History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.1170

v4.c63.1170

Bṛhaspati (S. B. E. 33 p. 382 verses 79–84) has a good deal to say about things impartible. He finds fault with Manu IX. 219 for his somewhat wide proposition that clothes, ornaments and the like are impartible. He says¹¹¹⁵ "those who declared that clothes and the like are impartible have not given proper thought. In the case of the rich, their wealth may consist of (valuable) clothes and ornaments. If these (clothes and ornaments) be kept joint (i. e. undivided) they cannot yield subsistence nor can they be assigned to one alone (out of many co-sharers). They should therefore be distributed with skill, otherwise they will become useless. Clothes and ornaments may be divided by selling them (i. e. by dividing the proceeds of sale), debt consigned to writing is divided after recovering it (i. e. the bond itself is not divided), cooked food (may be divided) by exchanging it for uncooked food. The waters of wells that have flights of steps and of other wells is to be enjoyed by drawing it out according to the needs (of the co-sharers); in the same way a field or a water course is to be enjoyed according to respective shares; a single female slave is to be made to work in the houses of the co-sharers according to their shares; if there be several female slaves, they are to be allotted in equal shares (to the sharers); this very rule applies to male slaves also; the income derived from a yogakṣema grant is to be equally divided and pasture lands (or ways) are to be used by the co-sharers according to their respective shares."