Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v2.c4.s4.24

v2.c4.s4.24

The Magadhas are evidently a people in the Baudhāyana and other Sūtras,⁹ possibly also in the Aitareya Āraṇyaka.¹⁰ It is therefore most improbable that Zimmer¹¹ can be right in thinking that in the Yajurveda³ and the Atharvaveda⁴ the Māgadha is not a man of Magadha, but a member of the mixed caste produced by a Vaiśya marrying a Kṣatriya woman.¹² But the theory of mixed castes, in any case open to some doubt, cannot be accepted when used to explain such obviously tribal names as Māgadha. The fact that the Māgadha is often in later times a minstrel is easily accounted for by the assumption that the country was the home of minstrelsy, and that wandering bards from Magadha were apt to visit the more western lands. This class the later texts recognize as a caste, inventing an origin by intermarriage of the old-established castes.