History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c81.56

v6.c81.56

65. 6 and probably means '(the cow) that is the carrier of vrata' i. e. of the milk on which a sacrificer has to subsist. In T. S. VI. 2. 5 2-3 it is said that milk is the Brāhmaṇa's vrata. On p. 442 Prof. Apte refers to Sūrya being called 'vratapā' very aptly. Vratapa occurs nine times in the Ṛgveda, but the Sun is called 'vratapā' only once in I. 83. 5. Vratapā means nothing more than vratapati, which word occurs in T. S. I. 6. 6. 3²⁶, I. 6. 7. 2 and Vāj. S. I. 5 and is applied to Agni. In these passages 'vrata' means a religious vow such as that of a Vedic student who undertakes to study Veda after Upanayana. There is no reason why the word 'vratapā' in the Ṛgveda should not be deemed to have been used in the sense in which 'vratapati' is employed in the T. S. and Vāj. S. Similarly, in Ṛg VII. 103. 1²⁷ it is said that the frogs lying silent for a year (in crevices), like brāhmaṇas observing a vrata, send forth their croaking inspired by the rains. Here 'vrata' has the meaning 'a sacred vow or observance' which is the sense in which the word is used in medieval times and is so used even upto this day.