[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) › c17.52 # The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c17.52 The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c17.52 - **Language:** English ### [c17.52](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c17.52) Sometimes in our source the relation in which the slaves stood to their master is represented as a familiar one and their treatment as quite humane. The family of the Brâhmaṇa agriculturist in the Uraga Jātaka consists of six members; the Brâhmaṇa, his wife, his son, his daughter, his daughter-in-law and the female slave. "They all"—so it is said further (III. 162)—"lived together in harmony and amity." As, however, the son of the Brâhmaṇa dies and is burnt without a tear and without a moan, Sakka, disquieted by such conduct and forced to quit his heavenly seat, asks the slave, "My daughter, in what relation did you stand to this." "He was my master!" "Surely, he has at times molested and oppressed you and therefore you are glad at his death and do not weep." "O lord, don't speak so, never saw anybody like him; patient, loving, sympathetic was the son of my master and loved me as a child reared on the breast." To a similar familiar relationship between the female slave and the master, the Nânacchanda Jātaka (II. 428) also points; the purohita whom the king asks to demand a favour, asks, besides the members of his household, also the slave Puṇṇâ¹ what her desire is. And the slave desires, humble as she is, a mortar, a pestle and a sieve.¹ - [Previous: c17.51](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c17.51) - [Next: c17.53](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c17.53) - [Up: c17](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c17) ## Linked texts (1) - [Jātaka](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.khuddaka.jataka.154) — Pāli --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c17.52](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c17.52) · Pramāṇa