History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t1.89

v4.c63.t1.89

It is necessary, before proceeding further, to give brief definitions of the twelve or thirteen kinds of sons from Manu and other writers. The legitimate son (aurasa) is one begotten by a man on his own wedded wife of the same caste. The putrikāputra¹²³⁰ is of two kinds; (1) a sonless man may appoint his daughter as his son (she is then called *putrikā* and treated as a son); (2) or she may be given to a person in marriage with the stipulation 'I give you in marriage this brotherless girl decked with ornaments; the son born of her will be my son'. In this case the son born of the daughter so given becomes the son of his maternal grandfather. The *kṣetraja* (the son of the wife) is one who is begotten on a man's wife (or widow) by a *sagotra* (agnatic kinsman) or by one not of the same gotra, according to the rules of *niyoga*, when the man himself is either dead or impotent or suffering from (an incurable) disease. That is the son given (*dattaka* or *dattrima*) whom his father or mother gives as a son affectionately in a time of distress with water and who is of the same caste (as the adopter). He is the son called *kṛtrima* (made) whom a man makes his son, the latter being of the same caste, being clever in distinguishing between right and wrong and being endowed with the qualities a son should possess. He is the son born secretly (*gūḍhotpanna* or *gūḍhaja* as he is called by Baud. and Yāj.), who is born in a man's house, it being not known who is his begetter; and he belongs to him of whose wife he is born. He is the son called *apaviddha* (cast off) whom a man receives as his son after he has been abandoned by his parents or by one of them. The *kānīna* (maiden's son) is one whom a maiden bears secretly in the house of her father and he belongs to him who marries her afterwards.