Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.724

c7.724

In most of the enumerations of the 12 sons (also in the Mah.) they are divided into two groups of six each and only the first six are recognised as heirs and the latter six only as relations but not as heirs to their legal father—a distinction which has been taken over into the Burmese law along with the institution of the 12 sons. The latter group of six sons reminds us of the modern institution of the Dharmaputra, who as the "duty son" or the representative of a son has only to offer sacrifices to the manes and formerly had to set fire to the pyre of a Sati if there was no son and heir to do it¹. The hard rule that the superior son should always dispossess the inferior son and that the latter has only a subsidiary right of inheritance is of course often avoided but in comparison with the Aurasa the inferior sons get a miserable portion of the legacy, almost next to nothing—only 1/21 part of it, or is only allowed mere subsistence. Bṛh., who in 25, 33-41 admits only the Aurasa and the Putrikā or her son to be legitimate sons and of course recognises faultless adoptive sons and those of a Śudra wife as sons of middling quality, goes much further and condemns the Kṣetraja and other sons of the wife and in 24, 14 declares all the 13 subsidiary sons to be no longer in vogue. Otherwise all the sons excepting the Aurasa and the Dattaka are usually said to be "forbidden in the present day" (Kalivarjya) and this is also point of view of the later jurists, only besides the Dattaka sometimes all the other adoptive sons and frequently at least the Kṛtrima, are recognised. It is to be considered a relic of the high position of the Putrikāputra, that where there are no agnate descendants, the son of the daughter is given preference to all other relations in the law of inheritance¹. At the present day, at least among the higher castes, only adoption is still in evidence; yet Bühler (on Vas. 17, 15) has pointed out an interesting survival of the old custom in Kashmir in which the Putrikā is appointed son and heir and on this occasion her name too takes the masculine form.