Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c13.104

c13.104

For the rest, the general condition of the slaves remained unchanged in the Gupta period. They could be beaten, put in fetters,⁵ and were considered unreliable.⁶ They had no status in law,⁷ and were treated as an item of property either to be owned in common⁸ or to be divided among the coparceners.⁹ Nārada and Kātyāyana repeat the dictum of Manu that the dāsa has no right to property,¹⁰ but Kātyāyana also states that the master is not entitled to that money which the slave gets by selling himself openly.¹¹