History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.1133

v4.c63.1133

As regards family property lost to the family by the adverse acts of a stranger but recovered by a member with his own efforts without using ancestral estate, certain provisions deserve notice. Manu IX. 209 (= Viṣṇu Dh. S. 18. 43), Bṛ. (S. B. E. 33 p. 371 verse 12) and Kāt.¹⁰⁹² (866) lay down the special rule that if the father recovers property lost to the family, whether movable or immovable, with his own effort without using joint family funds, he may retain the whole of it as his self-acquisition. The rule of Yāj. II. 119 applies only where the property lost and recovered by one member (not the father) with his own effort and without assistance from joint estate is movable (which then becomes wholly his self-acquisition), but if the property so recovered by one member (who is not the father) is land, then the recoverer gets one fourth of it as his reward (according to Śaṅkha)¹⁰⁹³ and the remainder is divided equally among all members of the family including the recoverer. These rules have been followed in modern times by the British Indian Courts¹⁰⁹⁴.