karmakAra and karmakara

[Jonathan Silk]

At least as far as the terms appear in stock lists in Buddhist texts
(according to my memory -- I have no notes to hand), they *seem* to be
distinguished from dAsa-dAsI, so perhaps the designation is not exactly
sociologically the same, hence slave may not be the best understanding. But
sometimes or even often such stock lists seem to try to pile as many
possible or near synonyms as they can together, so it is hard to get a
sense of when true distinctions lurk.
Jonathan Silk

jonathan.silk at yale.edu

Dept. of Religious Studies
320 Temple St.
New Haven CT 06520

tel. 203-432-0828