The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c14.s1.19

c14.s1.19

Yājñavalkya, as may be expected, warmly champions the cause of the daughter and lays down that she should be the next heir after the son and the widow (II, 135). Bṛihaspati tries to disarm the opposition by sweet reasonableness. He points out that the daughter springs from one's own body just like the son; how then can anyone inherit the property, when she is still alive (XXV, 55)? Nārada advances a similar argument. Is not the daughter as much the child of her parents as the son? How then can her right of inheritance be defeated in the absence of the latter³?