The History and Culture of the Indian People v1.c19.s3.t2.20

v1.c19.s3.t2.20

Because the later Dharmasūtras describe the Vrātya as an outsider, a man of mixed origin and of peculiar dress and habits, Roth, Whitney, Bloomfield, Chanda, and others regard the Vrātya as non-Aryan. The early Vedic texts do not support this view. The Vrātyas, though uninitiated, spoke the speech of the initiated. Their speech, though Aryan, had apparently resembled Prakrit rather than Vedic Sankrit, as they softened hard consonants. The Sūtras mention *arhants* and *yaudhas* among the Vrātyas, corresponding respectively to Brāhmaṇas and Kshatriyas in the Brahmanical hierarchy. These particulars, coupled with the fact that they were allowed to become members of the Brāhmaṇa community by performing a specific ritual, evidently show that the Vrātyas were not non-Aryans but were Aryans outside the sphere of Brāhmaṇa culture.