. The exact opening verb is textually difficult, which Whitney signals with an editorial question, but the debt or obligation is not an invented modern theme. The speaker turns to Agni and asks to become free of that burden, with the image of fetters being unfastened. Yama's tribute broadens the concern beyond a simple lender's account. The hymn's word for freedom from debt can also mean freedom from guilt, a double sense that the English choice must not flatten. Its first movement recognizes a burden and asks that it be lifted; it does not announce that merely reciting a line cancels what is owed to a real person.
Repayment is spoken in the present
The second verse is unusually concrete: the speakers say they give it back here and pay it while living for the living. It again mentions grain that was consumed after borrowing. This shifts the poem from inward absolution toward an act of return. The result is a productive tension within the hymn: Agni is asked for release, yet the words also acknowledge human repayment. Verse 3 then expands freedom from debt across this world and higher worlds and along the roads of gods and ancestors. That enlargement explains why the text cannot be confined to a modern bank balance. Its debt language crosses material, moral, and ritual obligations without making them identical in everyday practice.
VI.118 and II.35 show nearby but different faults
VI.118, adjoining VI.117, seeks relief from guilt connected with actions at dice. It too imagines a debt that might pursue someone, including beyond death. Yet its example is wrongdoing in a gaming setting rather than borrowed grain explicitly paid back. II.35, the subject of the old legacy article, addresses errors in a sacrifice to Viśvakarman. Its fault is one of ritual performance, not a creditor's unreturned goods. Reading these three together prevents a false equivalence among every kind of error. VI.117 is the mapped text because it actually contains borrowing and repayment. VI.118 broadens the moral field, while II.35 shows that the anthology has a different repair language for a flawed rite.
The Unbroken Ledger is a modern working
The mapped benefit, “Freedom from debt through repayment,” has a genuine textual bridge in VI.117, especially its second verse. The Unbroken Ledger and the site's ritual process are contemporary inventions. The hymn does not provide a plan for settling modern credit, prove that a payment has been accepted, or promise automatic financial relief. Its prayer reaches guilt and cosmic roads in ways that exceed an account statement. A reader can take seriously the historical insistence that what was borrowed be returned while separating that act from any claim of magical debt erasure. The verses voice release alongside restitution; they are not evidence that an obligation disappeared without the lender's satisfaction.
WORKED READING
A borrowed grain and a ritual mistake
Read VI.117.1's borrowed, unreturned thing and its fetter image, then VI.117.2's explicit giving back while alive. The order matters: the speaker seeks release and also speaks the act of repayment. Compare VI.118.1–2, where wrongdoing at dice creates a different kind of debt, and II.35's appeal over sacrificial error. The adjoining hymns are not duplicates: one has grain and return, one has gaming guilt, and one a flawed sacrifice. The comparison grounds the modern repayment theme in the correct verse without pretending that all guilt is a monetary balance or that a prayer alone pays it.