Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v2.c4.s7.1450

v2.c4.s7.1450

Vrātya is included in the list of victims at the Puruṣamedha (‘human sacrifice’) in the Yajurveda,¹ where, however, no further explanation of the name is given. Fuller information is furnished by the Atharvaveda,² the Pañcaviṃśa Brāhmaṇa,³ and the Sūtras,⁴ which describe at length a certain rite intended for the use of Vrātyas. According to the Pañcaviṃśa Brāhmaṇa, there are four different kinds of ‘outcasts’—viz., the hīna, who are merely described as ‘depressed’; those who have become outcasts for some sin (nindita); those who have become outcasts at an early age, apparently by living among outcasts; and those old men who, being impotent (śama-nīcamedhra), have gone to live with outcasts. The last three categories are by no means of the same importance as the first. The motive of the fourth is hard to understand: according to Rājārām Rāmkṛṣṇa Bhāgavat,⁵ they were men who had enfeebled their constitutions by undue intercourse with women in the lands of the outcasts, and returned home in a debilitated state. But this is not stated in the text.