The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c17.127

v1.c17.127

Much more definitely still beyond the pale were the people of Magadha, which serves with Aṅga in the Atharvaveda as a symbol of a distant land. The man of Magadha is dedicated, in the account of the symbolic human sacrifice given in the Yajurveda, to ‘loud noise,’ suggesting that the Magadha country must have been the seat of minstrelsy, an idea supported by the fact that in later literature a man of Magadha is the designation of a minstrel. If, as has been suggested, the Kīkaṭas of the Rigveda were really located in Magadha, the dislike of the country goes back to the Rigveda itself. The cause must probably have been the imperfect Brāhmanisation of the land and the predominance of aboriginal blood, which later in history rendered Magadha the headquarters of Buddhism. It is significant that the Buddhist texts show a subordination of the Brāhman to the Kshatriya class which has no parallel in the orthodox literature. It is clear however that Brāhmans sometimes lived there, but that their doing so was a ground for surprise.