DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49827#0098
ACCORDING TO THE SMRITIS.
83
power like the father to give, sell, and abandon a son Lecture
it is added, it is true, that she must not give or receive a IV-
son without her husband’s permission. She is referred,
together with the father and spiritual teacher, among the
class of Atigurus, or specially venerable persons ;2 and in Special
other texts the mother is stated to surpass a thousandJ‘l1^.11’J|l1pirr
fathers.3 These maxims have to be interpreted subject to to her.
the general rules about the inferiority of the sex. I am,
however, informed on good authority that in modern India
also the position of a mother is more dignified than that
of other females. Analogous observations have been
made among other archaic nations.
Though the father’s power is absolute in theory, its Gradual
exercise has been.: early hemmed in by restrictions. It
would have been unnatural to abandon a son otherwise father’s
than in cases of extreme necessity. Vishnu and Manu Power-
go further than this, and declare it as punishable in any
case if father and son were to forsake one another. ,
Apastamba deliberately forbids the sale and purchase of
children.4 5 As after the death of the father the brothers
were mutually liable for the performance of the Sanskaras
(Nar. XIII. 33), so in the father’s lifetime this duty had to be
'regularly performed by himself. Altogether, the restric-
tions on the father’s power occur chiefly in the more recent
Smritis, just as the patriot potestas under Roman Law
was successively lessened. The attainment of majority on
the completion of the sixteenth year0 at first had no influ-
ence on the son’s position towards his parents. Gradu-
ally, however, the grown-up sons acquired an influence
on the administration of the family estate ; and thus
we find it proclaimed by Vishnu, Yajnavalkya and other
1 Vas. XV. 2—4. 2 Vishnu XXXI. 1, 2.
3 Colebrooke. Dig. V. 8, ccccxxiv ; Manu II. 145.
4 Vishnu V. 113 ; Manu VIII. 389 ; Apast. II. 6. l.‘j. 11-12.
5 Nar. I. 3. 34. Brihaspati. in a text quoted by Apararka and others,
states that males attain majority in the sixteenth year. uFor the Sans-
krit, see Appendix.} This is ambiguous. But fjie phrase
in the text of Narada (I. 3, 32). on which the legal doctrine about
majority is usually rested, has to be referred most probably to the com-
pletion of the sixteenth year. Similarly. (Viswriu XXIV.10,
etc.) means up to the fifth degree (of relationship) inclusive. Some of
the Bengal writers, however, take a different view of the matter, and
make minority terminate at the beginning of the sixteenth year. The
Grihaysutras describe a ceremony called Godana. which was to be per-
formed on coming to man’s state, in the sixteenth or eighteenth year.
83
power like the father to give, sell, and abandon a son Lecture
it is added, it is true, that she must not give or receive a IV-
son without her husband’s permission. She is referred,
together with the father and spiritual teacher, among the
class of Atigurus, or specially venerable persons ;2 and in Special
other texts the mother is stated to surpass a thousandJ‘l1^.11’J|l1pirr
fathers.3 These maxims have to be interpreted subject to to her.
the general rules about the inferiority of the sex. I am,
however, informed on good authority that in modern India
also the position of a mother is more dignified than that
of other females. Analogous observations have been
made among other archaic nations.
Though the father’s power is absolute in theory, its Gradual
exercise has been.: early hemmed in by restrictions. It
would have been unnatural to abandon a son otherwise father’s
than in cases of extreme necessity. Vishnu and Manu Power-
go further than this, and declare it as punishable in any
case if father and son were to forsake one another. ,
Apastamba deliberately forbids the sale and purchase of
children.4 5 As after the death of the father the brothers
were mutually liable for the performance of the Sanskaras
(Nar. XIII. 33), so in the father’s lifetime this duty had to be
'regularly performed by himself. Altogether, the restric-
tions on the father’s power occur chiefly in the more recent
Smritis, just as the patriot potestas under Roman Law
was successively lessened. The attainment of majority on
the completion of the sixteenth year0 at first had no influ-
ence on the son’s position towards his parents. Gradu-
ally, however, the grown-up sons acquired an influence
on the administration of the family estate ; and thus
we find it proclaimed by Vishnu, Yajnavalkya and other
1 Vas. XV. 2—4. 2 Vishnu XXXI. 1, 2.
3 Colebrooke. Dig. V. 8, ccccxxiv ; Manu II. 145.
4 Vishnu V. 113 ; Manu VIII. 389 ; Apast. II. 6. l.‘j. 11-12.
5 Nar. I. 3. 34. Brihaspati. in a text quoted by Apararka and others,
states that males attain majority in the sixteenth year. uFor the Sans-
krit, see Appendix.} This is ambiguous. But fjie phrase
in the text of Narada (I. 3, 32). on which the legal doctrine about
majority is usually rested, has to be referred most probably to the com-
pletion of the sixteenth year. Similarly. (Viswriu XXIV.10,
etc.) means up to the fifth degree (of relationship) inclusive. Some of
the Bengal writers, however, take a different view of the matter, and
make minority terminate at the beginning of the sixteenth year. The
Grihaysutras describe a ceremony called Godana. which was to be per-
formed on coming to man’s state, in the sixteenth or eighteenth year.