History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.1120

v4.c63.1120

*bhū* (land including houses), *nibandha*¹⁰⁸² (inaccurately rendered as 'corrody') and *dravya* (gold, silver and other movables). Sometimes however the word "dravya" is employed in the sense of all property, whether movable or immovable, as in Bṛ. (*dravye pitāmahopātte jaṅgame sthāvare tathā*) quoted in note 1032 above. Property, according to ancient Hindu Law, may be divided into two classes, (1) joint family property, (2) separate property. Joint family property is either ancestral property or property jointly acquired¹⁰⁸³ with or without the aid of ancestral property or property acquired separately but thrown into the common stock (Manu IX. 204). The Mit. on Yāj. I. 120 states 'among unseparated brothers, if the common stock be improved or augmented by one of them through agriculture, trade or similar means, an equal distribution nevertheless takes place and a double share is not allotted to the acquirer.' This contains the doctrine of merger of estate by blending. Vide *Shibaprasad v. Prayag Kumari* L. R. 59 I. A. 331 = 34 Bom. L. R. 1567. Ancestral property (*apratibandha dāya*) is all property inherited by a male from his father, paternal grandfather or paternal great-grandfather, in which according to the Mit. School, the sons, grandsons and great-grandsons¹⁰⁸⁴ of the person who inherits it acquire an *interest by birth*. Separate property also includes what is called self-acquired property (*svārjita*), which will be discussed a little later on. If a person obtains a share of ancestral property on partition, it has been held that it is his separate property if he has no son, grandson or great-grandson, but if there be any of these then it is ancestral property in his hands so far as he and any of his male descendants are concerned. Under the Dāyabhāga, as the son does not acquire ownership by birth in ancestral property, there is hardly any distinction between ancestral property and separate property so far as the father's powers of alienation are concerned. A few of the outstanding features of the Dāyabhāga system have already been set out above and some may be discussed later.