The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c14.s2.69

c14.s2.69

Neither Devaṇabhaṭṭa nor Nīlakaṇṭha however states whether the consent of the next reversioners was necessary for validating such a transaction. The language which they have used would suggest that if the gift was a bona fide one for religious purposes, the widow could give it herself without the consent of the reversioners. The actual practice seems to have varied considerably. We have no recorded cases for northern India, but south-Indian inscriptions of the medieval period show that the silence of the authorities was interpreted differently by different persons and localities.