10-08-2005, 09:34 PM
The vratya stoma is described in the first 4 sections of the 17th chapter of the pa~nchaviMsha brAhmaNa. The stoma has been described as a means of admitting non-Aryans to the Aryan fold but this is not clear from the vedic text describing the rite. A summary of the brAhmaNa discourse is given below:
The vrAtya stoma's frame tale goes thus. The devas went to svargo lokaH. The gaNas of the dreaded The god were left behind leading the life of vrAtyas. They reached the spot where the devas had ascended to svarga but they neither found the stoma nor the Chandas by means of which they may join them. Then the devas told the maruts deliver the attendents of rudra the needful so that they may reach us. To them the maruts delivered that stoma with the 16 mantra chant which is the cryptic anuShTubh.
Those who lead the life of a vrAtya are verily destitute or left behind because they neither practise the vedic study nor farming nor trade. It is by the stoma of the maruts that they prosper. For the rite he deploys the chant " adha hi indra girvaNaH: For o indra who delights in the chants`(RV8.7-9)" which are in the kakubh Chandas. But the kakubh is an unequal Chandas for the sAmans. So he shall perform the shifting transformation on unequal padas of the kakubh to get the equalized verses for the song to the maruts known as the dyautAna sAman. When the gR^ihasta chants the nidhana of this song it must end in the word "indra" musically uttered. The vrAtyas would be excluded from the prosperity if they were to use this nidhana. Hence they must replace indra in the nidhana of the song with the anirukta nidhana which goes thus with the following mystic stobha: au^2 3 ho^1 2345 ; i.e. falling from the highest pitch to the second last svara of the regular saman scale.
The sacrificial oblations to the maruts may be made with the series of chants with 4 stomas with 16 mantras. The structure of the chants in the rite with respect to the the number of mantras they contain is thus: 9, 15, 15, 15, 16 : 16, 17, 17, 17, 16 : 16, 21
This rite is supposed to expitiate those who have eaten abhojya food as though the brAhmaNa's food, those who speak in corrupted sanskrit, who have perform unjust acts, who despite being vrAtyas speak in Chandas.
Thus, while there is an element of prAyshchitta in the prathama vrAtya stoma does not seem to be for non-Aryans.
The vrAtya stoma's frame tale goes thus. The devas went to svargo lokaH. The gaNas of the dreaded The god were left behind leading the life of vrAtyas. They reached the spot where the devas had ascended to svarga but they neither found the stoma nor the Chandas by means of which they may join them. Then the devas told the maruts deliver the attendents of rudra the needful so that they may reach us. To them the maruts delivered that stoma with the 16 mantra chant which is the cryptic anuShTubh.
Those who lead the life of a vrAtya are verily destitute or left behind because they neither practise the vedic study nor farming nor trade. It is by the stoma of the maruts that they prosper. For the rite he deploys the chant " adha hi indra girvaNaH: For o indra who delights in the chants`(RV8.7-9)" which are in the kakubh Chandas. But the kakubh is an unequal Chandas for the sAmans. So he shall perform the shifting transformation on unequal padas of the kakubh to get the equalized verses for the song to the maruts known as the dyautAna sAman. When the gR^ihasta chants the nidhana of this song it must end in the word "indra" musically uttered. The vrAtyas would be excluded from the prosperity if they were to use this nidhana. Hence they must replace indra in the nidhana of the song with the anirukta nidhana which goes thus with the following mystic stobha: au^2 3 ho^1 2345 ; i.e. falling from the highest pitch to the second last svara of the regular saman scale.
The sacrificial oblations to the maruts may be made with the series of chants with 4 stomas with 16 mantras. The structure of the chants in the rite with respect to the the number of mantras they contain is thus: 9, 15, 15, 15, 16 : 16, 17, 17, 17, 16 : 16, 21
This rite is supposed to expitiate those who have eaten abhojya food as though the brAhmaNa's food, those who speak in corrupted sanskrit, who have perform unjust acts, who despite being vrAtyas speak in Chandas.
Thus, while there is an element of prAyshchitta in the prathama vrAtya stoma does not seem to be for non-Aryans.