The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c14.s2.43

c14.s2.43

The widow's right of inheritance came into recognition in northern India somewhat later. In the days of Kālidāsa (*c.* 400 A. D.), if a person died without leaving a son, his property used to escheat to the king, who had to provide merely a maintenance to the widow. This is quite clear from the *Śākuntala* episode of the merchant dying in the shipwreck, whose property was proposed to be immediately resumed by the zealous ministers of king Dushyanta. In Gujarat the widow's right of inheritance was not recognised down to *c.* 1200 A. D. King Kumārapāla of that province (1144-1173) admits frankly that his subjects were justified in their impression that their king always desired his rich subjects to die issueless, so that he may resume their property¹. A poet of his court tells us that it was this king who showed a magnanimity of mind, shown not even by kings born in the golden age like Raghu and Nahusha, and voluntarily forswore his right to the property of the 'weeping widow.'¹ It would be thus seen that this reform met with considerable opposition from the governments of the day, because it adversely affected their revenues. As a partial compensation, some of them introduced a death duty on the property of persons dying without sons (Graham, *Kolhapoor*, p. 333).