Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.730

c7.730

and a Dattahoma in particular must be offered. The adoptive father begs for the son and the original father gives him away to him. Then the former dresses his would-be son in two clothes and decorates him with two earrings and a finger ring. There are other ceremonies too. If at a later period the adoptive parents come to have a son born in the wedlock the adopted son gets only a fourth part of that son's share. On the contrary his prospects may brighten up very much if the other sons of his original father die and thus the legacy of the latter reverts to him. Then he is regarded as the "son of two fathers" (*dvyāmuṣyāyaṇa*)—a conception which was originally connected only with Niyoga (§20) but already Kātyāyana expressly extended it also to adoption.