History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.236

v4.c63.t2.236

The following diagrams will illustrate the working of the theory of religious efficacy. A person is a sapiṇḍa of those to whom he is bound to offer a piṇḍa while he is alive, of those who on his death are bound to offer piṇḍa to him (viz. his three male descendants, his daughter's son, his son's daughter's son and his son's son's daughter's son) and of those who are bound to offer a piṇḍa to the ancestors to whom he is bound to offer a piṇḍa viz. to his three paternal ancestors and his three maternal ancestors and all of these are his sapiṇḍas. The last of these three groups has four sub-groups :—sub-group No. 1 comprises those who offer piṇḍas to their own paternal ancestors who are also the paternal ancestors of the owner: sub-group II contains those who offer piṇḍas to their three maternal ancestors who are all or some of them the paternal ancestors of the owner, to whom he was bound to offer a piṇḍa; sub-group III comprises those who offer piṇḍas to their paternal ancestors all or some of whom are the maternal ancestors of the owner; sub-group IV exhibits those who offer piṇḍas to their own maternal ancestors who are also the maternal ancestors of the owner. Each of these sub-groups contains 9 persons (as the minimum) who are all shown in thick type. If the owner has several brothers, sisters, uncles and aunts &c. the number of possible sapiṇḍas will be much larger. All heirs in the three sub-groups II-IV will be bandhus according to the Mitākṣarā and will be postponed to gotrajas under the Mitākṣarā. It should be noticed that Jīmūtavāhana brought in the father's daughter's son immediately after the father's great-grandson, the paternal grandfather's daughter's son after the paternal grandfather's great-grandson and the paternal great-grandfather's daughter's son immediately after that ancestor's great-grandson on the analogy of the rights of the owner's daughter's son and on the basis of Manu IX. 139 that the *dauhitra* (daughter's son) saves an ancestor in the next world just as a son's son does.¹⁴³⁶