History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.794

v4.c63.794

A person who is employed and given authority over all servants and also one who looks to the affairs (expenditure &c.) of the household is called 'adhikarmakṛta (or-kṛt), acc. to Nār. VIII. 24. All these four are called workers in clean occupations, while the fifteen kinds of slaves are employed in the lowest and dirtiest work (Nār. VIII. 25). The difference between the hired servants and slaves is this that the latter surrender all their freedom and themselves entirely to another, while the former, though dependent to some extent, do retain some freedom (Kāt. 715), but a brāhmaṇa was not to be a slave⁸⁴⁸. In very ancient times the master's liability for the acts of his servant does not seem to have been recognized. For example, Gaut. XII. 17 states that if cattle entrusted to a herdsman cause loss to crops, then the herdsman is to be held responsible (and not the owner who employs the herdsman). But Manu VIII. 243, Yāj. II. 161, Nār. XIV. 29 appear to hold the master liable to make good the loss caused by the herdsman's default. Vide Bṛ. quoted above under *vetanasyānapākarma*.