History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.214.4

v4.c63.t2.214.4

Mayūkha and other works of the Mitākṣarā school) requires the widow who inherits all the movable and immovable property of her deceased husband to perform the monthly, six-monthly and annual śrāddhas of her husband.¹⁴²⁷ Similarly the Dāyabhāga allows the unmarried daughter or a married daughter having a son (or who is likely to have a son) to inherit because her son will offer piṇḍa to the owner who will be the maternal grand-father. It prefers the daughter's son¹⁴²⁸ as an heir even to the father because the former offers a piṇḍa to the owner himself, while the father offers piṇḍas to two of the three paternal ancestors to whom the owner would have been bound to offer piṇḍas. The D. B. winds up by saying¹⁴²⁹ that the order of inheritors must be followed in such a way that the wealth of the deceased may be most beneficial to (the soul of) the deceased. In certain respects the D. B. does not strictly and logically follow its own theory but is compelled to twist it by reason of the places assigned by special texts to certain heirs.¹⁴³⁰ For example, the order of heirs according to the D. B. is; son, grandson and great grandson; widow; daughter; daughter's son: father; mother; full brother; half brother; full brother's son; half brother's son. But the persons entitled to perform the śrāddha of the deceased in order are somewhat different. In fact the order of succession does not strictly follow in any school the order of those that are called *śrāddhādhikārins*.