History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c25.12

v2.c25.12

The word āśrama does not occur in the Saṁhitās or Brāhmaṇas. But this cannot be stretched to mean that the stages of life denoted by this word in the sūtras were unknown throughout the Vedic period. It has been shown above (p. 268) that the word brahmacārī occurs in the Ṛgveda and the Atharvaveda and that brahmacarya is mentioned in the Tai. S., the Śat. Br. and other ancient Vedic works. So the stage of brahmacarya was wellknown in the remotest past. The fact that Agni is said to be 'the gṛhapati in our house' (Ṛg. II. 1. 2)⁹⁹⁴ and the fact that in the famous verse (Ṛg. X. 85. 36) which is employed even today in the marriage ceremony the husband says to the bride when taking hold of her hand that the gods gave her to him for gārhapatya (for attaining the position of a house-owner or householder) establish that the second stage of the householder was well-known to the Ṛgveda. There is nothing in the Vedic Literature expressly corresponding to the vānaprastha. It may however be stated that the Tāṇḍya Mahābrāhmaṇa 14. 4. 7 says that vaikhānasa sages were the favourites of Indra and that one Rahasya Devamalimluc killed them in a place called Munimaraṇa. Vaikhānasa means 'vānaprastha' in the sūtras and it is possible that this is the germ of the idea of vānaprastha. 'Yati' used in the sūtras and smṛtis to indicate the fourth āśrama of saṁnyāsa does occur in the oldest Vedic texts. But there the meaning appears to be different. In the Ṛg. the word 'yati' occurs several times. But the sense is doubtful. Ṛg. VIII. 3. 9 runs 'whereby⁹⁹⁵ when wealth was bestowed on Bhṛgu and on yatis (or 'on Bhṛgu from yatis') you protected Praskaṇva'. Ṛg. VIII. 6. 18 reads 'O Indra, the yatis and those who were Bhṛgus praised thee'; Ṛg. X. 72. 7 says 'O gods, when you filled the worlds as the yatis (did) you brought the sun hidden in the sea'. In the Tai.⁹⁹⁶ S. VI. 2. 7. 5 we read 'Indra threw yatis to the sālāvṛkas (hyaenas or wolves), they devoured them to the south of the Uttaravedi.' The same words and story occur in the Kāṭhaka saṃhitā VIII. 5, the Ait. Br. 35. 2 (prādāt) and the Kauṣītaki Up. III. 1; in the last Indra said to Pratardana 'do know me only; I regard this as the most beneficial thing to man that he should know me. I killed the three-headed Tvāṣṭra, I gave to the sālāvṛkas the Aruṇmukha yatis.' In the Kāṭhaka saṃhitā (IV. 10) and the Tai. S. II. 4. 9. 2 it is stated that the heads of the *yatis* when they were being devoured fell aside and they (the heads) became the kharjūras (date palms). Atharvaveda II. 5. 3. says 'Indra, who is quick in his attack, who is Mitra and who killed Vṛtra as he did the yatis.' In the Tāṇḍya Mahābrāhmaṇa VIII. 1. 4 Bṛhadgiri is said to be one of the three yatis who escaped from slaughter and who were then taken under his protection by Indra. All these passages taken together suggest that the yatis were people who had incurred the hostility of Indra, the patron of the Āryas, that they were slaughtered by the Āryas with the help of Indra and their bodies were thrown to the wolves and that they seem to have something to do with a country where the date-palm grew and that a few of them who escaped slaughter subsequently were won over and became the worshippers of Indra (and therefore in Ṛg. VIII. 6. 18 they are described as praising Indra). So originally they were probably beyond the pale of the Vedic Aryans. If there is any connection between yati and yātu (sorcery) which seems possible, the yatis were probably non-vedic sorcerers.