History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.496

v4.c63.t2.496

At the end of this section on Vyavahāra it would not be out of place to say a few words about wills. Owing to the joint family system and the custom of adoption testamentary dispositions did not come into vogue in ancient India. Among the many kinds of documents (*lekhya*) mentioned by Kauṭ., Bṛ., Kāt. and others cited above there is no term for a document which can convey the idea of a modern will. But it need not be supposed that the idea had not at all dawned upon the minds of people before the advent of the British¹⁶⁰¹. Wills were known among Mahomedans and contact with them would naturally suggest the idea of a will. Oral or written instructions by a man expecting death to his heirs intended to affect the disposal of his property must have been given occasionally and should not be supposed to have been entirely unknown. Verses 341-359 of the Rājataraṅgiṇī IV. appear to embody the political testament of king Lalitāditya of Kashmir in the first half of the 8th century. Kāt. (566) makes a very near approach to the modern conception of a will¹⁶⁰². He says, 'if a gift was promised by a man for a religious purpose whether when in good health or when afflicted with disease, the son should be made to pay it, if the father dies without giving it over.' Here the mere declaration of the intention of a person was made enforceable after his death against the son or other heir. Bṛhaspati's verse saying that a promise or direction to take effect after the death of the promisor was not ordinarily enforceable has already been quoted above (n. 823). In the quarterly of the Bhārata-itihāsa-saṁśodhaka Maṇḍala of Poona, vol. XX p. 210 (for May 1940) there is a letter (dated 1775 A. D.) written by one Naro Babaji, who, after referring to his illness, provides on a generous scale for his funeral and śrāddha expenses and makes dispositions in favour of his daughter-in-law, of another widow, and for the marriage of his kinsman's sons and distribution of the balance of his assets¹⁶⁰³.