Publisher's Synopsis
The study of classical Greek slavery has been a major concern of historians since the nineteenth century. Considerable evidence is available both in classical literary texts and in inscriptions, and as a result there is now a sophisticated scholarly literature on the subject. Much less attention has been given to the forms of unfree labour that existed in historical Sri Lanka in the period before the arrival of colonial powers. Yet in Sri Lanka too there is evidence in literary texts and inscriptions. This book provides the historical overview, lacking hitherto, of unfree labour in historical Sri Lanka. Its comparative perspective illuminates through their similarities and differences the history of unfree labour in classical Greece as well as in Sri Lanka, leading to valuable insights also into Greek slavery. The book thus has much to offer the historian of ancient Greece as well as the historian of Sri Lanka.
