Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c18.s5.t2: B. Slavery in Pre-Vijayanagara Times
Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c18.s5.t2
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B. Slavery in Pre-Vijayanagara Times
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When and how it originated in the south, it is difficult to decide, although it is not improbable that in the course of the fusion between the Aryans and the earlier people of the land, somewhere in the dawn of Indian history, the divergence of race coupled with the vicissitudes of war may have brought about a marked difference between the old inhabitants and the new-comers, resulting in the institution of slavery in southern India. This is, we admit, a debatable question. What we are concerned with is the fact that in southern India the people who strongly suggest the idea of slavery are the Paraiyans of the Tamil land and the Holeyas of the Karṇāṭaka. While describing the castes in Vijayanagara, it was remarked that we had insufficient data by which we could decide when these people were relegated to the rank of untouchables. Mr. Srinivasa Aiyangar's interesting remarks on the degradation of a subdivision of Paraiyans called *Ulavu* to the position of slaves may be read in this connection.¹ As regards the Holeyas we note, in addition to the observations we made about their having been taxed in the early centuries, that an inscription dated A. D. 1205 speaks of a tax levied on the children of the Holeyas in the Karṇāṭaka. The Great Master of Robes, Herugana... chaya, when collecting the *bāla-paṇa* (?child tax) of the Holeyas of Sāgatavaḷḷi, granted it for a perpetual lamp for the god Lakshmī-Nārāyaṇa of the locality.² This inscription does not suggest slavery so conclusively as other epigraphs which mention the *besa-vaga* or bond-servant in the Karṇāṭaka. But it is interesting to observe that these bond-servants did not belong to the Paraiyan community. When the *Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara* Haiva Boppa Dēva and Chahārasa Bammarasa were fighting with one another in the plain of Kuppaṭūr, the bond-servant (*besa-vaga*) of the Thousand, Nambiya Kēśiga, killed many but died in the end.³ The hunter Hariyava Seṭṭi's bond-servant (*besa-vaga*) the Kuḷiyateppa blacksmith Malōja's son Bomōja having gone to a hunt in A. D. 1249, stabbed a boar which charged him with his dagger but died like a hero.⁴ Both these events took place in the times of the Yādava kings.
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¹ Srinivasa Aiyangar, *Tamil Studies*. pp, 89-90.
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² E. C., V., P. I., Cn. 181, p. 204.
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³ E. C., VIII., Sb. 255, p. 39.
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⁴ *Ibid.*, Sb. 340, p. 60.
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Tamil history records the sale of human beings in the thirteenth century. Two inscriptions of Rājarāja III, dated in the third year and the twenty-fourth year of his reign, (i.e., in A.D. 1218-19 and A.D. 1239-40 respectively) found at Vēdāraṇyam in the Tanjore district, record the sale to the temple of five men and five women and their relations(?) for a price of 1,000 kāśu, by a certain Ariyan Piḻchan alias Edirili Śōḻa Gaṅgaiṇāḍāḻvaṉ, who was apparently doing police duty in the west of the district in which Vēdāraṇyam was situated. He refers to the five men who had been made over to the temple as slaves by his master (mudaliār).¹
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¹ *Ep. Report* for 1905, p. 46. ² *E. C.*, VIII., Sb. 258, p. 40. ³ *E. C.*, V., Bl. 75, pp. 62-63. op. cit. See Burnell's ed. of Dāyavibhāga. "If there are many such slaves, they are to be distributed in equal shares; such is the rule regarding slaves". *Dāyavibhāga*, p. 51. ⁴ Major, *India*, p. 31; Sewell, *For. Emp.*, p. 87.