The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c14.s2.50

c14.s2.50

Vijñāneśvara, however, was not prepared to take this step. He had included inherited property under Strīdhana, and he was probably reluctant to sanction a scheme of succession, whereunder extensive property would have automatically and very frequently passed out of the family to female Strīdhana heirs. He probably felt that if a coparcener effected a separation from the joint family, its members should have no grievance if his separated share passed as Strīdhana to his daughter. If, however, no separation had been effected, and the share of an undivided coparcener were still allowed to devolve on his wife, it would have passed out of the family with an alarming frequency, since unlike the Dāyabhāga school, the Mitāksharā school had declared this share as the Strīdhana of the wife. Most of the medieval jurists agree with the Mitāksharā and recognise the widow’s right of inheritance only when her husband was not a member of the joint family at the time of his death.