Tribes in Ancient India c53.124

c53.124

From the Mahāparinibbāna Suttanta account of the Buddha’s death and cremation,⁵ it is evident that the Mallas belonged to the Kṣatriya caste; and they are repeatedly addressed by the Buddha as well as by Ānanda and others as Vāseṭṭhas or Vāsiṣṭhas,⁶—showing that, like the Licchavis, they belonged to the Vāsiṣṭha gotra. Like the Licchavis again, the Mallas are described by Manu (X, 22) as ‘born of a Kṣatriya mother and of a Kṣatriya father who was a vrātya,’ i.e. who had not gone through the ceremony of Vedic initiation at the proper age.