Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.827

c7.827

The sister too is often mentioned as a coparcener along with the brothers, yet it is not meant that she should get a full share, see § 23. In the fragmentary Smṛtis the widow's right of inheritance is often recognised, yet however it is subjected to certain conditions. Thus according to Vṛddha M. (ed. Herberich) 92 the sonless widow is said to receive the whole property of her husband if she leads a chaste and strictly religious life. Bṛh. 25, 46-71 gives a series of very exhaustive though of course also highly contradictory rules about the right of inheritance of the widow, mother and daughter. The widow is the surviving half of her husband and should therefore inherit his whole property, yet however only under the condition that she performs his Śrāddha and other pious and charitable acts, or she should inherit only the movable property and even that only if her husband were no longer living in a joint-family with his agnates or on the whole she should receive only a maintenance. According to Kāty. 24, 55 ff.¹ the chaste widow should inherit the property of her husband, male descendants failing, yet she cannot give away, mortgage or sell her share of the family property and must live with the agnates of her husband and the latter shall receive the property after her death. If she proves to be stubborn and wilful the agnates need give her only a small pittance. These striking differences of treatment are perhaps, for the most part, more apparent than real. The widow has to be looked after in quite a different manner if there is Niyoga. Even if she is declared to be the heiress to her husband, she could not freely dispose of his property, but remained completely under the control of his nearest agnates under whose protection she lived, cf. § 23.