History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.439

v4.c63.t2.439

Manu VIII. 389 prescribes that the man who abandons and does not maintain his parents, wife and son, when they are not *patita*, should be fined 600 *paṇas* by the king. Nār. also (S. B. E. 33 p. 184 verse 95) provides punishment for such a husband. Yāj. I. 76 states that--if a man abandoned a wife who was obedient, diligent, the mother of a son and agreeable in speech he was to be made to give one third of his property to the wife and to maintain her, if he had no property. Viṣṇu Dh. S. V. 163 made the husband punishable like a thief if he abandoned his blameless wife. Kauṭ. II. 1 prescribes ¹⁵⁶¹ that if a man being able fails to maintain his child or wife, parents, minor brothers and sisters, unmarried daughters, widowed daughters, when these are not *patita*, should be fined twelve paṇas. These dicta have been followed even by modern courts in India. In *Subbarayana v. Subbakka* ¹⁵⁶² it has been held that a son is bound to maintain his aged mother whether he has inherited property from his father or not.