Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v1.c18.s2.14

v1.c18.s2.14

Basāi, Slavery.—Slavery is to be found in successive stages of society of Europe, but we have no parallel in Rajwara (at least in name) to the agricultural serfs and villains of Europe; nor is there any intermediate term denoting a species of slavery between the Gola¹ of the Hindu chief’s household and the free Rajput but the singular one of basai, which must be explained, since it cannot be translated. This class approximates closely to the *tributarii* and *coloni*, perhaps to the *servi*, of the Salic Franks, “who were cultivators of the earth, and subject to residence upon their master’s estate, though not destitute of property or civil rights.”² Precisely the condition of the cultivator in Haraoti who now tills for a taskmaster the fields he formerly owned, degraded to the name of hali,³ a ploughman.