Sūta
Who was "Suta" or "Soota ji"?
If you have read any scriptures or fasting stories of Hindu religion, then you must have come across the name of the mythological "Soota Ji". The reason is that Soota ji is perhaps the most famous speaker of Hindu religion. The reason is that no one else has spread the stories of the Puranas at the level he has. But who is this “Soota ji” actually?
Soota ji's real name was "Romharshan". He was named Romharshan because every pore of the audience was filled with joy after attending his satsang. He is called Soota ji because he belonged to the Soota community. His mother was a Brahmin and his father was a Kshatriya, due to which he was born as a Soota. However, according to another story in the Puranas, he was born from the fire of a yagya.
Once Emperor Prithu organized a great yagya at the end of which offerings were being made to all the gods. The Brahmins mistakenly mixed a part of Devguru Brihaspati's Havishya in the Somras offered to Lord Indra. When that future was thrown into the fire, the love of romance was born from it. Since he was born from the combination of Indra (Kshatriya quality) and Brihaspati (Brahmin quality), he was considered a "Soot".
When Maharishi Vedvyas composed the Mahapuranas, he was worried about how to save this knowledge. He had many disciples but no one could assimilate all those 18 Puranas completely. When Soota ji reached adolescence, he approached Maharishi Vedvyas in search of a worthy guru. Today it is believed that a person from Soot clan had no right to practice the Vedas, this is absolutely wrong. Because Maharishi Vedvyas accepted Romaharshan as his disciple. In his ashram, Soota ji became especially close friend of Shaunak Rishi, another disciple of Ved Vyas. Both of them are considered to be one of the best disciples of Maharishi Vyas. With his talent, Romaharshan memorized all the 18 Mahapuranas written by Vyas. Seeing this, Sage Vyas was very happy and asked Romharshan to spread that immense knowledge.
Thereafter, Romaharshan requested his guru Maharishi Vyas to make his son Ugrashrava his disciple. Seeing that Ugrashrava was as brilliant as his father, Vyas ji also made him his disciple. Romharshan had already studied all the Vedas and Puranas, he did penance to Supreme Father Brahma to gain more knowledge. Brahmadev was pleased and filled him with supernatural knowledge.
Romaharshan asked him that I have received the knowledge of all the Puranas from my Guru and you have also provided me with supernatural knowledge. Now how do I spread this knowledge? On this, Brahmadev gave him a divine wheel and told him to spin it and at the place where it stops, establish his ashram and spread this knowledge.
After receiving the permission of Lord Brahma, Romharshan started the cycle and stopped at a place called "Naimisharanya" which was the place of 88000 ascetics. At this very place, Lord Vishnu had killed thousands of demons in a blink of an eye (time taken to blink an eye). For this reason, that region was named Naimisharanya. Romaharsh established his ashram in the same holy place and started doing satsang every day. It is said that his style of storytelling was so interesting that even humans and animals used to come there to listen to him. At the same place he became famous by the name of "Soota Ji". On the other hand, his son Ugrashrava also became proficient by taking education from Maharishi Vyas. He studied all the Puranas more quickly than his father and, like his father, he started spreading that knowledge.
Once all the 88000 sages of Naimisharanya requested Maharishi Vyas to inform them about the complete stories of all the Mahapuranas. Hearing this, Maharishi Vyas said, why do you need me for this? My disciple in Naimisharanya is Romharshan who can narrate all these stories. All of you should make him sit on “Vyas Pad” and gain knowledge of the Puranas. On this the sages asked how a thread can be placed on the Vyas pad? Hearing this, Maharishi gave philosophical knowledge to everyone and told that ability does not come by birth but by action.
Hearing this, all the 88000 sages returned to Naimisharanya and requested Soota ji to sit on the Vyas throne and impart the knowledge of the Puranas. On this, Soota ji organized a huge Yagya session for 12 years, to listen to which his childhood friend Shaunak ji also came and took the post of Yajman. All the sages used to question Shaunak ji on his leadership and Soota ji used to answer. Saying this, a lot of time passed and Soota ji finished the story of 10 Puranas and started the 11th Purana. On the other hand, after hearing the news of the Mahabharata war, Lord Balram set out on a pilgrimage. While roaming, they reached Naimisharanya where Soota ji's Yagya session was going on. As soon as all the sages saw Balram ji, they all stood at their places and started greeting him and gave him a seat. But Soota ji Vyas, being seated on the throne, could not stand in respect of anyone other than God. He also gave rest to the story for a while when Balram arrived.
When Balram saw this, he became very angry. He thought that so many great sages welcomed him here but this person born in Soot clan insulted him. Thinking this, while sitting, he transformed a grass into a mantra and moved it on Sootaji due to which his head got separated from the torso. Seeing Soota ji being killed in this manner, the entire gathering was horrified. There was a terrible uproar.
All the sages reached Balram under the leadership of Shaunak ji and asked him, what did you do? We all had given the post of Vyas to Soota ji as per the orders of Maharishi Vyas but you killed him without knowing the truth. Now you have been accused of the sin of Brahmahatya. We suffered more loss than that because Soota ji had not yet completed the story of the Puranas. Now this knowledge will be lost forever.
When Balram ji came to know the truth, he became extremely sad. He held the feet of Maharishi Shaunak and said that he had committed a big sin unknowingly. You tell me the atonement for this. How can I complete this incomplete knowledge given by him?
On this, Shaunak ji said that you should call Soota ji's son Ugrashrava here because apart from Vyas ji, he is the only one who has the knowledge of all the Puranas. Hearing this, Balram immediately reached Ugrashrava Rishi along with Shaunak ji and apologized to him. They convinced him and brought him to Naimisharanya where Ugrashrava ji promised to narrate the story of the remaining 8 Puranas. Balram felt a little satisfied with this.
Before leaving for atonement, he again asked all the sages, tell me what else should I do for you before leaving for atonement? Then all the sages said that O Balaram, there is a demon named "Balval" in this forest who is the son of Ilval. He always creates obstacles in our Yagya and puts waste material in the Yagya Kund. Please protect us from him.
Hearing such a request from the sages, Balram ji fought with Balwal and easily killed him and freed Naimisharanya from the terror of the demons. After that he set out on a pilgrimage for atonement. Then Sootaa ji's son Ugrashrava carried forward his father's satsang and filled all the sages with the knowledge of the remaining 8 Mahapuranas.
Sūta (Sanskrit: सूत) refers both to the bards of Hindu 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 Romaharshana, was also called Sūta. Authorities are divided on whether the bards were members of the sūta caste.[citation needed] Ludo Rocher points out that the use of sūta as a caste may have been separate from the earlier use of sūta to describe Romaharshana and his son Ugrasrava Sauti.[citation needed] R. N. Dandekar states that the sūta caste is different from the narrator of the Puranas.[1][disputed ]
"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[3]
Sūta is also mentioned as a class of people in the epic Mahābhārata, often charioteers. The foster-parents of Karna, a character of Kurukshetra War, were Sūtas. Hence, Karna too was considered a Sūta. Kichaka, the commander of Matsya army, was a Sūta.
The two main occupations of Sūtas as per epic Mahābhārata were story telling, and chariot-driving
Notes[edit]
- ^ Mittal, Sushil; G. R. Thursby (2004). The Hindu World. Routledge. p. 103. ISBN 978-0-415-21527-5.
- ^ Bühler, Georg. "Vashishta Dharmasutra". Wisdom Library. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
- ^ Mishra, Jvalaprasad. Jati Bhaskara. p. 431.
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