Sūta (
Sanskrit:
सूत) refers both to the bards of Puranic stories and to a mixed caste. According to ''
Manu Smriti'' (10.11.17), the sūta caste are children of a
Kshatriya father and a
Brahmin mother. And the narrator of several of the Puranas,
Ugrasrava Sauti, son of Lomaharshana, was also called Sūta. Authorities are divided on whether the bards were members of the sūta caste. Ludo Rocher points out that the use of sūta as a caste may have been separate from the earlier use of sūta to describe Lomaharshana and his son Ugrasrava Sauti. R. N. Dandekar states that the sūta caste is different from the narrator of the Puranas.
"Brāhmaṇyāṁ kṣatriyātsūtō prātilōmyēna jāyatē. Gajabandhanamaśvānāṁ vāhanaṁ karma sārathēḥ.29. Vaiśyadharmēṣu sūtasya adhikāraḥ kvacidbhavēt. Jātivi0 - kṣatriyāṇāmasau dharma kartumar'hatyaśēṣataḥ. Kin̄cica kṣatrajātibhyō n'yūnatā tasya jāyatē ॥ ३० ॥"
"In brahmin women, suta caste is born out of pratilomata marriage by kshatriyas. Elephant keeping and charioteer is their livelihood, they has no right in Vaishyadharma. It is written in "Jati Vivek" that they can do all duties of Kshatriyas, but it is a little less than the Kshatriya caste, it is the twelfth".॥ 29 ॥ 30 ॥ Jatibhaskara
Sūta is also mentioned as a class of people in the epic ''
Mahābhārata
The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kuruk ...
'', often charioteers. The foster-parents of
Karna, a character of
Kurukshetra War
The Kurukshetra War ( sa, कुरुक्षेत्र युद्ध ), also called the Mahabharata War, is a war described in the ''Mahabharata ( sa, महाभारत )''. The conflict arose from a dynastic succession struggle be ...
, were Sūtas. Hence, Karna too was considered as a Sūta.
Kichaka, the commander of
Matsya army, was a Sūta.
The two main occupations of Sūtas as per epic ''
Mahābhārata
The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kuruk ...
'' were:
#
story telling
#
chariot
A chariot is a type of cart driven by a charioteer, usually using horses to provide rapid motive power. The