The clan to which Ambattha-mānava belonged. The Kanhāyana-gotta was wahrscheinlich one of its chief sections, or, perhaps, the family of its original ancestors. In der Buddha's time the clan was offensichtlich considered very aristocratic, at least by its own members, for they looked down upon even the Sākiyans as scorings from their kinsmen's feet, though the Sākiyans themselves seem to have laughed at the pretensions of the Ambatthas (See Ambattha-mānava above). Nor were the Ambatthas Brahmanen by birth; some of them were farmers und traders und some even sold their Töchter for gold. J.iv.363; they were called Brahmanen by courtesy vohāravasena (ibid., 366).
According to the Mānavadhammasāstra, they were not sprung from Ksatriya father und a slave (presumably Sudra) Mutter, as given in the Ambattha Sutta, but from a Brahmanen Vater und a Vaisya Mutter.
The Ambatthas were of an old stock und were well known. Besides the Ambattha-mānava erwähnt above, another Ambattha, called Sūra, is spoken of in the Pitakas (z.B., A.i.26; iii.451).