History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c13.s1.16

v1.c13.s1.16

In one important particular, however, in the seventh century the Persian court system appears to have been abandoned. I find no mention of eunuchs in the description of the royal household in Bāṇa’s Harsha Charita and elsewhere. The Varshavaras or eunuchs were undoubtedly employed by Chandragupta. They are mentioned along with the कञ्चुकोष्णीषिणः or Ushers by Kautilya, see his Artha Śastra. They are also mentioned in the Brihatkathā as employed in the palace at Pāṭaliputra. Of course the inhuman practice of castrating men for the use of the harems of kings was originally a practice of the Semitic peoples. From the kings of Babylonia and Nineveh the eunuchs were borrowed by the Persians and from them by Chandragupta (or his predecessors the Nandas) and succeeding Mauryas. But later the supply of such persons probably ceased and from the Guptas onwards they are not found in India. This moral reclamation of Indian courts continued down to the time of the Mahomedans who introduced eunuchs again but since the establishment of the civilized and more moral British rule, this pest has ceased to disfigure even the courts of Indian princes.