Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c8.192

c8.192

Of the number and nature of slaves in the later Ṛg Vedic period, references give only a vague idea. The vālakhilya mentions a hundred slaves, who are placed in the same category as asses and sheep.³ The word dāsa-pravarga in another later reference may mean wealth or assemblage of slaves.⁴ This would suggest that towards the end of the Ṛg Vedic period slaves were increasing in number, but there is no evidence of their being engaged in productive activities. They seem to have been in the nature of domestic servants attending on their priestly or warrior masters. These masters were usually warriors; only one reference mentions a priest Dīrghatamas as owning slaves.⁵ They could be freely given away along with the cattle.⁶ It seems that failure to pay debts resulted in the enslavement of the defaulter.⁷ But the very name dāsa shows that war was the most important source of slavery during the Vedic period.