History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c43.51

v3.c43.51

Certain objects could not be donated either because one had no ownership over them or because the sages forbade such gifts. Jaimini (VI. 7. 1-7) establishes several propositions, viz. that one can make a gift only of what one owns, that one cannot make a gift of one's relatives (parents, sons and others) in the Viśvajit, that a sovereign cannot make a gift of the whole of his kingdom, that horses cannot be gifted in that sacrifice as śruti forbids such a gift in that sacrifice, that a śūdra who serves the sacrificer merely as a duty cannot be given away and that whatever is of the full ownership of a person at the time of giving the dakṣiṇā can alone be gifted in the Viśvajit sacrifice. Nārada²⁰⁰⁵ (dattāpradānika 4-5) forbids eight kinds of gifts viz. of what is handed over to a creditor by a debtor for delivery to a third person, what is borrowed for use (such as an ornament on a festive occasion), a pledge, property jointly owned with others, a deposit, son and wife, one's entire property when one has children, what has been already promised to another man. Dakṣa III. 19-20 enumerates nine things as not proper subjects of gifts (adding to Nārada's list 'a friend's wealth and gift through fear' and omitting 'what is already promised to another'). Yāj. II. 175 is of similar import. Aparārka p. 779 quotes verses of Bṛhaspati and Kātyāyana to the same effect. Vide above (pp. 507-508) as to a man's power over his children.