The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c19.s9.140

v1.c19.s9.140

The slave or servant (*dāsa*, *dāsī*) was an adjunct in all households able to command domestic service; but slaves do not appear to have been kept, as a rule, in great numbers¹, either in the house, or, as in the West, at mining or 'plantation' work. Their treatment differed of course according to the disposition and capacity of both master and slave. Thus we find, in the Jātaka, the slave, petted, permitted to learn writing and handicrafts besides his ordinary duties as valet and footman, saying to himself that, at the slightest fault he might get 'beaten, imprisoned, branded, and fed on slave's fare'². But of actual ill-treatment there is scarce any mention. Two instances of beating occur, and in both the victims were maids. One lies a-bed repeatedly (to test her pious mistress's temper)³; the other fails to bring home wages⁴. Presumably she had been sent to fetch her master's wage, or else had been hired out. But we do not meet with runaway slaves. Slavery might be incurred through capture⁵, commuted death sentence, debt⁶, voluntary self-degradation⁷, or judicial punishment⁸; on the other hand, slaves might be manumitted⁹, or might free themselves by payment¹⁰. They might not, while still undischarged, be admitted into the religious community (*Saṅgha*)¹¹.