Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.761

c7.761

The position of individual family-members inside the joint-family was varied according to age, sex and achievements. According to Nār. 1, 32—42, the head of the family rules over his family as a king rules his subjects and a teacher his pupils. His wives and servants are to obey him implicitly and even his sons continue to be dependent on him so long as he is alive even when they have attained majority with the sixteenth year. The father of the family alone can conclude valid legal business and represent the family elsewhere. Whatever a minor or unindependent member of the family does is no better than if it had not taken place at all. Of course, the father's power of acting ceases if there is doubt as to his sanity of mind and according to Hār. 4, 3 the eldest son may take over the management of the property in his place if he is decrepit, (another reading, wasteful), absent or ill. See §19 about the rights of the family-head as the lord of marriage. He can do whatever he likes with his sons—give them away, sell them or turn them out (Vas. 15, 2); yet the selling of children is forbidden already by Āp. 2, 13, 11 and the turning out of a son, excepting when he commits a serious crime, was rendered punishable (Vi. 5, 163; M. 8, 389; Y. 2, 237). The earnings of the sons generally belong to the father—they are in this respect on the same footing with the slaves and the wives (Nār. 5, 14). The supposed exposure of daughters in the Vedic literature is based on an erroneous interpretation of the expression parāsyanti as proved by Böhtlingk (ZDMG 44, 494—496).¹ The Smrtis only say that the father should marry off his daughters as early as possible². He has to support the daughters-in-law even if they are widows (Nār. 13, 28); he can however demand from them in exchange absolute devotion so that a present made to a daughter-in-law in recognition of her devotion was called is called Pādavandanika Stridhana (Kāty.). In the teachings about venerable personages (Guru) the father mostly stands first; he is the Guru par excellence and therefore he is entitled to the first place in salutation; along with the mother he tops the list of those relations who should be saluted not only by greeting but also by touching the feet (Gaut. 6, 1ff.).¹