History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.253.2

v4.c63.253.2

a mortgaged or pledged property, boundary, minor's property, an open deposit, a sealed deposit, women (female slaves), the property of the king i. e. (of the State) and the property of a brāhmaṇa learned in the Veda are not lost by the possession of another (for twenty or ten years referred to in Manu VIII. 147 and Yāj. II. 24). Manu VIII. 145 provides that neither a pledge nor a deposit can be lost by lapse of time and that both are recoverable even if they have remained long (with the pledgee or depositee). Yāj. II. 25 adds to the above list the properties of idiots and of women. Nār. IV. 83 emphatically states that women's property (strīdhana) and state property (land) is not lost even after hundreds of years, when it is enjoyed without title. Kāt. (330) adds to the above list temple property and what is inherited from the father or mother⁴⁷⁴. All systems of jurisprudence throw protection round the interests of minors, persons of unsound mind and others similarly situated and provide longer periods of possession for loss of their right. The Mit. on Yāj. II. 25 gives reasons why the several exceptions are made; in the case of a pledge or mortgage the property is enjoyed by the pledgee or mortgagee under an agreement and so there is no fault on the part of the owner if he remains quiet while the property is being enjoyed by the creditor;