Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s18.308

v1.c3.s18.308

Since the Dāsas were in many cases reduced to slavery, the word Dāsa has the sense of ‘slave’ in several passages of the Rigveda.¹² Dāsī, the feminine, always has this sense from the Atharvaveda¹³ onwards. Aboriginal women were, no doubt, the usual slaves, for on their husbands being slain in battle they would naturally have been taken as servants. They would sometimes also become concubines; thus Kavaṣa was taunted with being the son of a female slave (dāsyāḥ putraḥ) in the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa.¹⁴