The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c14.s1.4

c14.s1.4

Among the female heirs the brotherless daughter was the first to succeed in establishing her right of inheritance. Circumstances were more favourable for the recognition of her right than that of the wife or the widow. As shown in the last chapter, in the patriarchal atmosphere the wife could advance no claim in competition with her husband. The widow often used to marry or get a son by Niyoga; so the problem of her inheritance did not arise in society in any acute form. We have already shown (*ante*, pp. 11-4) how the daughter in the Vedic age was well educated and possessed full religious privileges. Probably she could not herself offer funeral oblations to the manes, but she could get this done by her son. For all religious purposes the Vedic father could thus regard a daughter to be as good as a son¹. He had a strong prejudice against adopting a son². He therefore preferred property passing to his own daughter in preference to a stranger, who by a religious fiction, was to be regarded as an adoptive son. He could also usually arrange for the perpetuation of his own family by making an agreement with the son-in-law that he should send back his first son to continue his maternal grandfather’s family.