CHAP. IX. เ pose, but were produced from the manhood of others, belong in truth to the father, from whose 'hood they severally sprang, and to no other, except by a just fiction of law. 6 182. IF, among several brothers of the whole blood, one have a son born, MENU pronounces them all fathers of a male child by means of that son; so that, if such nephew would be the heir, the uncles have no power to adopt sons: 183. Thus if, among all the wives of the same ⚫ husband, one bring forth a male child, MENU has 'declared them all, by means of that son, to be 'mothers of male issue. 184. On failure of the best, and of the next best, among those twelve sons, let the inferiour in order take the heritage; but, if there be many of equal rank, let all be sharers of the estate. 185. Not brothers, nor parents, but sons, if living, or their male issue, are heirs to the deceased, but of him, who leaves no son, nor a wife, nor a daughter, the father shall take the inheritance; and, if he leave neither father, nor mother, the bro ⚫thers. 186. To three ancestors must water be given at their obsequies; for three (the father, his father, and the paternal grandfather) is the funeral cake ' ordained the fourth in descent is the giver of oblations to them, and their heir, if they die without C nearer nearer descendants; but the fifth has no concern with CHAP. the gift of the funeral cake. 187. To the nearest sapinda, male or female, after him in the third degree, the inheritance next belongs; then, on failure of sapindas and of their issue, 'the samánódaca, or distant kinsman, shall be the heir; or the spiritual preceptor, or the pupil, or the fellow-student, of the deceased: 188. On failure of all those, the lawful heirs are 'such Bráhmens, as have read the three Védas, are pure in body and mind, as have subdued their passions; and they must consequently offer the cake: thus the rites of obsequies cannot fail. 189. The property of a Bráhmen shall never be • taken as an escheat by the king; this is a fixed law but the wealth of the other classes, on failure of all heirs, the king may take. 190. If the widow of a man, who died without a 6 son, raise up a son to him by one one of his kinsmen, let her deliver to that son, at his full age, the collected estate of the deceased, whatever it be. 191. If two sons, begotten by two successive husbands, who are both dead, contend for their property, then in the hands of their mother, let each take, exclusive of the other, his own father's estate. 192. ON the death of the mother, let all the ⚫ uterine brothers and the uterine sisters, if unmarried, IX. CHAP. sister shall have a fourth part of a brother's allot 193. Even to the daughters of those daughters, it is fit, that something should be given, from the 'assets of their maternal grandmother, on the score of natural affection. 194. WHAT was given before the nuptial fire, what was given on the bridal procession, what was given in token of love, and what was received from a brother, a mother, or a father, are considered as the 'six-fold separate property of a married woman: 6 195. What she received after marriage from the family of her husband, and what her affectionate lord may have given her, shall be inherited, even if she die in his life-time, by her children. 196. It is ordained, that the property of a woman, married by the ceremonies called Bráhma, Daiva, Arsha, Gandharva, or Prájápatya, shall go to her husband, if she die without issue. 197. But her wealth given on the marriage called Asura, or on either of the two others, is ordained, on her death without issue, to become the property ' of her father and mother. 198. If a widow, whose husband had other wives of different classes, shall have received wealth at any time as a gift from her father, and shall die ' without without issue, it shall go to the daughter of the CHAP. 'Bráhmanì-wife, or to the issue of that daughter. 199. A woman should never make a hoard from 'the goods of her kindred, which are common to her and many; or even from the property of her lord, 'without his assent. 200. Such ornamental apparel, as women wear during the lives of their husbands, the heirs of those husbands shall not divide among themselves: they, 'who divide it among themselves, fall deep into sin. 6 6 201. Eunuchs and outcasts, persons born blind or deaf, madmen, idiots, the dumb, and such as have lost the use of a limb, are excluded from a share of the heritage; 202. But it is just, that the heir, who knows his duty, should give all of them food and raiment for life without stint, according to the best of his power: he, who gives them nothing, sinks assuredly to a region of punishment. 203. If the eunuch and the rest should at any 'time desire to marry, and if the wife of the eunuch should raise up a son to him by a man legally ap pointed, that son and the issue of such, as have children, shall be capable of inheriting. 204. After the death of the father, if the eldest 'brother acquire wealth by his own efforts before par tition, a share of that acquisition shall go to the younger IX. CHAP. younger brothers, if they have made a due progress IX. ' in learning; 205. And if all of them, being unlearned, acquire property before partition by their own labour, there shall be an equal division of that property without regard to the first-born; for it was not the wealth ' of their father: this rule is clearly settled. 6 206. Wealth, however, acquired by learning, belongs exclusively to any one of them, who acquired it so does any thing given by a friend, received 'on account of marriage, or presented as a mark of respect to a guest. 207. If any one of the brethren has a competence from his own occupation, and wants not the property of his father, he may debar himself from his own share, some trifle trifle being given him as a ⚫ consideration, to prevent future strife. 6 208. What a brother has acquired by labour skill, without using the patrimony, he shall not give 6 up without his assent; for it was gained by his own • exertion : 209. And if a son, by his own efforts, recover a 'debt or property unjustly detained, which could not be recovered before by his father, he shall not, unless by his free will, put it into parcenary with his 'brethren, since in fact it was acquired by himself. 210. IF brethren, once divided and living again together as parceners, make a second partition, the 'shares |
