History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.255

v4.c63.t2.255

Some difficulty is caused by the use of the word *santāna* in the Mit. as regards the father's, grandfather's and great-grandfather's line. It has been seen above (p. 731) that the compact series ends with the brother's son (father's son's son i. e. after two descendants of the father) according to the Bombay High Court, while elsewhere in India it is supposed to end with the brother's son's son (i. e. after three descendants of the father). The Mit. expressly mentions only two descendants in the grandfather's and great-grandfather's line. The general rule is that sapiṇḍa relationship extends to six descendants of each line (excluding the man or ancestor from whom the counting is made). The further general rule gathered from the meagre words of the Mit. is that the nearer line excludes the more remote (e. g. the grandfather, his son and grandson are expressly mentioned by the Mit. as taking before the great-grandfather, his son and grandson). The question is whether the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th descendants of a nearer line would exclude even the 1st or 2nd descendant of a remoter line e. g. whether the great-grandson of the grandfather would take before the son or grandson of the great-grand-father or whether the 6th descendant of the grandfather would take before the son of the great-grandfather. There were three views¹⁴⁴⁴ on this point.