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The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c9.s8: The Vrātya in the Vedic Milieu

The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c9.s8

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The Vrātya in the Vedic Milieu

c9.s8.1

It is questionable how far the category, caste, can be used in connection with the diverse periods of Vedic literature. Probably the category, race, is more appropriate when we have to speak of diverse social or professional groups. It should not be reasonable always to take Śūdra = Dasyu, Dāsa and Non-Aryan. To what extent the Śūdra = “lower classes” is also problematic. In any case the Aryan-non-Aryan *rapprochement* or race-fusion, group-mixture and culture-contact is the outstanding theme of the Vedic texts. In the *Puruṣa Sūkta*, as we have seen, the Śūdra is either not a non-Aryan, or if so, is already assimilated to the Aryan.

c9.s8.2

Among the many racial or social transformations that the literary documents of the Vedic complex exhibit none is more important than the elevation of the Vrātyas to the Brāhmaṇical fold or the Brāhmaṇization of the Vrātyas. This item is to be treated as distinct from the incorporation of the Non-Aryans into the Aryan community as well as the assimilation of the lower classes by the societal organisation. The impact of the Vrātya on the Vedic institutions represents new liberal tendencies of the Vedic authors.

c9.s8.3

The Vrātyaṣṭoma ceremonies²⁶ are calculated to introduce such Aryan communities as are however not yet subject to Brāhmaṇistic institutions to the Brāhmaṇic community. The Vrātyas belonged to such communities and could not therefore be described as outcastes.

c9.s8.4

²⁶ Hauer: *Der Vrātya* (Stuttgart 1927) pp. 5-6.

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The Vrātyas of the Vedic complex are not to be understood in the sense of later law-books like, for instance, those of Baudhāyana (I, 9, 15), i.e., offsprings of *Varṇa-saṁkara* (caste-fusion).

c9.s8.6

The *Vrātyatā* or *Vrātya* life consists in observing inappropriate manners (*āchārahīnatā*) and following a life of nomads.²⁷ The Vrātyas, however, are known to be related to the gods, who because of appropriate sacrifices succeeded in reaching heaven. But in the condition of their *Vrātyatā* they do not prosecute Brāhmaṇical studies, and do not practise agriculture or trade.

c9.s8.7

²⁷ Hauer, pp. 58, 62, 75, 82-84, 297.

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The purification (*śuddhi*) of the Vrātyas and their elevation take place through the *Vrātyaṣṭoma* sacrifice. The Vrātyas purified become full-fledged Brāhmaṇas.

c9.s8.9

According to Manu (X, 20-23),²⁸ who preserves the old Vedic tradition, each of the three Brāhmaṇical orders can have *Vrātyas*. So there are (1) Brāhmaṇa-Vrātyas, Kṣatriya-Vrātyas and Vaiśya-Vrātyas.

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²⁸ Hauer, pp. 223-224, 229.

c9.s8.11

The following races or castes belong to the Brāhmaṇa-Vrātyas: Bhrijja-Kaṇṭaka, Avantya, Vātodhana, Puṣpa-śaikhara. Among the Kṣatriya-Vrātyas are mentioned Jhalla, Malla, Licchivi, Naṭa, Karaṇa, Khaśa, and Drāviḍa. The Vaiśya-Vrātyas comprise Sudhanvan, Charya, Karuṣa, Vijanman, Maitra and Sattvata.

c9.s8.12

The *Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa* (II, 22) and the *Tāṇḍya Mahā Brāhmaṇa* (XVII, 1-4), both belonging to the *Sāmaveda Saṁhitā* admit the *Vrātya* to Brāhmaṇism after the *Vrātyaṣṭoma* sacrifice on condition that he gives up his Vrātya mores.²⁹

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²⁹ Hauer, pp. 55, 60.

c9.s8.14

The divine heroes or saints of the Vrātyas were parallel to the *Ṛiṣis* in importance. They were recognized in the *Sāma Veda Brāhmaṇas* but were unknown in the *Brāhmaṇas* of the *Ṛig* and *Yajur Vedas*. The Vrātya Book of the *Atharva Veda* (XV)³⁰ was of course their special literature. The other three Vedas did not mention them at all.

c9.s8.15

³⁰ Whitney and Lanman: *Atharva Veda Saṁhitā* (1905), Second Half, pp. 769-791; Hauer, p. 334.

c9.s8.16

The religion and philosophy of the Vrātyas with their *Mahāvrata* (great sacrifice), mysticism and Ekavrātya (Rudra-Mahādeva or highest God) constituted the subject-matter of Book XV of the *'Atharva Veda*.³¹

c9.s8.17

³¹ Hauer, pp. 281-282, 308-310.

c9.s8.18

The *'Atharva Veda* may have been originally the *Veda* of the Vrātyas. At any rate Book XV of this *Veda* is the embodiment of Vrātya glorification. The association of the Vrātyas with the *Atharva Veda* raises its importance as a document of the demographic and ethnological structure of the Hindu polity of some of the earliest epochs.

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