The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c9.s1.7

c9.s1.7

But the importance of the father as an individual is recognized as greater than that of the grandfather in the matter of partitioning the grandfather’s property according to Jîmûta-vâhana’s *Dâya-bhâga* school of law, prevalent in Bengal since the twelfth century, which, although professedly a digest of all ancient codes, attaches special prominence to Manu (A. C. 150). The same system is followed in Vijnâneśvara’s *Mitâkṣarâ*, a commentary (eleventh century) on the *Institutes* of Yâjnavalkya, (A. C. 350), another old jurist, which has authority in every part of India including Bengal.¹ Individualism was thus held in high respect in the judicial psychology of the Hindus.