History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.14

v4.c63.t2.14

The texts contain rules about preference in selecting a boy for adoption, when several are eligible. The Mit.¹²⁸⁰ on Yāj. II. 132 declares that the verse of Manu IX. 182 stating that 'when out of several brothers who are sons of the same father one has a son all of them become through that son persons having a son' does not provide that he becomes really the son of all but it indicates that when a brother's son is available for adoption another boy should not be adopted. A similar explanation had been given by an ancient commentator Devasvāmin. The D. M., D. C. (pp. 5-6) and Saṁ. K. p. 150 quote passages of Śaunaka¹²⁸¹ and Śākala that a man should prefer a sapiṇḍa or a sagotra to one who is not a sapiṇḍa or of the same gotra. The D. M., D. C., the Saṁ. K. p. 150, the Dharmasindhu recommend the following order: the full brother's son, then a sagotra sapiṇḍa, then a sapiṇḍa though not of the same gotra (such as a boy from one's maternal uncle's line or a paternal aunt's descendant), then one not a sapiṇḍa though of the same gotra, then one who is neither a sapiṇḍa nor a sagotra. This order is purely recommendatory and an adoption in breach of it is quite valid. It has been recently held that an adoption is invalid if the boy adopted be congenitally and incurably deaf and dumb though not an idiot. Vide *Surendra v. Bholanath* I. L. R. (1944) 1 Cal. 139.