Medieval Indian rulers prided themselves on trafficking women, even queens weren’t safe

The commodification of women by influential men has a long, tragic history in India. From the 5th century BCE to the 19th century CE, a vast body of evidence indicates that elites participated in the trafficking of women. Anirudh Kanisetti explains that contemporary attitudes often have deep historical roots—deeper than we might think.

Sources:
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Bano, Shadab. "INDIA'S OVERLAND SLAVE-TRADE IN THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD." In Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, vol. 58, pp. 315-321. Indian History Congress, 1997.
Hain, Kathryn A. "The Prestige Makers." Journal of World History 31, no. 2 (2020): 265-294.
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For the Rashtrakuta inscription, see Epigraphia Indica XVIII at https://archive.org/details/in.ernet....
Ali, Daud. "The service retinues of the Chola court: a study of the term veḷam in Tamil inscriptions." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 70, no. 3 (2007): 487-509.
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