History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.365

v4.c62.365

As in western Jurisprudence, so in India the king was looked upon as *parens patriæ*, the protector or guardian of all minors. Gaut.²⁰⁴ X. 48-49 and Manu VIII. 27 prescribe that the king shall protect the property of a minor until he attains majority or until he returns from his teacher's house. Medhātithi on Manu VIII. 27 says that the minor's relatives like the uncles may contend that one of them is the guardian of the minor's property but it is the king who is to see that the minor's property is kept safe. Baud. Dh. S. II. 2. 43, Vas. 16. 8-9, Viṣṇu Dh. S. III. 65, Śaṅkha-Likhita contain a similar rule. Nār. (ṛṇādāna 35) declared that a person was a minor till the 16th year. Manu VIII. 28-29, Viṣṇudharmasūtra III. 65 extend the same rule and say that the king must take care of barren women, women who have no sons, women whose families are extinct, wives and widows who are faithful to their husbands and of those who are afflicted with disease. Nār.²⁰⁵ as quoted by Medhātithi says that if a woman has nobody in her husband's or father's family to protect her, then it is the king who is to protect her. Kauṭ.²⁰⁶ (II. 1) makes it a duty of the elders of the village to take care of and increase the properties of minors and of temples.