Three Debts

According to tradition, repayment of
three “debts” was incumbent on all
“twice-born” men, that is, men born
into one of the three “twice-born”
groups in Indian society—brahmin,
kshatriya, or vaishya—who had undergone the adolescent religious initiation
known as the second birth. The first of
these debts was to the gods and was
repaid by offering sacrifices. The second
debt was to the sages and was satisfied
by studying the Vedas, the oldest and
most authoritative religious texts. The
final debt was to the ancestors (pitrs)
and was satisfied by procreating a son,
to ensure that the ancestral rites would
be carried out without interruption.