18G

UNOBSTRUCTED INHERITANCE.

Lecture son inherits the property of a Cudra according to the
vni- modern law. In the higher castes, illegitimate offspring
lias a claim to maintenance only, and the indulgence shown
to illicit connexions 'in the case of Cudras must be traced to
the same cause as the before-quoted rule of Mann, that the
Law of Primogeniture doesnot apply to Cudras, the partial
or total prohibition of marriage with Cudra women, the
low position assigned to the offspring of such marriages,
and all those numerous rules, in short, in which the con-
tempt and dislike of the Brahmanical lawgivers towards
the Cudra caste has exhibited itself. Thus, in treating of
the various marriage forms, the Smritis state that the
lowest forms, which consist of purchase and seduction of a
maiden, are put for Cudras. In one Smriti it is said that
Cudras being serfs are not particular about their wives, i.e.,
that they exercise no control over them.1 This may have
been literally true at one time, and if the Cudras were ever
kept in that state of absolute dependence and servitude,
which the Smritis prescribe for them, their marriage unions
could not have been more regular and permanent than
they were among the slaves of ancient Rome and Greece,
or among the Negro slaves in America. These considera-
tions will account sufficiently for the juxtaposition of men
of the Cudra caste and female slaves in the rule of Manu
(IX. 179), that the son of a Cudra begotten on his female
slave (Dasi), or on the female slave of a male slave, shall,
by permission, obtain a share of the inheritance, and in the
rule of Yajnavalkya, that a son begotten on a female slave
by a Cudra shall take a share by the father’s choice, half a
share after the father’s'’death, and the whole property, in
case there are no other sons or sons of a daughter. These
two texts contain everything that is to be found in the
Smritis on the subject, but the various constructions put
on, and the important rules deduced from, them in the
modern works have given rise to several interesting con-
troversies, which I will briefly notice, adverting first to
the fortunate circumstance that the copious remarks of
Medhatithi on this head have been completely preserved
in the MSS. of his ancient Commentary on Manu. They
contain the following propositions which deserve special
attention both on account of their antiquity and of the

1 Baudh. I, 11, 20, 14-15, and note.