It is generally believed that the word "dasa" in ancient Indian texts refers to slaves who were attached to their masters, could be bought and sold and performed various kinds of labor according to the master's wishes.
However, compared to the slavery system of ancient Greece and Rome, the slaves of the Mauryan period in India were mostly domestic slaves, and there were very few slaves directly used in production, and the slave population accounted for a small proportion of the total population.
Slaves had a relatively low status in Indian society and were not as harsh as Greek and Roman slaves under classical slavery, and they were relatively easy to be freed. There is no consensus on how much of a slave population should be counted as a slave society.
Between 80 and 50 BC, most of India entered the Iron Age. The spread of iron tools was mainly concentrated in the lower Ganges region, as only iron tools could exploit dense tropical wetland forests. The inhabitants of these areas have established an agricultural economy based on rice cultivation.
Centered on the middle and lower reaches of the Ganges River, a large number of cities emerged in northern India, which is known as the second urban revolution period in Indian history. Around these cities, 16 more powerful states and a number of smaller states emerged in northern India, some of which were monarchies and others were republicans.
In general, republics such as Shabien, Lizhampa and Panjara are located in the Himalayan foothills, in the upper reaches of the Ganges and in the upper Indus region, while the monarchies are concentrated in the middle and lower reaches of the Ganges.
Located in the most fertile area of the middle and lower reaches of the Ganges, Magadha Kingdom is the hub of water and land transportation in the Ganges Plain, controlling the largest iron ore resource in the South Asian subcontinent - Bihar Iron Ore, and its national power has developed rapidly. Based on Magadha, the Mauryan Empire conquered the northern kingdoms and expanded southwards to establish a powerful empire.
The class antagonism between citizens and slaves in ancient Greece was markedly different from the caste system in India. Although the soldiers and civilians of the conquered countries during the Mauryan Empire were not taken captive as slaves, in ancient India, the lower castes of the Shudras as a whole were exploited and oppressed by the upper castes, and were regarded as a kind of collective slavery similar to the Spartan "black labor".
Although slavery in ancient India was a variation of classical slavery, it was not the same as the Greek collective slave Herauth. In addition, the Shudras in India replaced slaves as the main labor force, and the caste system became a more effective way of organizing production than slavery.
Therefore, slaves who were engaged in production did not exist in large numbers in ancient Indian society. In addition, with regard to the system of slavery in ancient Indian society, the question of the origin of slaves was also raised.
In her writings, Thapa argues that the caste system eliminated the need for Indian society to keep large numbers of productive slaves, while the Shudras in India constituted the main labor force in agriculture and handicrafts, and that the caste system legitimized their oppressed status.
The price of slaves in the mid-to-late 1000s BC was very expensive, with an average slave worth 10 cents, while a hired laborer only needed 1.5 to 4 diminutions per day. The price of an ordinary slave is equivalent to the cost of employing 40 days of skilled labor, while the average laborer for the same period of time is only 100 small dollars.
Considering the additional costs associated with maintaining slaves, the risks associated with slavery, and the seasonal nature of agricultural production, which does not require year-round labor, it may not be more cost-effective to use slaves than hired laborers.
Thapa's explanation for the limited source of slaves was due to the existence of the caste system, and not all prisoners of war could become slaves. The difference between the upper castes and the lower castes cannot be ignored here either. The caste system not only made it unnecessary for society to produce slaves in large numbers, but it also limited the source of slaves.
The Mauryan period was ineffective for people who did not embrace the ideology of Brahmanism. The Greeks he refers to are not only the Hellenistic states bordering his north-western border, but also the Greek inhabitants of India.
Practically all foreigners or people of non-Indic culture are not under his legal control. This distinction between foreigners and Indians suggests that the rules governing slaves during the Mauryan period had strong cultural and religious overtones, and that this cultural and religious overtones were attached to the caste system.
During the Mauryan period, caste relations were not only economic antagonisms and different social divisions, but also included the establishment of intermarriage relations by family lineage, thus ensuring the stability of the various caste members.
In ancient Greece and Rome, slaves were used not only for agricultural production, but also for handicrafts in large quantities. However, in the cities of ancient India, guilds were established in the early days, and from the time of the Buddha in the 5th century BC, by the time of the Mauryan Empire, a consolidated social institution had been formed, controlling almost all handicraft production and commerce.
Guilds were originally a form of organization that developed from clans to castes, and their technology and means of production were inherited by blood. In order to consolidate their control over technology and the means of production, a number of institutions were gradually added, including strict intermarriage regulations. The guilds gradually became castes.
During the Mauryan period, handicraft guilds and merchant guilds occupied fixed blocks in the city, or concentrated in areas close to the source of raw materials, such as mines and forests. The Mauryan government exercised strict control over the guilds, collecting taxes through them. Due to the development of crafts and commerce, the guilds themselves were understaffed, so they hired workers and used slaves.
However, due to the guild's desire to conservative technology and monopolize the market, the guild was limited from absorbing apprentices from the outside. As a result, the guilds gradually tightened their control over intermarriages, eventually forming closed marriage groups. The monopoly of the guilds on handicraft and commerce, as well as their self-reproducing nature, limited the demand for slave labor.
The guilds have always been strong supporters of the anti-caste Jonaism and Buddhism. But due to their closed nature, they also join the system of caste, in which a lattice is embedded. Through internal unity and the support of Brahmanical ideology, the guild--caste organization also prevented its own members from being reduced to slavery.
