The ORDER BY clause is invalid in views, inline functions, derived tables, subqueries, and common table expressions

You do not need to use ORDER BY in inner query after WHERE clause because you have already used it in ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY VRDATE DESC).

SELECT 
    * 
FROM (
    SELECT 
        Stockmain.VRNOA, 
        item.description as item_description, 
        party.name as party_name, 
        stockmain.vrdate, 
        stockdetail.qty, 
        stockdetail.rate, 
        stockdetail.amount, 
        ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY VRDATE DESC) AS RowNum  --< ORDER BY
    FROM StockMain 
    INNER JOIN StockDetail 
        ON StockMain.stid = StockDetail.stid 
    INNER JOIN party 
        ON party.party_id = stockmain.party_id 
    INNER JOIN item 
        ON item.item_id = stockdetail.item_id 
    WHERE stockmain.etype="purchase" 
) AS MyDerivedTable
WHERE 
    MyDerivedTable.RowNum BETWEEN 1 and 5