Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c8.68

c8.68

In contrast to assets (*dhana*) there is the liability (*ṛṇa*), and the development of the conception of the latter is the same as that of *debitum* and our [German] *Schuld* (from *skulan*). The general significance "obligation" is still retained even in the Smṛtis, and particularly in the Conception of liability and assets. theory of the three-fold debt consisting of sacrifices, raising of a son and the recitation of the Veda, which has to be paid to the gods, ancestors and the Ṛṣis respectively. On the other hand the word ṛṇa is already known in the Veda in the sense of an obligation of payment and in Indian arithmetic too the conception of "minus" is expressed by ṛṇa ("plus" by dhana or sva).