History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.392

v4.c63.t2.392

33 p. 383 verse 87) declares, 'strīdhana goes to her progeny, but the unmarried daughter is preferred, while the married one gets only some trifle as a token of regard'. Parāśara holds that the unmarried daughters take all the strīdhana, but in a competition between married daughters alone and sons they all take equal shares. Devala¹⁵³³ states, 'on the death of a woman her strīdhana is taken in equal shares by her sons and daughters; if she leaves no issue it would be taken by her husband, mother, brother or father'. Pāraskara¹⁵³⁴ (q. by Par. M. III. 552) states that strīdhana devolves on the unmarried daughter, that the son does not get it, but that he shares equally with a married daughter. Kauṭ.¹⁵³⁵ (III. 2 p. 153) prescribes that if a woman dies during her husband's lifetime her sons and daughters divide her strīdhana; if she has no son then daughters divide it, on failure (of both sons and daughters) the husband takes it and that the śulka, anvādheya or any other kind of strīdhana given by her relatives is taken by her relatives. Kātyāyana¹⁵³⁶ (917-920) whose treatment of strīdhana is the most detailed of all smṛti writers has the following verses on succession to strīdhana: 'Sisters whose husbands are living should share with their brothers the strīdhana (of their mother); this is the rule of law about strīdhana and partition (among brothers and sisters) is prescribed. On failure of daughters the (strīdhana) wealth devolves on sons (of the deceased woman); the wealth given to a woman by her kinsmen (paternal or maternal) goes in the absence of the kinsmen (that gave it) to the husband.