Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.804

c7.804

In a partition taken up by the father the *patria potestas* too of course came into consideration which finds significant expression in the rule of Har. (4, 5) that the father is to become a pious hermit or a beggar after the division of his property or retain the greater part of the property or even take back something from the shares of his sons as necessity may arise or even concede still more to the sons. On the other hand, according to Hār. 4,4, after the death of the father a partition should be made only in equal shares. Even later authors such as Y. 2,114, Nār. 13,15, Bṛh. 25,4 recognise the absolute power of the father to determine the portions of the sons as he chooses. Yet a restriction was imposed on the will of the father by means of the distinction made between the inherited family property and one's own acquisition (cf. § 22); the father might have a free right of disposal only over the latter while the father and the sons had equal right on the inherited property, so that the sons could claim an equal share with the father in a partition (Vi. 17, 1 f. ; Y. 2, 114, 121 ; Bṛh. 25, 2-4). It is doubtful, whether the rule that the father may reserve a double share for himself (Y. 2, 123 ; Nār. 13,12 ; Bṛh. 25, 5) is also to be applied only to the father's own acquisitions.