Social and Rural Economy of Northern India, cir. 600 B.C.–200 A.D. v2.c35.55

v2.c35.55

Another evil feature was that the female slaves were very often kept for enjoyment, avowed or surreptitious. Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish them from prostitutes and concubines. In the primitive concepts of social ethics this was the natural destiny for the wives and daughters of one slain in battle or made captive in war. Instances of slave women bearing children to their masters come from the later Vedic literature down to the Arthaśāstra and the Jātakas (Ait. Br. II. 19; Kauṣ. Br. XII. 3; Arth. III. 13; Jāt. IV. 145, 298). The king's female slaves are to serve as bath-room attendants, shampooers, bedding room servants, washer-women and flower garland-makers (snāpaka-samrāhak’-āstaraka-rajaka-mālākārakarma dāsyaḥ kuryuḥ, Arth. I. 21). Prostitutes and female slaves incapable of providing enjoyment to king (bhagnabhogā) are to be employed in the stores or kitchen. Female slaves are trained along with royal prostitutes in the arts of entertainment and feminine wiles (II. 27). In the public taverns it was not an extraordinary spectacle to find a dasi with blooming youth and beauty (peśalarūpā) lying in intoxication with her master (II. 25). This was the natural social consequence emerging out of the maintenance of large number of women slaves within the household.¹