I like Sir Lal’s answer. Sri Lankan and Asian society, in general, is very different from the West. People often forget to put themselves in the context of the times and society. It is certain that from a Western point of view having servants is intolerable. The answer is that Western society practiced savage and primitive slavery. People were castrated and beaten with whips. Slaves were not allowed to educate themselves. In the time of Lord Buddha servants had much greater freedom and could go and listen to sermons on the Dhamma.
I call servants because the masters did not have the right of life or death over them. Unlike in the United States in the 19th century where killing your slave was normal. It was even immoral in the time of Lord Buddha to beat one’s servant. Of course, practices like human sacrifice and forced marriages are immoral and destructive practices! Hunting and fishing are immoral practices and yet it is practiced and encouraged today. It is impossible to find stable and lasting happiness in conditioned phenomena. As long as we do not become ariyas, we will be primitive. A puthujunas can be the most modern man in the world and be reborn as an animal and much worse. This is the true primitive spirit. An ariya can dress in bark skin (Think of Venerable Arahant Bahiya) and achieve the arahant stage.
This suttas shows that beating his servants is a bad things in the society of Lord Buddha.
What is it, ma’am?’
‘Kiṁ, ayye’ti?
‘You’re getting up even later in the day—what’s up with you, wench?’
‘Kiṁ, je, divā uṭṭhāsī’ti?
‘Nothing, ma’am.’
‘Na khvayye, kiñcī’ti.
‘Oh, so nothing’s up, you naughty maid, but you get up even later in the day!’ Angry and upset, she grabbed a door-pin and hit Kāḷī on the head, cracking it open.
‘No vata re kiñci, pāpi dāsi, divā uṭṭhāsī’ti kupitā anattamanā aggaḷasūciṁ gahetvā sīse pahāraṁ adāsi, sīsaṁ vobhindi.
Then Kāḷī, with blood pouring from her cracked skull, denounced her mistress to the neighbors,
Atha kho, bhikkhave, kāḷī dāsī bhinnena sīsena lohitena galantena paṭivissakānaṁ ujjhāpesi:
‘See, ladies, what the sweet one did!
‘passathayye, soratāya kammaṁ;
See what the even-tempered one did! See what the calm one did!
passathayye, nivātāya kammaṁ, passathayye, upasantāya kammaṁ.
How on earth can she grab a door-pin and hit her only maid on the head, cracking it open, just for getting up late?’ Arthaśāstra 3.13.9 says that inflicting punishment (daṇḍapreṣaṇam; cf. Pali daṇḍāpesuṁ at Bi Ss 1:1.38) on a slave is a crime for which a master incurs a fine equivalent to the cost of the slave.
Kathañhi nāma ekadāsikāya divā uṭṭhāsīti kupitā anattamanā aggaḷasūciṁ gahetvā sīse pahāraṁ dassati, sīsaṁ vobhindissatī’ti.
Then after some time the housewife Vedehikā got this bad reputation:
Atha kho, bhikkhave, vedehikāya gahapatāniyā aparena samayena evaṁ pāpako kittisaddo abbhuggacchi:
‘The housewife Vedehikā is fierce, ill-tempered, and not calm at all.’ No blame is given to Kāḷī for her deliberate provocation.
‘caṇḍī vedehikā gahapatānī, anivātā vedehikā gahapatānī, anupasantā vedehikā gahapatānī’ti.
See this also :
- Here is an excellent short sermon of Venerable Waharaka Thero.
