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The institution represented unfree labor with fewer rights, but "the supposed slavery in [ancient] India was of mild character and limited extent" like Babylonian and Hebrew slavery, in contrast to the Hellenic world. [32] The "unfree labor" could be of two types in ancient India: the underadsatva and the ahitaka, states Ishay. [32]
Slave trading in the Indian Ocean goes back to 2500 BCE. [3] Ancient Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, Indians, and Persians all traded slaves on a small scale across the Indian Ocean (and sometimes the Red Sea). [4] Slave trading in the Red Sea around the time of Alexander the Great is described by Agatharchides. [4]
Ancient historians who visited India offer the closest insights into the nature of Indian society and slavery in other ancient civilizations. For example, the Greek historian Arrian , who chronicled India about the time of Alexander the Great , wrote in his Indika , [ 226 ]
In the 16th century, Bukhara exported slaves to Central Asia, the Middle East and India. The Bukhara slave market was a destination for slave merchants from India and other countries of the "East", who came to Bukhara to buy slaves. [28] The slaves were exported from Bukhara to other Islamic khanates in Central Asia.
Slaves could buy their freedom, but their children still inherited slave status. Slaves were prohibited from wearing bronze or gold, carving their houses, eating from the same dishes as their owners, or having sex with free women—a crime punishable by death. Slavery was abolished in 1863 in all Dutch colonies. [119] [120]
Megasthenes states that there were no slaves in India, but the Arthashastra attests to the existence of slavery in contemporary India; [37] Strabo also counters Megasthenes's claim based on a report from Onesicritus. Historian Shireen Moosvi theorizes that slaves were outcastes, and were not considered members of the society at all. [38]
The ancient Hindu text Arthashastra states, according to Sharma, that Aryas were free men and could not be subject to slavery under any circumstances. [26] The text contrasts Aryas with Shudra, but neither as a hereditary slave nor as an economically closed social stratum in a manner that the term Shudra later was interpreted.
Qutb ud-Din Aibak establishes slave dynasty (Mamluk) later to be known as Delhi Sultanate, beginning 320 years rule over India (1206–1526). 1206 Raja Prithu defeats Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji , destroying his army of 12,000 with only about 100 survivors.