| Summary: | This study assesses the plausibility of a German ethnographic concept known as the <em>Männerbund</em>, a social institution among tribal societies, when applied to aspects of religion in ancient societies, particularly those of Greece, Germany, India, Iran, Ireland, Rome, and Scandinavia. These have been selected because they all possess languages descended from Proto-Indo-European (PIE), a reconstructed ancestor language. The aim is to demonstrate that comparative religion using data from the selected societies can explain aspects of the Vedic Vrātyas, and, in so doing, make plausible the existence of a religious institution that existed before speakers of PIE migrated into the areas in which the selected societies developed. Chapter One surveys previous scholarship on the Indian Vrātyas, a religious institution in Vedic India. Chapter Two analyses the origin of the concept of the Männerbund. Chapter Three assesses the plausibility of a variety of scholarly accounts positing the existence of <em>Männerbund</em> institutions in Germany, Scandinavia, and Ireland. It looks particularly at the evidence for religious rituals of initiation. It finds that the evidence is generally insufficient for previous claims about the <em>Männerbund</em> and initiation rituals connected with it, but that the phenomenon of weapon dancing does appear to have been part of ancient religious practices in Germany and Scandinavia. It also discusses the possibility of a parallel tradition of sacred numerology relating to the number 432,000, but finds this likely to be a coincidental product of the mathematical constraints present. Chapter Four assesses the plausibility of the claim that ancient Iranian religious texts contain references to <em>Männerbund</em> institutions engaging in religious practices that are analogous to those of the Vedic Vrātyas. It also analyses the myth of Apālā in Vedic literature. Iran proves to have no credible evidence of the posited religious institutions. Chapter Five analyses a range of Roman religious rituals and priesthoods. Some of these are found to have good prospects of being used in the comparative endeavour, including aspects of the October Horse ritual, the Luperci and the Lupercalia, and the Salii. The Fratres Arvales are found to have insufficient surviving evidence to be useful for comparison. Chapter Six discusses the Greek Kouretes. It rejects purported evidence of youth initiation, but finds that a remarkable priesthood with divine beings believed to be their counterparts existed, with relevant features to those found in Vedic India. Chapter Seven discusses the Vedic Vrātyas, together with the evidence for the rituals of the <em>vrātyastoma</em> and <em>mahāvrata</em>, and the deities known as Maruts. It is found that these are highly comparable to evidence from Greece and Rome. The concluding section argues that the evidence from Greece, India, and Rome is sufficiently similar in nature to make it likely that the institutions in each society were indeed derived from distant common origins. A hypothetical progenitor institution is described, anchored in the textual evidence discussed in the study.
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