History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c73.130.2

v5.c73.130.2

34) explains that the word *putra* stands for the three descendants up to the great-grandson, since all the three are entitled to perform the pārvaṇa-śrāddha and equally benefit the ancestors by the piṇḍas they offer, and that the word *putra* is not to be taken literally but only as illustrative in order to include the great-grandson, since one may with difficulty find a text expressly mentioning the *adhikāra* of the grandson (as a performer of śrāddha and taker of wealth) but there is no text expressly mentioning the great-grandson separately (as the taker of wealth and giver of piṇḍa)⁸³⁶. On Yāj. II. 50 which lays down that when the father dies or has gone to a distant country or is overwhelmed by calamities (incurable diseases or the like) his debts should be paid by the sons or grandsons, the Mit. adds that even when a son or grandson receives no ancestral property the father's debts must be paid, the only difference being that the son has to pay the principal as well as the interest, while the grandson has to return only the principal and has to pay no interest and the Mit. quotes a verse of Bṛhaspati⁸³⁷ where all the three descendants are mentioned in one breath and the Mit. adds that the great-grandson has not to pay even the principal if he has received no ancestral property. This last remark implies that the Mit. regarded that the great-grandson was also included in the extended sense of 'putra'. Yāj. II.