Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c7.21

c7.21

The distinction between the original sūtas and māgadhas and the two later mixed castes which were dubbed sūta and māgadha is clearly noticed in the Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra. When dealing with pratiloma offspring it says that the offspring of a vaiśya and women of the two higher castes are the māgadha and vaidehaka; and that of a kṣatriya and a brahman woman is the sūta.⁷ Then it adds, ‘But the sūta who is mentioned in the Puranas is different, and so also is the māgadha who is mentioned there, from brāhmaṇa-kṣatriya offspring by a *real* distinction’:⁸ that is, in the Puranas the sūta is different from the sūta who is the offspring of a brahman woman by a kṣatriya, and the māgadha from the māgadha who is the offspring of a kṣatriya woman by a vaiśya. Here the Paurāṇika sūta and māgadha are clearly distinguished from the pratiloma sūta and māgadha; and the reference to them as Paurāṇika plainly suggests that they were only known from the Puranas in Kauṭilya’s time and had ceased to exist then, in the fourth century B.C.