Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.802

c7.802

The manner in which the partition is to be made is determined chiefly with reference to the age of those who are going to divide, at least according to the oldest authors and also the TS 2, 5, 2, 7. The most ancient rules are certainly those which allow a special extra share of the family property to each of the sons according to the hierarchy of age, particularly however to the eldest son, and in the case of polygamy also according to the order in which their mothers were married to their father. Thus according to Gaut. 28, 5-8 the eldest son should receive 1/20 as a preferential share (*uddhāra*) over and above a pair (of kine and similar domestic animals), a cart along with a yoke of oxen having incisors both above and below and a bull; the middlemost son receives the one-eyed, old, hornless and tailless domestic animals if there are more than one such animals; to the youngest belong the sheep, corn, iron utensils, a house, a wagon with team as well as one of each of the (remaining) animals; the residue is divided equally.