Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c7.16

c7.16

There were also a certain number of slaves (vallu) but not very many, being persons born so or who had become so in various ways, as by inability to pay a debt, by being sold as children, or cast into slavery by the king. Slavery was an economic institution and did not interfere with caste distinctions. A man could not possess slaves of higher caste than his own. Slaves could be freed or become free in various ways. Praedial and domestic slavery of a mild form seems to have been an institution in most parts of India from very remote times, although Megasthenes affirmed it "a great thing that no Indian slave existed."