Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c5.t1.74

c5.t1.74

About the family of a Brāhmaṇa agriculturist, the *Uraga Jātaka* says: "With a female slave they composed a household of six, the Bodhisatta (Brāhmaṇa) and his wife, the son and daughter, the daughter-in-law and the female slave. They lived happily and affectionately together."² Thus the female slave was not considered as a different or outside person but one of the members of the household. A similar familiar relationship between the master and his female slave is pointed out in another *Jātaka* also.³ The family-priest, whom the king asks to demand a boon, consults, besides the members of his family, also the slave Puṇṇā, what her desire is. And the slave-girl, humble as she is, desires a mortar, a pestle and a sieve.⁴ Prince Sutasoma is courteous enough to accept the words of his slave with due honour.⁵ Sometimes the slaves were permitted to learn reading and writing and handicrafts along with the sons of their masters.⁶ We also find that the slaves often enjoyed their master's confidence, and sometimes were even appointed as store-keepers or guards of the property of their masters.⁷