Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c8.91

c8.91

The narrower circle of Sapiṇḍa relations stretches up to the great-grandson and so here too, as in the law of inheritance, the religious motive connected with the funeral sacrifice plays a prominent part. Therefore, even the absence of assets does not free the sons from the liability for the debts of the father. On the other hand immoral promises of payment such as gambling debts and tavern scores of the father are not binding on the sons and as little binding are the debts of a father who was rendered unfit for legal business on account of some bodily or spiritual defect (Bṛh. 11,51; Katy. 10,53 f.¹ etc.). The head of the family is in general not liable for those debts which the sons, the wife or other members of the family have contracted for purposes other than those of the household. Only in the case of those professions in which the man can support himself only with the help of the wife, e. g. in the case of washermen, shepherds, actors and sailors, the debts of the wife are said to be always binding on the husband (Vi. 6,37 etc.). After the death of the husband the wife is responsible for those debts of his which she contracted together with him or which she has expressly recognised and she is also liable for her husband's debts if she inherits his property or receives from him a command of payment at the time of his death; in the absence of assets or sons the liability may fall also on him with whom the widow lives, inasmuch as he is to some extent the heir (Nār. 1,16,22).