The Rashtrakutas and their Times c21.123

c21.123

Let us now consider the family system of our period. Joint families were the order of the day, but cases of separation in our period were not as rare as is sometimes supposed. Some of our records, which mention the specific shares of the cosharers of agrahāra villages, prove that in many cases fathers and sons were living separately. In the Torkhede inscription of Govinda III,⁹⁶ separate shares are assigned to two brothers showing that they were no longer members of a joint family. In the Chikka-Bagevadi inscription, dated 1149 A.D.,⁹⁷ Lalla and his brother Jajjuka were assigned different shares as also Naiva and his brother Gona. In the Bendegiri grant of Kṛṣṇa, dated 1249 A.D.,(98) there are eight cases of brothers and two of sons being given separate shares from their brothers and fathers respectively. The Paithan plates of Rāmachandra, dated 1271 A.D.,(99) mention the case of a father living separately from his six sons, and four cases of brothers who were no longer following the joint family system. Epigraphical evidence thus shows that though the Smritis had disapproved partition in the life-time of the father, such partitions were not rare in practice. Some of the above records do not strictly belong to our period, but they can be utilised to indicate the general state of affairs in our period as well, since nothing is known to have happened in the next two centuries to revolutionise the notions of the society in this respect.