Now let us see how far the evidence of our text regarding inheritance can be corroborated from other sources. Nīti literature and the literary works which I have examined are silent on this point. I could not find any references to substantiate or to nullify the statements made here. There is not much on this subject in the inscriptions which I have read so far. But in the dharma literature there is a good deal on this subject.[1]
The regulations which provide for the division of property among the children from the wives of different castes appear to be quite old. Older works like those of Gautama, Vashishtha, Baudhāyana, make provision very similar to those of our text, but with very slight variation.[2] Even later Smritis, like Yajñavalkya and Vishnu, also affirm the same rules. The principle involved in these rules is in accordance with human nature and can be traced almost everywhere in the world where similar conditions have arisen; and I think we can safely say that the rules given by our text in this matter were generally observed in his times.
But very different is the case of the rule given by our writer regarding the succession of the daughter of a Brāhmanī (woman) to the property of her stepmother of different caste (ix, 198). This peculiar rule cannot
- ↑ In connection with this verse, Dr. Hopkins writes to me that we should take this verse to cover the case where a woman dies without issue, and that dying without issue may be supplied from the preceding verse. There is one objection to such construction that the verse ix, 198, occurs in Mahabharata without ix, 197.
- ↑ Gaut. xxviii, 35-39; Vasi. xvii, 48-50; Baudha, ii, 3, 10; Vishnu, xviii, 1-33, 38-40; Yaj. ii, 125.
