History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.259

v4.c63.t2.259

Another question is whether the widows of agnatic relations (such as the son's widow, brother's widow, step-mother or paternal uncle's widow) are included in the term 'gotrajāḥ' for purposes of inheritance. Under the Dāyabhāga, as well as under the Mitākṣarā throughout India (except in the Bombay School), the widows of gotraja sapiṇḍas are not heirs at all, since according to almost all writers women do not inherit except when expressly mentioned by texts. In the Bombay School the position is different. According to both the Mit. and the Mayūkha, wives enter by marriage the gotra of their husbands and become sapiṇḍas of their husbands. The Bālambhaṭṭī declared the son's widow to be an heir even before the paternal grandmother and includes females also in the word *gotrajāḥ*. When *gotraja* was rendered as *samānagotra*, the term became wide enough not only to include those born in the gotra but even those who entered the gotra by marriage. Besides, it was argued that if the paternal grandmother or paternal great-grandmother succeeded as a gotraja there was no reason why other widows of other gotrajas should not succeed. From the earliest days of British rule the gotraja sapiṇḍas (such as the son's, brother's, paternal uncle's widows) have been recognized as heirs in the Bombay Presidency. They take only a limited estate like the owner's widow or mother or paternal grandmother. They are recognized rather on the ground of 'positive acceptance and usage' by the Privy Council than on the ground of any texts¹⁴⁴⁶. They occupy the same place as their husbands, succeed after the compact series, the sister and half-sister and only after all the male gotraja sapiṇḍas (up to the 7th degree inclusive of the ancestor) properly belonging to the line to which their husbands belonged; e. g. the son's widow would succeed before the brother's son's¹⁴⁴⁷ son, the brother's widow or step-mother would succeed after all the six male descendants of the husband's father, but before the father's father, paternal uncle or his son &c. These widows of gotraja sapiṇḍas succeed before any bandhu. Since Act XVIII of 1937 a man's own widow, his predeceased son's widow and the widow of a predeceased son's predeceased son succeed along with his son or sons throughout India.