The vratyas were a
class of itinerant ascetics who were priests of a non-Vedic fertility cult,
according to the Atharva Veda, one of the oldest Hindu religious writings.
Because there are no additional records, nothing is known
about them, although they were certainly outside the Vedic cult and hence
looked down upon.
Later on, the term was used to describe someone who has lost
their caste due to a failure to follow one of the requisite samskaras.
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