A sun-worshiping group called Maga-brāhmaṇa appears in some Sanskrit texts. The religion of the Maga is similar to Hinduism. However, some of the customs of the Maga show a kinship with ancient Iranian religion. Therefore, the Maga is considered an ancient Iranian religious group that migrated to India.
The religion of the Maga and their Iranian origin have been studied mainly on the basis of two Purāṇic texts, the Sāmba-purāṇa and the Bhaviṣya-purāṇa. It is also known that a few Buddhist texts have short references to the Maga.
In this paper, I point out the difference between the Purāṇic and Buddhist sources in the reference to the Maga. This difference does not mean that the Maga in Purāṇic and in Buddhist sources are not different groups, but that the Purāṇic and Buddhist texts refer to the same group in different eras.
