History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.93.3

v4.c63.t2.93.3

but when the husband dies before the wife, she takes his property, if she be chaste'. Even when Yāj. proclaimed the paramount right of succession in the case of widows there were other smṛtis and some early commentators who did not subscribe to that view. Nār. (dāyabhāga, 25-26) provides that if among several brothers one who is childless dies or becomes an ascetic the others should divide the property excepting strīdhana, that they should make provision for his women till their death in case they remain faithful but if they are otherwise (i. e. unfaithful) they may cut off the allowance'. Nār. (dāyabhāga, 50-51) provides that on failure of sons, the daughter, *sakulyas*, *bandhus*, a man of the same caste, the king succeed in order and thus omits the wife altogether. Vyāsa¹³⁴⁶ (quoted by Haradatta on Gaut. 28.19 and by Sm. C. II. p. 281) holds that a wife may take the whole of the husband's property if it does not exceed 2000 paṇas in value. The Mit. tells us that Śrīkara espoused this position that the wife takes the whole if the property is small, but only maintenance if the property is large and refutes it by saying that it is opposed to the spirit of Yāj. who allows a share to the wife and the mother even along with sons when even joint family property is being partitioned and that the view is also liable to the fault of *vidhivaiṣamya* on the analogy of the Mīmāṁsā rule stated above on p. 605.¹³⁴⁷ The same text of Yāj.