History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c81.12

v6.c81.12

I have summarised Prof Apte's long list of meanings in ten groups. The very fact that Prof. Apte had to marshall over sixty English equivalents for the meaning of the word 'vrata', which occurs in the Ṛgveda only about 220 times by itself or in combination with other words is enough to make scholars suspicious about the correctness of the entire scheme. Though he had the hardihood to assert in one place (p. 410)⁴ that no passage in the Ṛgveda favours the meaning 'will or command' he admits (on pp. 476-477) that in three passages (Ṛg II. 38 7, X. 10 5, X. 33. 9) the meaning of vrata as 'ordinances laid down by a divinity for devotees or human beings' is quite acceptable to him and further that in about 25 passages (which come under groups II to IV of the so-called human phase of Prof. Apte) vrata either means 'ethical or religious code of practices of the three classes of Aryans' or 'beneficent sway or devotion'.