Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c15.47

c15.47

The prisons had factories which employed penal labour. The State Spinning House was both a Spinning and Weaving Mill which manufactured yarns of cotton, silk, and jute; clothing; mail armour (*varma*); ropes; blankets (*āstaraṇa*); and curtains (*prāvaraṇa*). It employed the labour of women who were helpless and even supplied purdah women with orders for spinning yarn through its women-employees.