Slavery in Ancient India | History Optional for UPSC (Notes) PDF Download

References to Slaves

• Rigvedic Period: The earliest mention of 'Dasis' in the Rig Vedic texts, particularly in the Rig Veda Samhita, is seen in the context of offerings to sacrificial priests as part of 'Dana' (donation). This is highlighted in the “Dana Stuties” (donation hymns). During the Vedic period, it is suggested that Dasis were primarily intended for household purposes.
• Post-Vedic Period: In the post-Vedic period, references to 'Dasas' (male slaves) also emerge. These references indicate that the role of slaves expanded beyond household duties to include activities such as agriculture, trade, and even military service. This institution of slavery persisted into ancient times.

Various Categories of Slaves

• The Three Tripitikas identify eight types of slaves.
• Arthashastra lists five categories of slaves.
• Manusmriti and Naradiya Smriti both mention fifteen kinds of slaves.

Anyone from any varna (social class) could become a slave, including Brahmins. However, most slaves were Sudras. While there were female slaves as well, the sale and purchase of Brahmin women were prohibited.

Rights of Slaves

Definition of Slave Rights in Ancient Dharmasastra:

• The ancient Dharmasastra literature outlines the rights of slaves and their relationship with masters.

Rights of Slaves:

• Right to Earn and Right to Property: Slaves had the right to earn and the right to own property.
• Right to Inherit Property: Slaves had the right to inherit property.
• Limitations in Legal Rights: Slaves did not have the right to sue or give evidence, indicating a lack of legal rights.
• Right to Manumission: Slaves had the right to become free from slavery, although this was subject to the master's will.
• Path to Freedom: Generally, slaves who entered 'sanyas' (a form of renunciation) became free.
• Life Rights: Mastters could not kill a slave, indicating that they did not have the right over the slave's life.

Paths to Becoming a Slave:

• Self-Sale in Times of Crisis: Individuals could sell themselves into slavery during times of crisis, and they could also sell their family members.
• Prisoner of War: Individuals could become slaves as prisoners of war.
• Hereditary Slavery: A child born to slave parents automatically became a slave..

Slavery in Ancient India

Slavery During the Vedic Age:

• During the Vedic age, there were groups considered even lower than the Shudras, including slaves known as dasas(male slaves) and dasis(female slaves).
• Slaves were sometimes mentioned among gift items in dana-stutis, but there were instances where children born to slave women could rise to a higher status.
• The dasas and dasyus, conquered by the Aryans, were treated as slaves and Shudras.

Labour and Slavery:

• The household was the basic unit of labor, and wage labor was not commonly mentioned. However, the Rig Veda did acknowledge slavery.
• Enslavement could occur through war or debt, and initially, ethnic differences may have played a role in enslavement.
• Slaves, both male and female, typically worked in households and were not significantly involved in production-related activities. They were not used directly in agriculture or other productive tasks.
• Domestic slaves were more common, and there were instances of slaves being given as gifts to priests, mainly women employed for domestic purposes.
• Priests and princes employed women slaves for domestic service, although their numbers were probably not large. Throughout history, there was a notable difference in the experience of enslavement for men and women, with women often facing sexual exploitation in addition to labor exploitation.

Gifts of Slaves:

• Hymns in later Rig Veda books praised gifts of cows, horses, chariots, gold, clothes, and female slaves given by kings to priests.

Slavery during the Northern Black Polished Ware (NBPW) Period

• During the NBPW period, advancements and the use of force enabled some individuals to own large stretches of land, requiring a substantial number of slaves and hired laborers for cultivation.
• In Vedic times, cultivation was primarily done with the assistance of family members, and the concept of wage earners was absent in Vedic literature.
• However, the involvement of slaves and wage earners in cultivation became common during the time of the Buddha. Therefore, in the NBPW period, large plots of land were worked with the help of slaves and agricultural laborers.

References to Slavery in Texts (600-300 BCE)

• Various texts from the 600-300 BCE period contain numerous references to the existence of male and female slaves.
• The Digha Nikaya describes a dasa as someone who is not the master of himself, depends on another, and cannot go wherever he likes.
• The Vinaya Pitaka identifies three types of slaves: the antojatako(offspring of a woman slave), the dhanakkito(a bought slave), and the karamaraanito(a slave brought from another country).
• The Digha Nikaya also mentions a fourth type of slave, the samam dasavayam upagato, who has voluntarily accepted enslavement.
• There are a few references to the manumission of slaves.
• One rule of the Buddhist sangha was that slaves could not join until they were freed by their masters.

Instances of Resistance:

• Chakravarti identified two instances of resistance in the Buddhist canon.
• The first instance is a reference in the Vinaya Pitaka to the dasa-kammakaras of the Sakyas attacking their masters' womenfolk in the woods as an act of vengeance.
• The second instance is the story of dasi Kali and her mistress,gahapatni Vaidehi, in the Majjhima Nikaya. Kali was submissive and hard-working, believing that her mistress's calm demeanor was due to her own exemplary conduct.
• Kali decided to test Vaidehi by waking up late and ignoring her calls for three consecutive days. Vaidehi, unable to tolerate this, became increasingly angry and eventually attacked Kali in a fit of rage, proving Kali's point.

Slavery during the Mauryan Period

• Megasthenes noted the absence of slaves in India, but domestic slaves likely existed from Vedic times onward.
• The Arthashastra provides a detailed discussion of dasas(slaves) and ahitakas(those pledged to creditors when contracting a debt).
• Various types of slaves and situations of enslavement, both temporary and permanent, are mentioned.
• The Arthashastra discusses village labor, bonded labor, and slave labor.
• Slaves were found in the service of both private individuals and the state.
• Kautilya outlined rules for the treatment of male and female slaves and specified penalties for violations.
• Examples of penalties include:
• Punishments for selling or mortgaging a pregnant woman slave without maternity arrangements.
• Penalties for causing a pregnant slave to miscarry.
• The Arthashastra also mentions manumission(freeing) of slaves upon payment of a sum of money.
• If a dasi(female slave) bore her master a son, she would be released from enslavement, and the child would be considered the father's legitimate son.
• During the Mauryan period, a significant development was the employment of slaves in agricultural operations.
• Slaves were engaged in agriculture on a large scale, working on state farms maintained by the government.
• Slaves and hired laborers were employed on these farms, including war-captives from Kalinga brought by Ashoka to Pataliputra.
• The number of war captives (150,000) is considered exaggerated, but it highlights the scale of slave labor.
• However, the majority of slaves in ancient India were primarily assigned domestic work.
• The small peasant, occasionally aided by slaves and hired laborers, played a dominant role in production.

Ashoka's Rock Edicts:

• Ashoka’s Rock Edict 9 emphasizes courteous behavior towards dasas(slaves) and bhatakas(servants) as part of dhamma.
• Rock Edict 9 describes the ceremony of dhamma as including proper courtesy to slaves and servants, respect for elders, restraint in dealings with all living beings, and liberality to shramanas and Brahmanas.
• Rock Edict 11 refers to the gift of dhamma as the best of all gifts, which includes proper courtesy to slaves and servants.

Buddhist Texts:

• Buddhist texts mention dasas, dasis, kammakaras, and porisas working in households and on land.
• The terms dasa and dasi for male and female slaves are known from earlier sources, but kammakara, referring to someone who hires out labor for wages, is a new term.
• In post-Maurya times, in the republics of the Malavas and Kshudrakas, kshatriyas and brahmanas were granted citizenship, while slaves and hired laborers were excluded from it.

Slavery during the Sangam Age

• The Sangam texts describe the Yavanas arriving in their own vessels, purchasing pepper with gold, and supplying wine and women slaves to the natives.
• Agricultural operations were typically the responsibility of members of the lowest class (kadaisiyar), whose status was similar to that of a slave.
• In the second century AD, the renowned Chola king Karikala constructed a 160 km embankment along the Kaveri River, built with the labor of 12,000 slaves captured from Sri Lanka.

Slavery during 300-600 CE

• Forced labor (vishti) became more prevalent than before during the 300-600 CE period.
• The mention of vishti alongside taxes in land grant inscriptions suggests its role as a source of income for the state, akin to a tax paid by the people.
• The concentration of inscriptions referring to vishti in Madhya Pradesh and Kathiawar regions indicates its greater prevalence in these areas.
• The Narada Smriti provides a detailed discussion of slavery, listing 15 types of slaves.
• This enumeration surpasses that in the Arthashastra and Manu Smriti, consisting of elaborations or subdivisions of known types, including war captives, debt enslavement, and voluntary enslavement.

Slaves as Property:

• Slaves could be passed down to the descendants of their former owners along with other items of property.
• Slaves were primarily mentioned as domestic servants or personal attendants.
• A child born to a woman slave in a master's house was considered the master's slave as well.
• The Narada Smriti asserts that a slave can be pledged or mortgaged, and the master could hire out the slave's services to another.
• The Narada Smriti prescribes the amputation of the foot of a person found guilty of abducting a slave woman.

Manumission of Slaves

• The Narada Smriti addresses the manumission of slaves, stating that a slave born in the house, bought, obtained, or inherited could be freed only at the master's discretion.
• The ceremony of manumission involves the master removing a jar of water from the slave's shoulder and breaking it, followed by sprinkling parched grain and flowers over the slave's head and repeating three times, "You are no longer a dasa."
• However, ancient Indian society was not a slave society in the same way as Greece and Rome.
• The tasks performed by slaves in those societies were carried out by Shudras in India.
• Shudras were regarded as the collective property of the three higher varnas and were compelled to serve them as slaves, artisans, agricultural laborers, and domestic servants.
• Unlike Roman society, ancient Indian society did not employ slaves in production on a large scale.
• In India, the main burden of production and taxation fell on peasants, artisans, merchants, and agricultural laborers, categorized as Vaishyas and Shudras.