History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.271.3

v4.c63.t2.271.3

These propositions were accepted by the Privy Council,¹⁴⁵⁷ which further said that sapiṇḍa relationship extends in the case of bandhus only up to five degrees. The first proposition about mutuality has some support in the interpretation put on the famous verse of Manu IX. 187 by the Bālambhaṭṭī and the Subodhinī (vide above note 1418). But difficulty is created about mutuality by the unwarranted assumption that the common ancestor must be a member of one out of four families as stated by Sarvadhikari. The other propositions, however, are not supported by any texts or sound reasoning. Since the enumeration of bandhus is admitted to be not exhaustive, no sound inference can be drawn from the list of nine bandhus that a heritable bandhu must be connected with the deceased in any particular way. All that can be required is that he must be a bandhu as defined by the Mit. and connected with the deceased by having particles of the body of a common ancestor within the limits of sapiṇḍa relationship as laid down by the Mit. The limit of five degrees categorically laid down by the P. C. is not, it is submitted with great respect, based on very sure or strong foundations. The Mit. says that sapiṇḍa relationship extends to seven degrees when traced through the father, that wherever the word 'sapiṇḍa' is employed this meaning has to be understood and it extends up to five degrees when traced through the mother. Vide H. of Dh. Vol. II. pp. 454-455.