the ancient hindu text "arthashastra" states, according to sharma, that "aryas" were free men and could not be subject to slavery under any circumstances. the text contrasts "aryas" with "shudra", but neither as a hereditary slave nor as an economically closed social stratum in a manner that the term shudra later was interpreted. according to rangarajan, the law on labour and employment in "arthashastra" has led to a variety of different interpretations by different translators and commentators, and "the accepted view is that slavery, in the form it was practised in contemporary greece, did not exist in kautilyan india".