[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897) › c17.50 # The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c17.50 The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c17.50 - **Language:** English ### [c17.50](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c17.50) In Manu (VIII. 415), seven kinds of slaves are enumerated : those who are captured in the field (during war) (dhvajâhṛita), those who serve in return for maintenance (bhaktadāsa) those that are born in the house (gṛhaja), those that are bought (krīta), those that are received as gifts (datrima) those that are inherited from the father (paitrika) and those that are made slaves by way of punishment (daṇḍadāsa). If we exclude the bhaktadāsa as not belonging properly to the class of bondsmen and also the daṇḍadāsa, there remain four classes which reduce to the three mentioned in the Vinaya Piṭaka (Bhikkhunīvibhaṅga, Saṅghādisesa I. 2. 1), as we can put "those that are born in the house" and "those inherited from father" on one side and "those acquired by gift or purchase" on the other. Here these classes are distinguished: those that are born in the house, those that are bought with money and those that are captured in a war (dāso nāma anto jāto dhanakkito karamarānito). That the daṇḍadāsa mentioned by Manu in the last sentence is not mentioned here, must seem strange, as we have in the Jātakas an example of a slave robbed of his freedom as a punishment. The village superintendent (gāmabhojaka) of the Kulāvaka Jātaka, who has spoken ill of the inhabitants of the village before the king, is condemned to lose not only his property but also his freedom: the king makes him the slave of the village inhabitants (taṃ ca tesañ ñeva dāsaṃ katvâ I. 200). We also find "those that are acquired by purchase" and "those that are born in the house" represented in our text. A Brâhmaṇa is sent by his careless wife who pretends to be unable to do household work, to beg money that she may have a female slave (dâsî). The Brâhmaṇa begs 700 kahâpaṇas, a sum which he considers sufficient for buying a female or male slave (alam me ettakam dhanam dâsi-dâsamûlâya III. 343). The fraudulent slave Kaṭâhaka who deserts his master and whom we already know (p. 170), is "a slave born in the house"; he is born on the same day as the son of his master, a seṭṭhi of Benares, and is educated along with him. Of slaves captured in war, from which class in the oldest times the slaves were probably exclusively recruited, no mention is made in the Jâtakas; at least in the passages of our source which tell us of wars between neighbouring kings, no mention is made of prisoners of war; only of robbers (paccanta-vâsino corâ) it is mentioned in the Cullanârada Jâtaka that they plunder a village and capture its inhabitants and make them slaves (karamare gahetvâ IV. 220). - [Previous: c17.49](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c17.49) - [Next: c17.51](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c17.51) - [Up: c17](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c17) ## Linked texts (3) - [Jātaka](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.khuddaka.jataka.31) — Pāli - [Mānava Dharmaśāstra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.niti.dharma.manu.8.415) — Manu & Bhṛgu, Sanskrit - [Vinayapiṭaka](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.vp) — Pāli --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c17.50](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c17.50) · Pramāṇa