DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49827#0186
UNOBSTRUCTED INHERITANCE.
171
Mitakshara and Madanaparijata refer to the right of the Lecture
son and grandson alone.1 These writers might be supposed vnI-
to have omitted the great-grandson for brevity’s sake, but
in the Law of Debt also, the liability to’pay debts contracted
by an ancestor stops with the grandson. There is every
reason to suppose that, in the Law of Inheritance also, the
exclusion of the great-grandson from the narrower com-
munity of heirs by Vijnanegvara and Vigvegvara is inten-
tional, and not accidental.
5. The recognition of the capacity to inherit in females, Iillt1™dfuc'
especially the introduction of the widow into the order of females
heirs, must have destroyed effectually that close connection illt0 tbe
between inheritance and funeral oblations which had caused fjA °
the nearest male heirs to be designed, in an earlier period,
by terms taken from the community of funeral oblations.
Besides, the denomination of Sapindas, from embracing
originally three immediate ancestors, three immediate des-
cendants and propositus, had early been extended by
making the traditional seven Sapindas to reach as far as
the seventh generation both in descent and ascent. Thus
the real import of the term Sapinda came to be forgotten,
and we find that
6. Vijnanegvara and other authors derive Sapinda from Sapinda
Pinda, ‘ body, ’ and take it to mean those who have parti-I“1'jp-lnil,1
cles of one body in common. This of course is a thoroughly 4 a body/ ’
artificial etymology, which is, however, characteristic as
showing that, in the times of Vijnanegvara, the origin of
the Institution of Sapindas in the Law of (Jraddhas was no
longer recognized even by the learned.2
7. Vishnu (XV. 40) says: H® who inherits the wealth Propin-
presents the funeral oblation (to the deceased). Statements
of this kind, which are rather common both in the Smritis succession,
and in the later juridical literature of India, might occur
and do occur in Roman and Greek, just as well as in Sans-
krit literature. It is ordained by religion, says Cicero,
that the family estate and the family worship shall never
be separate, and that the care of the sacrifices shall always
devolve on him who takes the inheritance. Isalus, the
well - known Athenian pleader, says : Please to consider
1 West & Buhler, 67-68. The Madanaparijata introduces the well-
known text of Yajnavalkya on the order of heirs as follows : “ The
order of heirs to a divided man, who has departed for heaven without
leaving sons or grandsons, will be stated next.”
2 F. de Coulanges, La cite antique, p. 76.
171
Mitakshara and Madanaparijata refer to the right of the Lecture
son and grandson alone.1 These writers might be supposed vnI-
to have omitted the great-grandson for brevity’s sake, but
in the Law of Debt also, the liability to’pay debts contracted
by an ancestor stops with the grandson. There is every
reason to suppose that, in the Law of Inheritance also, the
exclusion of the great-grandson from the narrower com-
munity of heirs by Vijnanegvara and Vigvegvara is inten-
tional, and not accidental.
5. The recognition of the capacity to inherit in females, Iillt1™dfuc'
especially the introduction of the widow into the order of females
heirs, must have destroyed effectually that close connection illt0 tbe
between inheritance and funeral oblations which had caused fjA °
the nearest male heirs to be designed, in an earlier period,
by terms taken from the community of funeral oblations.
Besides, the denomination of Sapindas, from embracing
originally three immediate ancestors, three immediate des-
cendants and propositus, had early been extended by
making the traditional seven Sapindas to reach as far as
the seventh generation both in descent and ascent. Thus
the real import of the term Sapinda came to be forgotten,
and we find that
6. Vijnanegvara and other authors derive Sapinda from Sapinda
Pinda, ‘ body, ’ and take it to mean those who have parti-I“1'jp-lnil,1
cles of one body in common. This of course is a thoroughly 4 a body/ ’
artificial etymology, which is, however, characteristic as
showing that, in the times of Vijnanegvara, the origin of
the Institution of Sapindas in the Law of (Jraddhas was no
longer recognized even by the learned.2
7. Vishnu (XV. 40) says: H® who inherits the wealth Propin-
presents the funeral oblation (to the deceased). Statements
of this kind, which are rather common both in the Smritis succession,
and in the later juridical literature of India, might occur
and do occur in Roman and Greek, just as well as in Sans-
krit literature. It is ordained by religion, says Cicero,
that the family estate and the family worship shall never
be separate, and that the care of the sacrifices shall always
devolve on him who takes the inheritance. Isalus, the
well - known Athenian pleader, says : Please to consider
1 West & Buhler, 67-68. The Madanaparijata introduces the well-
known text of Yajnavalkya on the order of heirs as follows : “ The
order of heirs to a divided man, who has departed for heaven without
leaving sons or grandsons, will be stated next.”
2 F. de Coulanges, La cite antique, p. 76.