________________
30
JAIN JOURNAL
purāņa29 states that Vasistha saved various tribes by turning them into the Vratyas and thus gives a hint to understand the Vratya problem. The people of Magadha have been associated with the Vratya. 30
It is clear from the study of the evidences of the Smrtis that those who have become fallen because of not performing the duties of three varņas are called Vratyas, while their absorption into the Vedic tradition by purifying them with the ceremony of Vrātyāstoma31 is described in the Tandaya Brāhmaṇa of Sāmaveda, Kātyāyana Srauta Sūtra, Lātyāyana Srauta Sūtra and Apaştambhiya Srauta Sutra. It is also stated that the Vratyas were not initiated and reformed 32 by the Vedic customs. They spoke adurukta vākya (i.e. Sanskritized words) in uncouth manner (duruktariti), not Vedic Sanskrit dialect but Prakrit language of their own time. They used to bear Jyāhỉd (bow without string). 33
Thus there arose the difference of meanings of Vratya in the Vedas and the Smstis respectively with the passage of time. The Vratya of the Vedas is depicted as the benefactor of the people but the Vratya of the Smstis is stated to be unworthy and deserved to be expelled from the society. That is to say, the meaning of the word in the Vedas is accepted as representing goodness, while its meaning in the Smộtis is defined as something worst.
Different scholars have expressed different views on the identity of the Vratyas on the basis of their respective judgements, differing from one another. According to the Sanskrit-English Dictionary of Monier Williams, the word 'vratya' denotes a man of mendicant or vragrant class, a tramp, outcast, low or vile person either a man who had lost caste through non-observance of ten principal sanskāras or a man of particular low caste descended from a Sudra and a Ksatriya and according
29 Brahmandapurana, Madhyabhaga, 63. 138 ff. Vide Vratyas in Ancient India, p. 9.
sarva vratya purvoktani vratyadhandbhi dadyuh, LSS, VIII. 6. 28. magadhadesiyaya brahmavandhave daksinakale yratyadhanani dadyuh, vratya magadhdesanivasin, KSS, XXII. 4. 24, cf. Der Vratya, pp. 6, 7, 96-97, 143 ; see Vratyas in Ancient India, p. 11. Tandaya Brahmana, XVII. 1.9, 11. vratyastomenestva vratyamavadvirameyuh vyavaharya bhavanti, XXII, 4. 29-30, KSS. VIII. 5. 29.
KSS XXII. 4. 26 catvaro vratyadstoma ganayajnah, KSS XXII. 4. 32 asamskrta iti, samskarahina yratya ti smrteriti arthah anena. svatah suddhatvam
vivaksitamityaha, Cf. Anandagiri. Bharatiya Samskrtimen Jaindharmaka Yogdan, p. 18. Pancavimsa, B. XVII. 9.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
