History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.279

v4.c63.t2.279

For the purposes of this work it is irrelevant and unnecessary to wade through the mass of case-law on the succession of bandhus. One or two matters, however, call for remark. If the theory of spiritual benefit be strictly applied, many of those who would inherit as bandhus under the Mit. system would be barred from inheritance. For example, the daughter's son's son1459a or daughter's daughter's son would be a heritable bandhu under the Mitākṣarā, but under the Dāyabhāga he would not be so, as he offers no piṇḍa to the deceased or to any of the latter's ancestors. It is probably to obviate this unnatural and unjust consequence that the Dāyatattva refers to the text of Bṛ. (quoted above in *n* 1419) in which the word 'bāndhavāḥ' occurs, remarks that the relatives of the father and mother of (the deceased) inherit in the order of their nearness to the latter and quotes the three verses about the three classes of bandhus, indicating thereby that spiritual benefit is not the sole test, but that where it fails the test of blood relationship may be applied.¹⁴⁶⁰