The clan to which Ambattha-mánava belonged. The Kanháyana-gotta was probably one of its chief sections, or, perhaps, the family of its original ancestors. In the Buddha's time the clan was evidently considered very aristocratic, at least by its own members, for they looked down upon even the Sákiyans as scorings from their kinsmen's feet, though the Sákiyans themselves seem to have laughed at the pretensions of the Ambatthas (See Ambattha-mánava above). Nor were the Ambatthas brahmins by birth; some of them were farmers and traders and some even sold their daughters for gold. J.iv.363; they were called brahmins by courtesy voháravasena (ibid., 366).
According to the Mánavadhammasástra, they were not sprung from Ksatriya father and a slave (presumably Sudra) mother, as given in the Ambattha Sutta, but from a brahmin father and a Vaisya mother.
The Ambatthas were of an old stock and were well known. Besides the Ambattha-mánava mentioned above, another Ambattha, called Súra, is spoken of in the Pitakas (E.g., A.i.26; iii.451).