History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c22.11

v2.c22.11

We have seen how the Gṛhya Sūtras speak of *dāsas* being employed to wash the feet of honoured guests. It appears that the ideal placed before the masters was to treat the slave humanely. Āp. Dh. S. II. 4. 9. 11⁴²⁵ says that one may indeed stint oneself, one's wife or son (as to food) if guests come, but never a dāsa who does one's menial work (or a dāsa and hired servants). In the Anuśāsanaparva⁴²⁶ it is stated 'one should not sell a human being who is a stranger; how much more one's own children'. In the Mahābhārata gifts of dāsas and dāsīs are very frequently mentioned. In Sabhāparva 52. 45, Vanaparva 233. 43 and Virāṭa 18. 21 gifts of 30 dāsīs to each of 88000 *snātaka* brāhmaṇas are spoken of. In Vanaparva 185. 34 Vainya is said to have given a thousand handsome dāsīs with ornaments on to Atri. Vide Droṇaparva 57. 5-9. Manu (VIII. 299-300) places a slave on the same level as one's son in the matter of corporal punishment 'the wife, the son, the slave, a menial servant, one's full brother—these when guilty of wrong may be beaten with a rope or a thin piece of split bamboo, but only on the back and never on the head and if a person beat them otherwise he would be punished as a thief.'