Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c11.180

c11.180

But under certain special circumstances such as domestic distress or inability to pay fines or debts even the life of an ārya could be mortgaged.³ So far as these mortgaged people (āhitakas) are concerned, Kauṭilya lays down a number of liberal rules. It is provided that his kinsmen shall redeem the pledged person as soon as possible. He cannot be employed in impure work. If a pledged woman attends on her master while bathing naked, or if the master violates her chastity or abuses or hurts her, he shall not be entitled to the value of that woman, which will automatically secure her freedom. In the case of rape with a pledged young woman, the master shall not only forfeit the purchase value, but also pay a certain amount (śulka) to her and twice the amount (of the śulka) to the government. If the master has illicit connection with a pledged woman slave working as a nurse, he shall be punished with the first amercement. In the same context it is stated that use of violence towards a high born attendant shall entitle him to run away.⁴ This shows that the āhitakas also probably hailed from the higher varṇa. Unfortunately in the translation of the above passage Shamasastry does not make any distinction between the dāsa and the āhitaka, and indiscriminately uses the word slave for both of them.⁵ But that the dāsas and the āhitakas were two distinct categories of employees is clear from several statements of Kauṭilya. He prescribes that agreements entered into by the *dāsa* and the *āhitaka* shall be declared void.¹ He also states that the king should see to it that people pay attention to the claims of their *dāsas* and *āhitakas*.² Kauṭilya further lays down that a woman who yields herself to a *dāsa*, a *paricāraka* (servant) or an *āhitaka* shall be put to death.³ In all these cases Shamasastry recognises that the *āhitaka* is different from a *dāsa* and describes him as a pledged labourer or a hireling.⁴ Since in the chapter on the *dāsakarmarakalpa* the *āhitakas* are confounded with the *dāsas*, the liberal rules applying to the former have been taken as applying to the *dāsas* as well.⁵ But the above analysis would show that these rules of Kauṭilya apply to the pledged labourers, mostly women and presumably belonging to the āryan varṇas. The rules referred to above also imply that the ordinary *dāsas* could be assaulted, abused and employed in impure work by the master.