NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF STUDY AND RESEARCH IN

LAW, RANCHI

HISTORY PROJECT

Slavery in Medieval India

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

Ms SREEMOYEE SARKAR NAME: SHREYA

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR SEMESTER: I

HISTORY SECTION: A

ROLL NO: 1255

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Shreya

Ms Sreemoyee Sarkar

History

10 December 2021

Slavery in Medieval India

Slavery’s history is a vast and unfathomable tale of tragedy and evil that spans centuries

and nations. It is very difficult to determine the precise year that slavery began. Slavery has been

a socio-economic system under which certain persons known as slaves were deprived of the

personal freedom and compelled to perform labour or service. However, there is no popular

concept which is approved unanimously in Indian context. If someone goes through a bird’s eye

view in Medieval India (800 AD – 1700AD) literature, he is certainly bound to pass through

passing references dealing with slavery.

• The present research work examines the historical background and development of

slavery as an institution during the time of medieval India. My main aim is to examine various

sources of slavery and work of slaves during the medieval era.

• This research paper also sheds light on the slave trade. The growth of slave trade was a

significant development in early medieval period. Apart from sources of slavery, I will be

examining Slave Trade during medieval India Period. The Conclusion part sums up all the

chapters and includes the findings of the present research work.

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SOURCES OF SLAVERY

Slavery works as an institution based on the relationship of dominance and submission, where by

one person owns another and can extract labour or services from that person. Slavery originated

during later Vedic period and kept on continuing throughout the realm in various phases up to

12th century. In the Rig-Veda, there are numerous references which talk of the struggle between

the dasas and the Aryan. From the early Buddhist works we know that slavery was prevalent

from c.600-300B.C in India (Singh 19). Wars, famines, poverty, abductions etc. had been some

of the factors in the supply of slaves for sale.

Wars. In the War of the foreign expansion of Islam, many people who became prisoners of war

lost their personal freedom and liberty and was pushed into slavery. The Medieval India era

witnessed many regional wars as well as foreign invasions. After the Harsha death there was a

state of turmoil and the capital city Kanauj became the centre for tripartite struggle which

involved three major dynasties i.e. the Palas, the Gurjara- Pratiharas and the Rashtrakutas (Singh

26). Also, because of the invasion of Muslims like Mahmud army at the end of 10th century and

later Mohammed Ghori which opened up the Indian sub-continent for war and conflict. The

slaves in the period of Delhi Sultanate are the result of this war and conflict (Chen 225). During

these wars, people were captured and enslaved. From the plunder of Mathura and Kannauj,

wherein Mahmud Ghazni captured 53,000 peopke and enslaved them (Mehta 68). After the fall

of Kalinjar, Kutub-ud-din enslaved 50,000 Hindus (Smith 403). In 1357, Sultan Al ud-Din Khalji

dispatched Malik Kafur to carry out a massive expansion in the Daccan, with an estimated

number of "horses and slaves" becoming a prize, according to Barani, a Muslim historian of the

same age. According to Barani, Balban brought back a large number of slaves and livestock
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during his attack on the Doab region was so large that it caused the price of slaves in the Delhi

market to drop (Chen 225).

Selling themselves to Become Slave. Because of the strict hierarchy caste- system, people

belonging to the lower strata of the society were oppressed and exploited to the core. Inability to

repay debt and money scarcity in times of calamities which used to force people towards

indebtedness, used to force people to sell themselves as slaves. During the reign of Balban and

Khilji, many civilians who were not taxed were forced to sell themselves as slaves, and

according to Ibn Battuta, the Sultan Firoz Shah ruled that the jobless could be sold as slaves on a

voluntary basis (Chen 225).

Tribute or Gifts. During the medieval India period, gifts were also used to enslave people. The

habit of presenting gifts began in India during the Vedic period, when slaves were included as

part of the gift. Later gifts included land and villages, which culminated in the rise of feudalism

during the Satvahana period. These gifts were extremely essential in the early mediaeval period's

socioeconomic system. During early mediaeval India, it was standard practise to give slaves as

gifts. We find a mention in the Rigveda where Trasdasyu offering fifty slave girls to his father

Purukutas as dasis (Singh 37). In Delhi Sultanate period, in addition to handing over a huge

quantity of tributes each year, many of the vassal rulers that surrender to the Delhi Sultan will

also dedicate captives from all over the kingdom to the Sultan, particularly the young and

beautiful female slave.

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Work of Slaves

The work assigned to slaves can be classified into three types. Firstly, the slaves doing household

chores. Second, slaves indulged in agricultural and other productive work and third, those

indulged in non-household works. The female slaves were employed for various other purposes

like singing, dancing and the most beautiful among them served as concubines of the rich Amir

and Maliks, and in the royal establishments (Sen 203). Slaves were employed in menial jobs

such as sweeping the entrance gate, sweeping the roads, cleaning the latrine, throwing away the

night soil, cleaning the gutters and reservoirs, smearing the floor with cow dung, and cleaning

the internal parts of the body, according to noted historian R.S. Sharma. In terms of the early

medieval period, it is impossible to assume that they were solely used in impure works based on

the evidence gathered from the period's sources. In fact, as indicated in Karapurmanjri,

Vikramankdevcharit, and Lekhapaddahati, they worked as soldiers, in administration, and, last

but not least, in some other constructive undertakings (Singh 44). Slaves were typically

purchased for household service or for their special skills. In the documents of the

Lekhapaddhati, we find that the duties of the purchased slave girls included outside works, such

as cultivation, field works, thrashing, bringing grass, etc. along with other domestic works.

Skilled slaves were prized, and some climbed to positions of power, like as Qutbuddin Aibak's

servants. Many of them worked as artisans, while others served as the Sultan's personal guards.

The majority of slaves, on the other hand, were utilised for personal service.

SLAVE TRADE DURING MEDIEVAL INDIA

The regular trade of slaves developed in Buddhist period was also prevalent during early

medieval period. Egyptian and Greek merchants established the slave trade with India through
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sea which can be testified from the accounts of Eudoxos (Srivastava 124). The Delhi Sultanate of

India merely served to enhance the overland slave trade. Large-scale enslavement also shows

that a large need for slaves arose within India, with demand stemming from the Sultan's

establishment in Delhi and the new town-based Turkish ruling class, for whom settling in a

foreign place was a difficult and time-consuming job requiring enormous labour. Taking men as

captives was thus favoured over slaughtering them altogether (Bano 365). Muslim nobles and

military chiefs frequently choose able-bodied slaves from these slave markets to bolster their

armies and wage war to conquer the world. Muhammad Gours' acquisition from the Ghazni

slave market was owned by Qutb-ud-din Aibak, the founder of the Delhi Sultanate's so-called

"Slave Dynasty" (1206-1290). India bought slaves from Africa, the Malay Peninsula, and China in

addition to the Middle East and Central Asia (Chen 225).

Indian slaves were bought at low prices in Delhi and carried across the border to be sold

in the markets of Khurasan, Ghazni, and Bukhara, among other places. The mountain of

Hindukush is known as the killer of Indians, according to Ibn Batuta, because "the slave boys

and girls that are brought from the land of India die in large numbers there as a result of the

extreme cold and a great quantity of snow (Bano 316)." Political measures played a role in the

fall in slave shipments as well. Akbar outlawed not just the enslavement of captives, but also

the sale of slaves in 1562-63. Prior to this proclamation, the slave trade must have been

extremely significant, but it began to dwindle in the later years of Akbar's reign. We also see

some ethical progress and a dislike for slavery rising during the Mughal period. Even Badauni

(late 16th century) acknowledges his disapproval of an institution that had obtained Islamic

approval, and is pleased to note a reduction in the slave trade in India during his lifetime.
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Aurangzeb also made it illegal to transport Indian slaves to Persia. Despite some inflated stories,

the slave trade in the 17th century could not have been as extensive as it had been in the early

medieval period (Bano 318). There was also a counter movement of slaves from abroad into

India. Slaves of different nationalities, both male and female, were brought.

CONCLUSION

Many medieval Indian slaves were born as a result of conflict. In comparison to ancient India,

the status of slaves became more pathetic. The development of social economy and the further

refinement of the social division of Labour have also strongly promoted the transformation of

this status. Indian slaves in the Delhi Sultanate era seemed to have improved in terms of social

status and living standards, but from a social class standpoint, they were still oppressed and

exploited classes. It can be fairly said that due to certain decisive factors discussed earlier slave

trade emerged as a significant development in the institution of slavery. It became a source of

livelihood for a section of society while a profitable job for elite class. The trade formalities

were given legal shape by preparing the deeds of sales. Although a handful of slaves succeeded

in achieving their status and status changes, for the vast majority of slaves, they still lived at the

bottom of society, and they were still the object of exploitation.

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Works Cited

Yasvir Singh. “Slavery in early Medieval India.” 2002, Shodhgana,

http://hdl.handle.net/10603/113757

Zehua Chen. “The status and identity Evolution of Indian Slaves during Delhi Sultanate.”

SOSHU 2020, Francis Academic Press, UK., 14 May, 2020. Web of Proceedings,

https://webofproceedings.org/proceedings_series/ESSP/SOSHU%202020/SOSHU20046.

pdf

J.L Mehta. Madhyakalin Bharat ka Varshat Itihas. Vol. 1, Jawahar Publisher & Distributors.

Smith, Vincent A. The Early History of India. India, Atlantic Publishers & Distributors (P)

Limited, 1999.

Prakash, Om. Cultural History of India. India, New Age International, 2005.

Asit Kumar Sen. “ON SLAVERY IN MEDIEVAL INDIA.” Proceedings of the Indian History

Congress, vol. 19, Indian History Congress, 1956, pp. 202–05,

http://www.jstor.org/stable/44140837.

Srivastava, O. P. “SLAVE-TRADE IN ANCIENT AND EARLY MEDIEVAL INDIA.”

Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, vol. 39, Indian History Congress, 1978, pp.

124–36, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44139343.
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Bano, Shadab. “SLAVE MARKETS IN MEDIEVAL INDIA.” Proceedings of the Indian

History Congress, vol. 61, Indian History Congress, 2000, pp. 365–73,

http://www.jstor.org/stable/44148113.

Bano, Shadab. “INDIA’S OVERLAND SLAVE - TRADE IN THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD.”

Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, vol. 58, Indian History Congress, 1997, pp.

315–21, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44143922.