Suta (sūta)

A suta is a charioteer and bard, a mixed-birth class whose members drove warriors into battle and preserved the genealogies and stories of kings. The Mahabharata itself is delivered by one, since Ugrashrava Sauti recites it to the sages of Naimisha. Karna, raised by the suta Adhiratha, carries the label as an insult for his entire life, and the epic's use of it is deliberately ironic: the class that is mocked inside the story is the class that is telling it.