2: Ibit., ch. x. p. 66. The Chandala in one of the Jatakas is represented as "one born in the open air, his parents not being possessed of a roof; and as he lies amongst the pots when his mother goes to cut fire-wood, he is suckled by the bitch along with her pups."—HARDY'S Buddhism, ch. iii. p. 80.
Slavery.—The existence of slavery is repeatedly referred to, and in the absence of any specific allusion to its origin in Ceylon, it must be presumed to have been borrowed from India. As the Sudras, according to the institutes of Menu, were by the laws of caste consigned to helpless bondage, so slavery in Ceylon was an attribute of race[1]; and those condemned to it were doomed to toil from their birth, with no requital other than the obligation on the part of their masters to maintain them in health, to succour them in sickness, and apportion their burdens to their strength.[2] And although the liberality of theoretical Buddhism threw open, even to the lowest caste, all the privileges of the priesthood, the slave alone was repulsed, on the ground that his admission would deprive the owner of his services.[3]
1: In later times, slavery was not confined to the low castes; insolvents could be made slaves by their creditors—the chief frequently buying the debt, and attaching the debtor to his followers. The children of freemen, by female slaves, followed the status of their mothers.
2: HARDY'S Buddhism, ch. x. p. 482.
3: HARDY'S Eastern Monachism, ch. iv. p. 18.
Like other property, slaves could be possessed by the Buddhist monasteries, and inscriptions, still existing upon the rocks of Mihintala and Dambool, attest the capacity of the priests to receive them as gifts, and to require that as slaves they should be exempted from taxation.
Unrelaxed in its assertion of abstract right, but mitigated in the forms of its practical enforcement, slavery endured in Ceylon till extinguished by the fiat of the British Government in 1845.[1] In the northern and Tamil districts of the island, its characteristics differed considerably from its aspect in the south and amongst the Kandyan mountains. In the former, the slaves were employed in the labours of the field and rewarded with a small proportion of the produce; but amongst the pure Singhalese, slavery was domestic rather than prædial, and those born to its duties were employed less as the servants, than as the suite of the Kandyan chiefs. Slaves swelled the train of their retainers on all occasions of display, and had certain domestic duties assigned to them, amongst which was the carrying of fire-wood, and the laying out of the corpse after death. The strongest proof of the general mildness of their treatment in all parts of the island, is derived from the fact, that when in 1845, Lord Stanley, now the Earl of Derby, directed the final abolition of the system, slavery was extinguished in Ceylon without a claim for compensation on the part of the proprietors.
1: An account of slavery in Ceylon, and the proceedings for its suppression, will be found in PRIDHAM'S Ceylon, vol. i. p. 223.
Compulsory Labour.—Another institution, to the influence and operation of which the country was indebted for the construction of the works which diffused plenty throughout every region, was the system of Raja-kariya, by which the king had a right to employ, for public purposes, the compulsory labour of the inhabitants. To what extent this was capable of exaction, or under what safeguards it was enforced in early times, does not appear from the historical books. But on all occasions when tanks were to be formed, or canals cut for irrigation, the Mahawanso alludes—almost in words of course—to the application of Raja-kariya for their construction[1], the people being summoned to the task by beat of drum.[2]
1: The inscription engraven on the rock at Mihintala, amongst other regulations for enforcing the observance by the temple tenants of the conditions on which their lands were held, declares that "if a fault be committed by any of the cultivators; the adequate fine shall be assessed according to usage; or in lieu thereof, the delinquent shall be directed to work at the lake in making an excavation not exceeding sixteen cubits in circumference and one cubit deep."— TURNOUR'S Epitome, &c., Appendix, p. 87.