History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.433

v4.c63.t2.433

It may not be out of place here to suggest how strīdhana should be dealt with when Hindu Law comes to be codified as it is likely to be in the near future. It may be urged that all distinctions on the ground of sex should be altogether done away with and whenever a woman succeeds to any property whether of a male or of a female she should take an absolute estate. But if this change is opposed by a large volume of opinion as it is quite possible, then it should at least be provided that all property which a woman inherits from a female should be her absolute property. Then as regards inheritance to strīdhana one simple and straightforward rule should be laid down that the woman's sons and daughters should succeed together taking equal shares. A third suggestion would be that when there are no descendants of the woman herself, then the husband should be the next heir. When the strīdhana is that of a maiden, the heirs in order should be her brothers and sisters, then her mother, then her father and after the father the latter's nearest heir. It is not quite necessary at this stage to specify what further rules of devolution should be prescribed.