Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c7.s1.7

c7.s1.7

² The one supreme aim of Hindu life is the procreation of a male who alone is spiritually qualified to minister to his cares in the next world and save him from hell. The Qur’an lays down (*vide* Holy Qur’an, 4 : 34) that ‘Men are the maintainers of women’, etc. (Rodwell, Qur’an, 415 : ‘Men are superior to women on account of the qualities which God has gifted the one above the other’.) The eldest male member of the Hindu family is the *Karta* or the manager of the joint property. The *Kanwar* or the eldest son of a Rajput chief usually inherits the family distinctions. In this connection it may be remembered that on the death of Miya Hasan, the father of Sher Khan, one of his younger half-brothers named Sulaiman put on the headdress of the deceased, whereupon one of his cousins snatched it from his head, warning him that his relations would not tolerate this appropriation of the privilege of the eldest son of a family.