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 III ALSO CITED
For success in trade
Read comparison hymn III.15 (8 verses)
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.
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 ↗
Borrowed grain is not abstract wealth
Verse 1 of VI.117 addresses Agni over borrowed matter not given back and asks for release from fetters. Whitney indicates uncertainty in the translation of the opening expression, so the line should not be pressed into an exact modern legal formula. Verse 2 anchors the problem in grain that the speaker has eaten after borrowing it, and it says repayment is made while living. This is not a poem about attracting new riches. It concerns a prior taking whose consequences remain attached to the person who took. The particular image of consumed grain makes the obligation harder to dismiss as merely symbolic.
Release has several horizons
In verse 3 the desired state of being free of debt or guilt stretches from this world to higher worlds and to roads traversed by gods and ancestors. That widening follows the concrete return of verse 2. Whitney notes that the central term can mean both freedom from financial debt and freedom from obligation or fault. A loan between modern individuals can carry a similar emotional burden, but the hymn's cosmic horizon belongs to its own religious world. One should not claim that every unpaid contemporary loan creates the same ritual condition. The passage matters because it ties return to release rather than to the lender's windfall.
A loan differs from a risky sale
III.15's trader bargains with riches in the hope of gaining more. A sale may yield profit or loss; verse 5 explicitly hopes that the riches involved become more, not less. In a loan, the base amount was transferred on terms calling for its return. The lender's hope for repayment is therefore not the same as the merchant's hope for profitable dealing. The Atharvaveda contains both sorts of language, which is why a generic prosperity reading is inadequate. Keeping the texts distinct also prevents interest, penalties, and enforcement—modern or otherwise—from being smuggled into VI.117, which does not set out a loan contract.
The contemporary spell is still original
The attached working asks that a borrower repay promptly. Its exact timing and person-specific aim are new. VI.117 records a wish to discharge debt from the debtor's side; it does not teach the lender how to force payment or state that an expected date will be met. A reader can take a historical insight from its sequence: borrowing, use, recognition, return, release. That sequence is more precise than simply wishing for cash. At the same time, whether a particular modern loan exists and what is due depends on the agreement, not on a hymn. The article's comparison should deepen the meaning of repayment without turning an old prayer into outcome evidence.
WORKED READING
Worked reading: the same loan from two chairs
Imagine A lends B a measure of grain. Sitting with B, VI.117's second verse is intelligible as the wish to return what has been consumed and be free of the obligation. Sitting with A, the modern spell's hoped-for result is receipt of that return. The two people face opposite directions along one relationship. If B instead bought grain at an agreed price, III.15's bargain would become more relevant. This small change in the story shows why the loan hymn is a close but limited analogy: it speaks vividly about owing, while the modern intention speaks from the creditor's chair.