Slavery In Hinduism

1. Female Slaves in Hinduism

Difference between a wife and a slave,

📚Baudhayana Dharmasutra 1.11.21.2📚
Now they quote also (the following verses): ‘It is declared that a female who has been purchased for money is not a wife. She cannot (assist) at sacrifices offered to the gods or the manes. Kāśyapa has stated that she is a slave.”  (source)

The offspring born to a slave belongs to the one who owns her, rather than the one who engages in intercourse with her,

📚Manusmriti 9.54-55📚
If seed, carried away by rain or wind, germinates in a soil,—that seed belongs to the owner of the soil, and the owner of the seed does not receive the produce. This same law should be understood as applying to the offspring of cows, mares, slave-girls, she-camels, she-goats and ewes; as also of birds and buffaloes.”  (source)

Slaves can be used as Prostitutes in order to earn, by their owners,

📚Narada Smriti Quotations from Narada 8.9📚
It is by permission (of the owner) only that a female slave, cattle, or an estate may be enjoyed (by a stranger). He who enjoys that which had not been given up to him (by the owner), must pay for the (illegitimate) enjoyment of what he had been enjoying.”  (source)

Importing female slaves,

📚Agni Purana 223.23-29📚
Duties payable on importing female slaves into the country should be determined with a due regard to the country imported from and the time of the import. The duties payable on animals and gold shall be a fifth and sixth part of the original value, while a sixth part of their value should be paid as the kings dues on importing articles of perfumery, cereals, flowers, roots…”  (source)

Dancing slave girls,

📚Krishna Yajur Veda 7.5.10.1📚
They pierce the hide; verily they remove the sin of the (sacrificers). ‘Do not miss, do not pierce through’, he says; verily they now remove their sin. Slave girls dance round the Marjaliya fire with water-pots on their heads, beating the ground with their feet, and singing ‘This is honey.’ Honey indeed is the chiefest food of the gods; verily they win the chiefest food. They beat the ground with their feet; verily they endow the (sacrificers) with might”  (source)

Female slaves in Rig Veda,

📚Rig Veda 8.56.3📚
A hundred asses a hundred woolly sheep, a hundred slaves, beside garlands.”  (source)

📚Rig Veda 6.27.8📚
The opulent supreme sovereign Abhyāvartin, the son of Cāyamāna, presents, Agni, to me two damsels riding in cars, and twenty cows; this donation of the descendant of Pṛthu cannot be desroyed.”  (source)

📚Rig Veda 8.19.36📚
A gift of fifty female slaves hath Trasadasyu given me, Purukutsa’s son, Most liberal, kind, lord of the brave.”  (source)

We can get Apsaras (celestial nymphs) for gifting slaves to Brahmins,

📚Agni Purana 211.39📚
One who gives a maid servant to an excellent brahmin would reach the world of nymphs.”  (source)

According to the context, the word ‘slave’ would be more appropriate to use than the word ‘servant’ or ‘maid’, as in Sanskrit, the word used to designate both ‘slaves’ and ‘servant’ is identical i.e. ”Dasa” or ”Dasi”  (for more info check link)

📚Aitareya Brahmana 8.22📚
With this ceremony, Udamaya, the son of Atri, inaugurated Anga. Thence Anga went conquering everywhere over the whole earth, up to its ends, and sacrificed the sacrificial horse. This Anga, who was not defective in any respect (thence called alopanga), had once said, ” I give thee, Brahman, ten thousand elephants, and ten thousand slave girls, if you call me to this (thy) sacrifice.”  (source)

2. How does one acquire slaves

📚Manusmriti 7.96📚
Chariots and horses, elephants, umbrellas, wealth, grains, animals, women, all goods and baser metals belong to him who wins them.”  (source)

📚Manusmriti 8.415📚
There are seven kinds of slaves—(1) captured under a banner, (2) slave on food, (3) born in the house, (4) bought, (5) presented, (6) hereditary, and (7) slave by punishment.”  (source)

📚Narada Smriti 5.24-26📚
One appointed to manage the property (of the family) and to superintend the household, must also be regarded as a labourer. He is also termed Kautumbika (the general family servant). Thus have the four classes of servants doing pure work been enumerated. All the others do dirty work and are slaves, of whom there are fifteen kinds. One born at (his master’s) house; one purchased; one received (by gift); one obtained by inheritance; one maintained during : general famine; one pledged by his rightful owner;”  (source)

3. Forcible Abduction Of Maidens For Marriage

📚Manusmriti 3.33📚
The forcible abduction of the maiden from her home, while she is crying out and weeping, after having beaten and wounded and pierced, is called the “Raksasa” form.”  (source)

📚Vasistha Dharmasutra 1.34📚
If they forcibly abduct (a damsel), destroying (her relatives) by strength (of arms), that (is called) the Ksätra-rite.”  (source)

📚Gautama Dharmasutra 4.12📚
(If the bride) is taken by force, (that is) a Rākṣasa wedding.”  (source)

📚Baudhayana Dharmasutra 1.11.20.8📚
(If the maiden is wedded) after being forcibly abducted, (that is) the rite of the Rākṣasas (rākṣasa).”  (source)

📚Apastamba Dharmasutra 2.5.12.2📚
If the (bridegroom and his friends) take away (the bride), after having overcome (by force) her father (or relations), that is called the Rākṣasa-rite.”  (source)

📚Vishnu Smriti 24.24📚
If the damsel is sold (to the bridegroom), it is called an Âsura marriage.”  (source)

📚Yajnavalkya Smriti 1.61📚
a Rakshasa merriage [is that in which the maiden] is carried away by fighting ; [and) a Pis’acha marriage [is that in which] a maiden [is taken away] stealthily (while asleep or by stratagem).”  (source)

📚Mahabharata 1.102📚
The wise have directed that when an accomplished person has been invited, a maiden may be bestowed on him, decked with ornaments and along with many valuable presents. Others again may bestow their daughters by accepting a couple of kine. Some again bestow their daughters by taking a fixed sum, and some take away maidens by force. Some wed with the consent of the maidens, some by drugging them into consent, and some by going unto the maidens’ parents and obtaining their sanction.”  (source)

6. Sex With Female Slaves

📚Narada Smriti 12.78📚
Intercourse is permitted with a wanton woman, who belongs to another than the Brahman caste, or a prostitute, or a female slave, or a female not restrained by her master (nishkâsinî), if these women belong to a lower caste than oneself; but with a woman of superior caste, intercourse is prohibited.”  (source)

📚Katyayana Smriti Verse 723📚
When a master has sexual intercourse with his female slave and the latter then gives birth to a son, the master looking to the seed (which was his own) should make the female slave free from slavery together with her progeny.”  (source)

5. Slaves Cannot Own Property

📚Manusmriti 8.416📚
The wive, the son and the slave,—these three are declared to have no property; whatever they acquire is the property of him to whom they belong.”  (source)