History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.123

v4.c63.t2.123

The words of the Tai S. quoted above ( p. 606 ) about women being without strength and not entitled to dāya (adāyādīḥ) really occur in the ritual of Soma offerings and should mean that women are not allowed to share in the drinking of Soma. But the Baud. Dh. S. (S. B. E. vol. 14 p. 231) appears to have taken them as excluding women from inheritance. Manu IX. 18 also relies on it and declares that the *saṁskāras* on women (except marriage) are not to be performed with Vedic mantras, as the Veda declares them to be 'nirindriya' and 'anṛta'. Later writers like Haradatta (on Gaut. 28. 19, Āp. Dh. S. II. 6. 14. 1) and V. P. pp. 517 and 554 base the exclusion of women from inheritance on this passage of the Veda. They say that, though the Vedic text is very sweeping and general, it is meant to exclude only women other than those expressly mentioned in the smṛtis as entitled to inherit. For example, the Dāyabhāga XI. 6. 11 quotes Baud. and remarks that the wife is entitled to inherit because of special texts (like those of Yāj. and Viṣṇu) in her favour. The Sm. C. II. p. 294¹³⁶³ says that the Vedic passage is only an *arthavāda* (meant for praise) and not an absolute rule and it must be taken as not referring to those women that are expressly mentioned (lit. by being seized by the horn). The V. P. says the same. Aparārka (p. 743) holds that the Vedic passage is merely an *anuvāda* and excludes women only when there is a son. It should be noted that the Par. M. (III. p. 536) holds that the Tai. S. passage merely means that the wife of the sacrificer is not entitled to partake of Soma taken in the Pātnīvata cup and that 'indriya' means Soma drink.¹³⁶⁴ But Mādhavācārya in his comment on the Tai. S. I. 4. 27 quotes Tai. S. VI. 5. 8. 2 and explains it somewhat differently as meaning that women being without strength do not take the heritage when there are children. It is very remarkable that both the Mit. and the V. Mayūkha do not at all refer to the Tai. S. or Baud. Dh. S. in speaking of the rights of women to inheritance. It cannot be said that they were unaware of them, but probably they took the Tai. S. text in the sense in which the Par. M. explains it. The result of the reliance on the Tai. S. and on Baud. by most medieval digests has been that in the whole of India except in the Madras and Bombay provinces only five females are recognized as heirs viz. the widow, the daughter, the mother, the father's mother and paternal grand-father's mother, because they were expressly mentioned as heirs in the smṛtis or early commentaries. This subject will be pursued further a little later on.