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FOUR AND TWENTY TIRTHAMKARAS
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p. 21). The sect of Vratyas mentioned in the Atharva Veda can, again, be the Jainas and none else. The term means the observer of vows, as distinguished from the performer of sacrifices which applied to the Hindus at the time, and has been commented upon by a learned scholar, Prof. A. Chakravarti, in the Jaina Gazette (Vol. XXI Part 6), and by Babu Kamta Prasad Jain in " Bhagwan Parsva Nath” (see the Introduction). The Vratyas* were of two kinds, the saints and the householders. In the fifteenth part of the Atharva Veda there is a mention of a Maha (great) Vratya who must be one of the Tirtham karas, and presumably Rişabha Deva, the first. He is said to have stood in one (yoga) posture for a whole year, after which at the request of certain devas, he occupied a seat furnished by them. The devas are also said to
* Mr. K. P. Jayaswal gives the following account of the Vratyas in the Modern Review for 1929 (see p. 499): " The Lichchhavis ruled opposite Pataliputra in the district of Muzaffarpur. They are called Vratyas or un-Brahmanical Kshatriyas; they had a republican from of government; they had their own shrines, their nonVedic worship, their own religious leaders; they pato ronized Jainism . . . Mahavira was born among them. Manu condemns them as degenerates. Chandragupta's son, Samudragupta, who acquired the Imperial position for himself and his family by establishing an allIndia Empire, proudly describes himself as the douhitra (daughter's son) of the Lichchhavis."
