Drona and Bhisma as borderline cases in brahmanical systematization: a Vratya pattern in the Mahabharata

Many remarkable contributions have been devoted to Vratyas during the last century, often including conspicuous surveys of passages selected from Vedic and Sanskrit Literature where the noun vratya occurs. In this paper all the MB occurrences of the term vratya have been collected, alongside some other passages which although they do not include the term vrātya can perhaps be evaluated as pieces of evidence of a veritable old vrātya-context such as has been reconstructed from Heesterman’s contributions onward, in particular through the new details and insights added by Falk 1986, reconsidered in the light both of the late-Vedic fresco recently painted by Bronkhorst 2007. Here the hypothesis of interpreting the Vratya-figure extolled in Saunakiya-AV XV as a kind of a Brahmacarin is retrieved, provided that it constitutes a permanent option meant to renounce the autonomous grhastha-life. It might have been an ephemeral compromise between the grhastha-path as an output of the ancient cyclical sacrificial pattern and the feared tapas-way, before the rising of the winning and lasting Brahmanical inclusivistic Varnasrama-system. The historical contact with the politically and socially frightening Magadha asceticism could have been a catalyst for a prompt strict division of roles and stages, in a fresh agreement between classes, and at the same time it could have been responsible for the hastened condemnation of the Vratya-ascetic-alternative. The pattern of this socio-religious evolution of North-India might thus be read in the main plot of MB, in the new state founded by the Panḍavas who might have come from that culture and have been trained by probably Vratya-seniors (Droṇa and Bhisma). As a paradigm they could have met their not recognized half-brother Karna, whose life is connected to the Vratyas, Sūtas and ‘Magadhas’ every now and then. Furthermore some details matching between Vedic literature and the MB passages relevant to the Vratyas - e.g. in the context of the expedition of Drona’s pupils against Drupada and of the recognition of Drona by Bhisma on his arrival at the court of Kurus - seem to have photographed the mentioned transition from the pre-brahmaṇical vratya system to the brahmanical distinction between the first two classes. Dubrovnik Dicsep 5 (2008)