The Mauryan Polity c5.s2.t6.11

c5.s2.t6.11

(b) Yājñavalkya, the author of the Smṛti, who studied his Yajurveda under Vaiśampāyana, was a contemporary of Sūta of Purāṇic celebrity referred to in the *Arthaśāstra*.¹ In dealing with Pratiloma marriages Kauṭalya defines Sūta as a son begotten of a Brahman woman by a Kṣatriya and Māgadha as a son begotten of a Kṣatriya woman by a Vaiśya. At the same time he takes care to restrict the application of his definition in the case of Sūta-Paurāṇika and Māgadha, the panegyrist, both sprung up from the holy sacrificial ground of king Pṛthu.² "It is certain that centuries must have intervened between Sūta and Kauṭalya before the latter could have believed in the works of Sūta as Purāṇas of archaic celebrity."³