History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.106

v4.c63.t2.106

*Patnī* means a woman who is married to the deceased, the word being formed from 'pati' with an affix in the sense of 'being fit to join with the husband in the performance of sacrifice' (Pāṇini IV. 1. 33). The Sm. C. II. p. 290 quotes a verse that a woman who is procured for sexual intercourse in exchange for money is only a *dāsī* and is not a *patnī* and therefore is not entitled to inherit to a sonless paramour.¹³⁵² The Baud. Dh. S. I. 11. 20 quotes a similar verse. Several texts require that the widow must be chaste before she can claim the inheritance of the deceased. A text attributed to Vṛddha-Manu¹³⁵³ says, 'The wife alone, being sonless and keeping the bed of her lord unsullied and leading a life of religious observances, may offer piṇḍa to her deceased husband and take his entire estate'. Kāt. (926) also declares that 'the wife who is chaste takes the wealth of her husband'. The widow must be chaste at the time the inheritance opens. The courts have held that once the husband's estate is vested in the widow, it will not be divested or forfeited by reason of *unchastity subsequent* to the death of the husband.¹³⁵⁴ If the widow remarries after inheriting, then, though the remarriage of a widow is legalized by the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act (XV of 1856), she forfeits the estate of the husband taken by her or the estate which she took as a widowed mother of her deceased son and it passes to the other heirs of the husband or son as if she were then dead and this applies to widows of all castes according to almost all High Courts (even when remarriage is allowed by the custom of the caste to which the widow belongs ).¹³⁵⁵