Note 281 — LAW AND JUDICATURE.
W. A. (William Austin) Montriou translation
The Commentator thus explains and analyses the subject of servitude or working for others:
There are two descriptions of persons who serve. I. Those whose employment is of a respectable kind. II. Those whose employment is not so. The first division he subdivides into—1, the disciple; 2, the apprentice; 3, the workman; 4, the overseer.
The disciple is the student of the vedas; the apprentice is one learning an art; the workman is one who is paid for his work; the overseer superintends workmen. There are three sorts of workmen—1, soldiers; 2, husbandmen; 3, they who bear burdens.
II. The other and meaner description of employment is performed by slaves, scil. cleaning the house, cleaning away filth, &c.
Slaves, the Commentator subdivides, according to their origin and mode of enslavement, into fifteen classes, scil.
1. A born slave of the house.
2. A purchased slave.
3. One [otherwise] acquired e.g. by donation.
4. One obtained by inheritance.
5. One rescued from starvation during a famine.
6. One received in pledge.
7. One who becomes a slave to discharge a debt.
8. A captive in war.
9. One whose freedom has been lost by wager.
10. A volunteer slave.
11. An apostate from the condition of a pravajita or religious mendicant.
12. A slave for a prescribed term.
13. A slave for subsistence sake.
14. One enslaved by espousing a woman who is a slave.
15. One who has sold himself.