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The idea that there was slavery in the Vedic Society originated
with the Western Indologists with their intentional or careless
translation of a Sanskrit word into “slave”.
For example, in the Taittirīya Samhita (Kŗişhņa Yajurveda),
[7.5.10] [kānda 7, prapāţhaka 5, verse 10], a part of translation
by Keith reads “slave girls dance around the fire”. But in a
footnote in the same page [pg., 628, Vol. 2] the author Keith says
that the verse describes the dance of maidens. Suddenly the
maidens have become “slave girls”. Both Paranjape and Avinash Bose
point to the mistranslation of the word ‘yosha’ as
courtesan by the indologist Pischel [Bose, Hymns from the Veda, p.
36].
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