Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.741

c7.741

In the customary law too the lack of one's own son and heir is regarded as the necessary precondition for adoption and it is also held that the adoptandus should belong to the same caste and even to the same Gotra and moreover nearest agnates are preferred but the adoption of the daughter's son or even the sister's son is not forbidden³. As regards the ceremonies of adoption the Śāstrins of Bombay hold that the ceremonies prescribed in the Smṛtis are indispensable, specially the Dattahoma, at least among the Brahmans, while in Madras only the giving away and the adoption of the adoptandus is demanded; ⁴ in the Punjab even the fact of the adoption of the adoptandus into the family of the adoptive father has sometimes to be proved⁵. That the adoptandus even without any special condition, retains his right of inheritance in his original family a as Dvyāmuṣyāyaṇa is often found at least in Bombay, N. W. Provinces and the Punjab⁶. Thus far it is an adoptio minus plena