Public Administration in Ancient India c5.34

c5.34

From very early times, the reverence for family ties was firmly established and held sacred in India. The family was like a small communistic society, bound together by the tie of natural affection, holding in joint possession the means of production, and enjoying the fruit of labour in common.² All acquisitions were joint property, and all expenses were paid out of the common fund. The Joint Family was, in fact, very similar to the *societas universorum bonorum* of the Romans. The father was the head and protector of the family. But just as the dependent members owed their duties to the father, so the father was bound by obligations to the rest of the family. Unlike the Roman paterfamilias, the father of the Indian family had no powers of life and death over the subordinate members. The family was not his property. Every individual member of the family had a locus standi in the law-courts and the other departments of the State; and the government could, if it thought fit, deal direct with every member of the family without the intervention of the head. As regards the family property, the father was the manager, rather than the owner, of it. The family collectively was the owner, and the father had powers to deal with it only as the representative of the family; but even here his powers were not unlimited.