History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.540.3

v4.c63.540.3

1 to have been the gift of Sarasvatī to Vadhryaśva as a son to pay off debts (*ṛṇacyutam*).⁶⁷⁴ These passages certainly establish that in the remote ages of the Ṛgveda it was a firm belief that men were under obligations to gods and pitṛs, which could be fulfilled only by worship (yajña) and by the birth of a son. These passages contain the germ of the doctrine of the three religious and spiritual debts that a man owed to gods, Manes (*pitṛs*) and sages, which he paid off by sacrifices, by the birth of a son and by vedic study (vide Tai. S. VI. 3. 10. 5, Śat. Br. I. 7. 2. 11 and Ait. Br. 33. 1 quoted in H. of Dh. vol. II. pp. 270, 560 notes 621 and 1302 and above n. 669). Gradually further universal obligations came to be added to this theory of spiritual debts. The Ādiparva (120. 17-20) holds that men owe four debts, viz the three vedic ones and the fourth to humanity in general (which is paid back by goodness to all) and Anuśāsana 37. 17 raises them to five (adding brāhmaṇas and guests to the well-known three)⁶⁷⁵. It appears to me that this theory of spiritual debts being already in the air, the same sanctity came gradually to be transferred to one's promises to repay monetary debts and carry out other secular engagements. The word *ṛṇa* had been applied both to spiritual and secular debts.