History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.228.1

v4.c63.228.1

According to Gaut. X. 39 a man becomes an owner by inheritance, purchase, partition, seizure ( appropriation of forest trees and other things which have no owner ) and finding ( i. e. appropriation of lost property the owner of which is unknown ). Gaut. (X. 40–41) adds that in the case of brāhmaṇas acceptance (of a thing donated) is an additional mode ( of becoming an owner ), that conquest in the case of a kṣatriya and gain ( by trade or labour ) in the case of a vaiśya or śūdra are also additional modes. Vas. 16. 16 mentions eight modes. Bṛ. ( quoted in V. P. p. 153, Aparārka p. 635, S. B. E. vol. 33 p. 309 v. 2 ) mentions seven modes of acquiring immovable property viz. by learning, purchase, mortgage, valour ( i. e. conquest ), through the wife ( as dowry ), inheritance ( from an ancestor ) and succession to an issueless kinsman. Nārada ( q. in Sm. C. II. p. 70 ) mentions the same except mortgage. None of these expressly says that long possession is by itself a source of ownership. Great divergence ⁴⁴⁹ has prevailed throughout the centuries among the sages and digests about the relation of title and possession and about the length of possession necessary for making a person secure in his right to property by reason of possession. Possession (*bhukti*) may be with title ( *sāgamā* ) or without title ( *anāgamā* ). Āgama means ' origin ' or ' source of title ' such as purchase or simply ' title '.⁴⁵⁰ Manu VIII. 200, Yāj. II. 27, Nār. IV. 84 employ that word in that sense.