Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.244

c7.244

The similarity of Kāty.’s juridical texts with those of Bṛh. is perceptible everywhere in their phraseology and in the arrangement of the subject matter as well as from their contents. It is therefore quite understandable that these two authors, as already referred to, are not seldom confused with one another; many texts also may belong to both. Thur according to Bṛh. as well as Kāty., the legal verdict may be based on one of the four grounds of judgment: Dharma, Vyavahāra, Caritra and Rājajñā, and also in the definitions of those terms the two authors agree with each other approximately, although the subsections mentioned by Bṛh. cannot be found in Kāty. (Bṛh. 2, 18-27 ; Kāty.¹ 2, 30-34)². Bṛh. is more elaborate also in his explanation of the various grounds for the inadmissibility of a complaint (3, 9-12), while on the other hand, Kāty. (4, 1-23)³ describes in detail the four methods of answering a complaint and divides them into various subsections. In the law of debt, according to Bṛh. 11, 13 when gold is lent, the capital along with the interest may increase to double the original amount; Kāty. 10, 10⁴ extends this law also to jewels, pearls and other precious things. He expands Bṛhaspati's laws about suretyship by adding, for instance, a long list of inadmissible sureties (10, 28-30)⁵ and elaborates his laws about the liability for debts and the realisation thereof by a mass of detailed rules about fathers and sons incapable of doing business, women capable of inheriting, slavery for debt, imprisonment for debt etc., (10, 41-90).⁶ In the law of partnership, like Bṛh. he too discusses the division of the common profit in the case of a confederacy of robbers, dealers, farmers or craftsmen (13, 3-6).⁷ In the law of inheritance he recognises the heirship of the widow in the absence of male descendants, but only with certain reservations (25,46-66).⁸ Like Bṛh and Nār. he too knows the Dināra. Generally speaking he agrees in many cases with Nār. and M. and in particular gives definitions of technical terms occurring in the works of these and other authors, such as Prāḍvivāka, Vyavahāra, Anvādhi, Vetana, Utkoca, Sāmanta, Vṛddha, Śauryadhana, Bhāryādhana, Vidyādhana, Stridhana, etc.