Dear Jijth,
Just to bring to your notice on who a Suta is. Manu smrithi chapter 10 gives an account of the people born of cross marriages. The person born of a marriage between Kshatriya male and Brhamin female is called as Suta. The job allotted to him is tending horses and driving chariots.
From
Manu smrithi -10
11. From a Kshatriya by the daughter of a Brahmana is born (a son called) according to his caste (gati) a Suta;
47. To Sutas (belongs) the management of horses and of chariots;
From this chapter of Manu smrithi it is known the people from cross marriages were not considered as pure varnas. Pure varna was determined by the attitude that gave rise to a specific capability to do specific jobs (swabhava becoming the cause of the swa karma). Pure varnas are 4 in number (Brahmin, Kshathriya, vaisya and shudra). When varnas got mixed, the swa karma will vary. Depending on the kind of the attitude supposed to have been inherited from the crossed varnas, the off spring is given a new name and allotted jobs in tandem with the inherited attitude. The offsprings were settled outside the Saraswathy basin. Saraswathy basin was occupied by pure varnas only. You will make this out from Varahamihira's Brihad samhitha.
There is a chapter on the countries of Bharat given in the shape of a Kurma, called Kurma chakra. There you come across the names of places and their locations. You will be surprised to see that most names of Manu's crossed varnas are by themselves names of places in Bharat. Example:- Nishada, Vaideha, Dravida, Abhiras etc. Nishada is one who is born to Brahmin male and a Shudra female. Vaideha is born to Vaisya male and a Brahmin female. Dravida is the offspring in Kshtriya lineage who has deviated from kashatriya dharma. In Brihad samhita his place is in the present day North Karnataka along the western ghats.
Thus the roots of all these clans can be understood from Manu smrithi. Among them, Suta has a special role. In chapter 84 of Shanti parva he is included in the council of ministers that a king must have. Bheeshma says that a king must have 4 Brahmins, 18 kshathriyas, 21 vaisyas, 3 shudras and one Suta as his ministers. The translation that you have is not exact on this particular verse. The Tamil translation that I have ( written 80 years ago by sanskrit and Tamil scholars of Kumbakonam) adds the other attributes given in that verse to Suta only. They are the 8 cardinal virtues and a sense of dignity, free from envy, conversant with the Srutis and the Smritis, humble, impartial, competent to readily decide in the midst of disputants urging different courses of action, free from covetousness, and from the seven dreadful vices called Vyasanas. Thus a Suta is prized possession for a king. Suta has played a vital role. Examples :- Sumanthra to dasaratha, Matali to Rama, sanjaya to Dritharashtra and krishna (though not a Suta by birth but only by work) to Arjuna.
- jayasree saranathan