vrā́ f. (fr. √ 1. vṛ accord. to some fr. a masc. stem vra) a heap, host, multitude (mostly vrā́s, pl.), [RV.] ([Sāy. i, 121, 2],‘night’, ‘dawn’), [AV.]; (accord. to some also, ‘a woman, esp. a wanton or lustful woman’)
(prob. connected with √ vṛdh), only in vrādhanta and superl. of pr. p. vrā́dhantama, (prob.) to be great or mighty (accord. to others ‘to urge, incite’), [RV.]
vrā́ta m. (connected with √ 1. vṛ, or with vratá and √ 2. vṛ) a multitude, flock, assemblage, troop, swarm, group, host (vrā́taṃ vrātam, in companies or troops; páñca vrā́tās, the five races of men), association, guild, [RV.] &c. &c.
the company or attendants at a marriage feast, [W.]
= manuṣya, [Naigh. ii, 3]
the descendant of an out-caste Brāhman &c. (= vrātya), [L.]
vrā́ta n. manual or bodily labour, day-labour, [ib.]
vrā́tya m. a man of the mendicant or vagrant class, a tramp, out-caste, low or vile person (either a man who has lost caste through non-observance of the ten principal Saṃskāras, or a man of a partic. low caste descended from a Śūdra and a Kṣatriyā; accord. to some ‘the illegitimate son of a Kṣatriya who knows the habits and intentions of soldiers’; in [AV. xv, 8, 1]; [9, 1], the Rājanyas and even the Brāhmans are said to have sprung from the Vrātya who is identified with the Supreme Being, prob. in glorification of religious mendicancy; accord. to [ĀpŚr.] is used in addressing a guest), [AV.] &c. &c.
vrā́tya mfn. belonging to the Vrata called Mahā-vrata (q.v.), [PañcavBr.], Sch.