History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.1179.1

v4.c63.1179.1

property and the possession of one is ordinarily possession on behalf of all. Further, while the family is joint and some coparceners have many children and others have few or none or some are absent, they cannot complain at the time of partition about some coparceners having exhausted the whole income and cannot ask for an account of past income and expenditure. Kāt. (883) expressly states so.¹¹¹⁸ Moreover, the joint family property devolves by survivorship i. e. on the death of a coparcener his interest lapses and goes to the other coparceners, subject to this that if the deceased has left a son, grandson, or great-grandson, the latter represents and occupies the place of the deceased coparcener when a partition takes place. A female cannot be a coparcener (even if she be the wife or the mother). Another characteristic is that each coparcener has a right to enforce a partition. The affairs of the family are managed by the father and if he be very old or dead, by the senior brother or member or by any other member with the consent of the senior member (Nār., dāyabhāga 5 and Śaṅkha quoted above in note 1067). The manager is called *kartā* in modern times though the smṛtis and digests employ words like *kuṭumbin* (Yāj. II. 45), *gṛhin*, *gṛhapati*, *prabhu* (Kāt. 543) and not *kartā*.