Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c18.s5.t3.8

v2.c18.s5.t3.8

The provinces where villeinage and serfdom prevailed during the later ages were, according to Ellis, the Toṇḍaimaṇḍala, the region round the banks of the Kāvēri, Malabar and Kanara. In these last two provinces "where a community of village rights is unknown, and lands, consequently, are never held jointly, all slaves, who in those countries constitute the great body of the laborers, are private property." As regards the sale of a whole family of slaves recorded in the two inscriptions given above, Ellis continues: "The Hindu law in permitting slavery is marked by a humane attention to the condition of the slave, all its provisions tending to ameliorate the state and to prevent oppression on the part of the master; the law in this respect is seconded by the practice, and it will accordingly be observed that the slaves are transferred by this and the following deed, as a family, in which mode, also the purchaser ought to sell them, not separately: this practice, which tends greatly to improve the condition of the slave casts, as it prevents the inhuman separation of near relations, the liability to which is the greatest curse of slavery, appears formerly to have been universal..but it is feared that like many other praiseworthy customs of antiquity, it has now in many districts fallen into disuse".