IN03220 Am̆bagasväva Rock Inscription 1

The present inscription contains the phrase paya-vasa-ṇayaṭa. Ṇayaṭa is the dative singular of ṇaya and means ‘for the debt’; paya-vasa must therefore denote a particular kind of debt. Paya means foot, hence the phrase paya-vasa-ṇayaṭa could be interpreted as ‘a debt for which one’s foot is subjected’. What is intended by this expression becomes clear from the phrase at-pā-vahalaṭ-giyākugen in line 21 of the Vēvälkäṭiya inscription (IN03063), meaning ‘from one who has gone out for slavery (by working with) hands or with feet’. The Galapāta-vihāra rock-inscription (IN03197) specifies the services, which the slaves attached to the monastery had to render to the monks, by the phrase at-pā-mehe ‘services by hands and feet’. It would thus appear that when a person became a slave in this period, it was understood between him and his master what particular type of work he had to perform, whether it was manual labour involving the use of the hands, or going on errands, which involves the use of the feet. It is significant that, in the present record, the phrase yana saya di preceded that the statement that the debt was liquidated. Yana in this phrase is Skt. yāna ‘going’, saya means ‘hundred’ and di ‘having given’. Hence the entire passage can be understood as follows: the slave’s debt – for which he was required to perform services by his feet – was liquidated after his ‘having performed a hundred journeys’.