Attempts to identify, locate, and generally clarify the name “Vrātya,” as well as their social and religious role and localization, have been made many times, but such matters have not been completely resolved. Early scholars, such as Held and Hauer, considered the Vrātyas to be part of Vedic society, though a little tentively. As no direct identification has been detected, a number of other scholars settled on the hypothesis that the Vrātyas were outside of the Vedic fold or at least on the fringes of it. The scholarly community falls roughly into two categories: one studies the Vedic ritual texts, draws on the inconsistencies and changes in the rules, and practices to reconstruct the assimilation of Vrātya practice into the śrauta ritual; the other category, although studying material that is directly labeled Vrātya—material that was recorded later than the ritual texts—considers them heterodox. In the recent research, Pontillo and colleague drawing on the work of Hauer, Heesterman, Falk, etc., concur that the Vrātyas date back to pre–Rig Vedic Indo-Āryan culture, including that from geographical locations other than South Asia. They focused on possible traces found in that culture, though there is no explicit evidence. The clearest explanation of the name “Vrā́tya,” signifying a member of a sodality, is derived from vrā́ta, “sodality,” whose leader observes a particular behavior vratá, cf. Falk 1986 (cited under General Overviews), p. 17. The Vrātyas as a sodality were identified as a warrior band, mostly on the move. When they performed a ritual session (sattra) in secret in a wilderness spot, they would approach in a crouching position, holding on to each other, as they likely could not see in the darkness of the thicket. When they got up from the sattra, they would resume their accustomed wandering. They have been compared to the Maruts, who had for their leader Rudra. An early, but not explicit, resemblance is found in the Rig Veda, where Dārbhya is named the leader. (Cf. Rig Veda 5.61.17; the name Dārbhya can be taken as a clue for the comparison.) Dārbhya/Dālbhya, known also as the king of the Pañcālas and as a leader of a raiding expedition, is found in various texts. The Vrātyas’ religious aspirations were to reconnect to the divine, having lost access. It seems that they had hope. The gods to whom they appealed were Indra, Agni, and Savitṛ.
Vedic Philosophy and Swami Nigamananda