Tribes in Ancient India c28.13

c28.13

The Purāṇas seem to represent the Ambaṣṭhas as Kṣatriyas, descended as they were from Uśīnara; and, as we have seen, the *Mahābhārata* refers to their King Śrutāyuḥ as ‘the best of Kṣatriyas’. But the evidence of Smṛti literature seems to point to their mixed origin. According to the *Gautama-Dharmasūtra* (IV, 16), children born of wives of the next, second or third lower castes become Sabarnas, Ambaṣṭhas, Ugras, Niṣādhas, Dauṣyantas or Pāraśaras. The Ambaṣṭhas would thus be descendants of Brāhmaṇas by Kṣatriya, Vaiśya or Śūdra wives. In the *Ambaṭṭha Sutta*,¹ an Ambaṭṭha (= Ambaṣṭha) is called a Brāhmaṇa; but, according to the Jātakas,² the Ambaṣṭhas were farmers, while Manu describes them as a people who practised the art of healing.³ S. N. Mazumdar thinks⁴ that ‘they were a tribe of Brahma Kṣatriyas’ (i.e. Brahmins by descent but warriors by profession); while Ray Chaudhuri⁵ is of the opinion that they were a ‘tribe who were at first mainly a fighting race, but some of whom took to other occupations, viz. those of priests, farmers, and, according to the Smṛti writers, physicians’.