Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c11.208

c11.208

The comparatively detailed laws of Kauṭilya regarding slavery, not to be found in the Dharmasūtras, show that there was a considerable number of slaves in Mauryan India. Quoting from Megasthenes Arrian states that none of the Indians employ slaves.⁷ But this version is substantially modified by the account of Onesikritos, whom Strabo considers more reliable, for Strabo places Megasthenes among a set of liars.⁸ Onesikritos states that the custom of not keeping slaves was peculiar to the people in the country of Mousikanos,⁹ which included a large part of modern Sindh. According to him instead of slaves they employed young men in the flower of their age, as the Cretans employed the *aphamiotai*,¹ and the Lacedemonians the helots.² This suggests that even the Mousikanoi had a class of people who worked as the helots of society as a whole, not being owned individually. The practice bears out the brāhmaṇical theory that the śūdras are meant for serving the members of the three upper varṇas as slaves and hirelings.