History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v1.c6.s54.1

v1.c6.s54.1

Bālaka like Jitendriya is no more than a name to us. Jīmūtavāhana's works make frequent reference to him. He held the view that the daughter's son, not being expressly mentioned as an heir by Yāj., came in after those expressly mentioned from the widow to the brother.⁶¹⁹ The Dāyabhāga notices that Bālaka read a text of Āpastamba in a wrong way.⁶²⁰ Bālaka said that the words of Śaṅkha 'svaryātasya-aputrasya bhrātṛgāmi dravyam...jyeṣṭhā vā patnī' apply either to a widow belonging to a caste other than her husband's or to a very young widow or in case her husband was undivided or re-united.⁶²¹ Bālaka says that when some property is acquired by one brother by means of learning, other brothers are not entitled to that wealth.⁶²² The Dāyabhāga refers to a passage from Bālaka in which the latter relies on the Pūrvamīmāṁsā example of *mudga* and *māṣa*.⁶²³ In the Vyavahāramātṛkā of Jīmūtavāhana (p. 346) it is stated that Bāla held the same views as those of Śrīkara-miśra on a certain point. In the Prāyaścitta-nirūpaṇa of Bhavadeva a writer named Vāloka is mentioned (vide JASB 1912 at p. 336). This seems to be a Bengali scribe's way of pronouncing the name Bālaka. Bālaka is mentioned in Raghunandana's Vyavahāratattva (p. 47) also as holding the view with Śrīkara and others that adverse possession for twenty years conferred ownership in the case of immovable property.⁶²⁴ Śūlapāṇi in his Durgotsaviveka twice quotes the views of Bālaka and once refutes the latter.⁶²⁵ Hence it appears that Bālaka was an eastern or Bengal writer, composed a work on several branches of dharmaśāstra (such as vyavahāra and prāyaścitta) and flourished before 1100 A. D.