Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c5.t1.56

c5.t1.56

Four kinds of slaves are specifically mentioned: "Some are slaves from their mothers (*āmayadāsā*), others are slaves driven by fear (*bhayapaṇunnā*); some come of their own will as slaves (*sayam upayānti*), others are slaves bought for money (*dhanena kītā*)."¹⁰ All these and some more types of slaves are represented in our stories. Children of the slaves generally took, or perhaps had to take, the same profession in life.¹ Biraṇī of the *Nimi Jātaka* was a home-born slave (*āmāyadāsi*).² So was the fraudulent Kaṭāhaka.³ References to slaves bought for money are numerous.⁴ A Brāhmaṇa is sent by his careless and sinful wife, who pretends to be unable to do household work, to beg money wherewith to purchase her a female slave. The Brāhmaṇa begs 700 *Kahāpaṇas*, a sum which he considers sufficient for buying a male or a female slave,⁵ while in the *Vessantara Jātaka*, the high-born prince was sold for 1000 *paṇas*.⁶ Probably the price varied with the accomplishment of slaves. In the *Khaṇḍahāla Jātaka* we have a suggestive reference to persons becoming slaves voluntarily and out of fear.⁷ It also appears that captives and prisoners of war or raids also could be, and were, enslaved. We read, for instance, of some borderers raiding the country-side. It is there said that "having assailed a town, and taken prisoners, laden with spoil they returned to the border. Amongst the prisoners was a beautiful maiden who thought to herself: 'these men, when they have carried us off home, will use us as slaves; I must find some way to escape.'"⁸ In another story we hear of fear entertained for some captured kings who might be enslaved or brought to the border country and sold out as slaves.⁹ Slaves, especially female, are also mentioned as given away by way of gifts (*dānam*).¹⁰ We have instances of persons being deprived of their freedom as a judicial punishment and reduced to slavery. The village superintendent of the *Kulāvaka Jātaka*, for instance, who has slandered the villagers before the king, is condemned to lose not only his property but also his freedom: the king makes him the slave of the village people.¹¹ Elsewhere we read of ministers, condemned to death by the king for outright jealousy, being given away as slaves.¹² To the category of slaves belonged also the *paricārakās* and messengers (*pesse*) who were dependent upon their masters.¹³ The institution of slavery was so common that not only kings and wealthy people but the Brāhmaṇas and simple villagers and farmers also kept slaves in their families.¹⁴