DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49827#0197
182
UNOBSTRUCTED INHERITANCE.
Lecture son only, who, he says, shall receive a fourth part of the
vn1, inheritance, in case a legitimate son should be subsequently
born to his adoptive father. Baudhayana (II. 2, 3, 11) lays
down the general proposition that the subsidiary sons of
equal caste shall receive one-third of the estate in that case.
The same rule is given in a text attributed to Briliaspati
or Devala or Narada, and in a text assigned to Katya-
yana. According to another reading, Katyayana speaks
of a fourth part. Vriddha Gautama, as quoted in the
Dattakamhnamsa (V. 43), Dattakachandrika (V. 32), and
in Krishnapandita’s modern gloss on the Vasishtha-smriti,
states that the adopted son shall share equally with an
after-born legitimate son. The other Smritis, in which
the same question is treated, make the relative dignity of
each subsidiary son the standard by which the amount of
his share is regulated. Thus it is stated by Mann (IX. 134,
164, 163) that the son of a Putrika shall share equally with
an after-born legitimate son of the body (Aurasa): but
the son of the wife (Kshetraja) shall only receive a fifth or
a sixth share, and all the other sons shall have a claim to
maintenance merely. Harita prescribes that the damsel’s
son shall receive a twenty-first part ; the son of a twice-
married woman, a twentieth part; the son of two fathers,1 a
nineteenth part; the son of the wife, an eighteenth part;
and the son of a Putrika, a seventeenth part; the remainder
being given to the legitimate son of the body. The Bralnna-
purana ordains a share for each of the eleven subsidiary
sons in order, from the son of the wife, who shall obtain a
third part of the inheritance, down to the son of a Cudra
woman, who shall obtain a thirteenth part. Such rules as
these are mere theories of course, and could never have
been enforced. They express the various opinions of their
authors in regard to the relative dignity of each class of
sons, nothing else.
The only rule now in force is that which assigns a third
or fourth part of the estate to the adopted son, where a
legitimate son has been afterwards born. The latter rule
is mainly founded on the text of Vasishtha quoted before,
and it is worthy of remark that this text is followed by
another clause referring to the case that the adopted son
is grown up and able to offer the family sacrifices at the
1 Thus Nandapandita (Vaijayanti), Haradatta (Mitakshara, Ujjvala),
Mitramigra. Jagannatha (Dig. V. 4, ccxix) has the son of concealed
birth instead.
UNOBSTRUCTED INHERITANCE.
Lecture son only, who, he says, shall receive a fourth part of the
vn1, inheritance, in case a legitimate son should be subsequently
born to his adoptive father. Baudhayana (II. 2, 3, 11) lays
down the general proposition that the subsidiary sons of
equal caste shall receive one-third of the estate in that case.
The same rule is given in a text attributed to Briliaspati
or Devala or Narada, and in a text assigned to Katya-
yana. According to another reading, Katyayana speaks
of a fourth part. Vriddha Gautama, as quoted in the
Dattakamhnamsa (V. 43), Dattakachandrika (V. 32), and
in Krishnapandita’s modern gloss on the Vasishtha-smriti,
states that the adopted son shall share equally with an
after-born legitimate son. The other Smritis, in which
the same question is treated, make the relative dignity of
each subsidiary son the standard by which the amount of
his share is regulated. Thus it is stated by Mann (IX. 134,
164, 163) that the son of a Putrika shall share equally with
an after-born legitimate son of the body (Aurasa): but
the son of the wife (Kshetraja) shall only receive a fifth or
a sixth share, and all the other sons shall have a claim to
maintenance merely. Harita prescribes that the damsel’s
son shall receive a twenty-first part ; the son of a twice-
married woman, a twentieth part; the son of two fathers,1 a
nineteenth part; the son of the wife, an eighteenth part;
and the son of a Putrika, a seventeenth part; the remainder
being given to the legitimate son of the body. The Bralnna-
purana ordains a share for each of the eleven subsidiary
sons in order, from the son of the wife, who shall obtain a
third part of the inheritance, down to the son of a Cudra
woman, who shall obtain a thirteenth part. Such rules as
these are mere theories of course, and could never have
been enforced. They express the various opinions of their
authors in regard to the relative dignity of each class of
sons, nothing else.
The only rule now in force is that which assigns a third
or fourth part of the estate to the adopted son, where a
legitimate son has been afterwards born. The latter rule
is mainly founded on the text of Vasishtha quoted before,
and it is worthy of remark that this text is followed by
another clause referring to the case that the adopted son
is grown up and able to offer the family sacrifices at the
1 Thus Nandapandita (Vaijayanti), Haradatta (Mitakshara, Ujjvala),
Mitramigra. Jagannatha (Dig. V. 4, ccxix) has the son of concealed
birth instead.