Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v2.c4.s7.1435

v2.c4.s7.1435

Vrāja-pati is found in one passage of the Rigveda,¹ where it is said that comrades attend Indra, as the Kulapas the Vrāja-pati, when he goes about. Zimmer² thinks that this refers to the heads of families being subordinate in war to the village headman (Grāmaṇī), but Whitney³ seems to be right in seeing merely the chieftain surrounded by the leading men, the family heads, not necessarily merely a village headman. Vrāja alone occurs in one passage of the Atharvaveda,⁴ adverbially in the sense of ‘in troops.’