History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.34

v4.c63.t2.34

It is now necessary to say a few words about the *dvyāmuṣyāyaṇa*. A *dattaka* is of two kinds¹²⁹⁶, *kevala* (simple or ordinary) and *dvyāmuṣyāyaṇa* (the son of two fathers). When a man gives *his only* son in adoption to another under an agreement that he is to be considered as the son of both the natural father (*janaka* or *janaka-pitṛ*) and of the adoptive father (*pālaka*), the son so given is called *dvyāmuṣyāyaṇa*. The Bombay High Court has held that in order to constitute a *dvyāmuṣyāyaṇa* an express agreement as stated above must be proved even when one brother adopts the only son of another¹²⁹⁷. A dvyāmuṣyāyaṇa inherits both in the natural and adoptive families. The word dvyāmuṣyāyaṇa was employed in some of the smṛtis as applicable to all such sons as the dattaka, krīta¹²⁹⁸. The V. Mayūkha quotes a prose passage from Kātyāyana (which is attributed to Paiṭhīnasi in D. C.) and the V. Mayūkha, D. M. and D. C. all quote a verse (which is ascribed to Pravarādhyāya by the first and to Pārijāta by the D. M.) that supports this. The D. M. and D. C. both quote two sūtras of Satyāṣāḍha and Śabara's gloss (*bhāṣya*) thereon in which the *kṣetraja* is called *nitya dvyāmuṣyāyaṇa* and the dattaka and others are called *anitya dvyāmuṣyāyaṇa*. Yāj. II. 127 and Baud. Dh. S. II. 2. 21 provide that a kṣetraja is the son of both the begetter and of the husband of the wife on whom the son is procreated. Therefore such a son is called *nitya dvyāmuṣyāyaṇa* (because he is always the son of two fathers). When the kṣetraja became obsolete and forbidden, the only dvyāmuṣyāyaṇa was an only son taken in adoption with a stipulation as described above. About the dattaka Manu IX. 142 states the general rule that the dattaka loses the gotra of his genetive father and assumes that of the adopter. But a dattaka belonged to two gotras according to some, if his saṁskāras up to *caula* were performed in his natural family and the saṁskāra of upanayana and those that follow were performed in the adoptive family. Therefore it was not a general proposition that a dattaka always belonged to two gotras. If all the saṁskāras from *jātakarma* were performed by the adopter, then the dattaka would take the gotra of the adopter alone. Hence the sons called dattaka and 'the bought' were styled *anitya dvyāmuṣyāyaṇas* (who were not in all cases dvyāmuṣyāyaṇas). The D. M. states this¹²⁹⁹ twofold division of dvyāmuṣyāyaṇas and employs the words *nityavat* or *nitya* and *anityavat* or *anitya* to denote the two varieties and restricts the former only to a son adopted with a stipulation as stated above. The kṣetraja became quite obsolete many centuries ago and the courts have held that the anitya dvyāmuṣyāyaṇa is also now obsolete.¹³⁰⁰ It is now held that every adoption is presumed to be in the simple (*kevala*) form, unless a stipulation that the boy will be the son of both is proved (when it will be a dvyāmuṣyāyaṇa adoption).