160 S. C. Vidyabhusana —Vratya and Sainkara Theories of Caste. [No. 2, 
Q-andharis, Mujavants, (Judras, Mahavrsas and Vahlikas in the North- 
West were not less known than the Angas and Magadhas in the east. 
In the 15th Book of the Atharva-veda called Vratya-kanda* the 
Vratyas have been greatly extolled. Thus we read :— 
“He, in whose house a learned Vratya puts up for a single night, 
acquires mastery over all the pious people of this world. He, in whose 
house he resides for two nights, becomes chief among all the pious 
people of the sky. He earns all the virtues of heaven, in whose house a 
learned Vratya resides for three nights. He is certainly destined to be 
supreme among the virtuous of the virtuous, in whose house the learned 
Vratya becomes guest for four nights. He will certainly gain immeasur¬ 
able virtue, in whose house the Vratya will live for innumerable 
nights.” 
The Vratya Kandaf of the Atharvaveda ends thus :— 
“I bow down to the Vratya in the west by day aud to the Vratya 
in the east by night.” 
Magadhas or the people of Behar have been repeatedly mentioned 
in the Vratya Kanda. As the Vratya people referred to in the Vedic 
literature cannot, owing to distance of time, be identified with the 
people of modern India I shall illustrate my theory of the Vratya 
castes by references to the Manusamhita, &c., the present recensions of 
which were, according to scholars, prepared about the 1st century A.D. 
* ^ strar 11 \ n 
Sr Bftreri wax xsfarrcnSta wxw it * if ' 
stwt fetTfrX ^fcT n ^ || 
Sr xswfVw tot t a u 
Sr tot ^fprrrerpR 11 < n 
cr^ fSr^ u ® n 
Sr TOfii tot n « g 
cr^ (Srpt wTr*rtnrfx;f«cn n 1u 
tot TjvNrrerpfa Sprm*! n \» g 
vi afro, h sugarra) n 
t ^r xrtsft vrv *r»ft tot^ 11 ^ n (\v. I =)» 
