Carl Clausewitz - The Strategy of Warfare – Boxed Set

Among a dead man's father, brother, and brother's sons, the succeeding ones shall depend on the preceding ones if living (for their shares); likewise the youngest or the eldest claiming his own share.

A father, distributing his property while he is alive, shall make no distinction in dividing it among his sons. Nor shall a father deprive without sufficient reason any of the sons of his share. Father being dead, the elder sons shall show favour to the younger ones, if the latter are not of bad character.

(Time of dividing inheritance.)

Division of inheritance shall be made when all the inheritors have attained their majority. If it is made before, the minors shall have their shares, free of all debts.

These shares of the minors shall be placed in the safe custody of the relatives of their mothers, or of aged gentlemen of the village, till they attain their majority. The same rule shall hold good in the case of those who have gone abroad. Unmarried brothers shall also be paid as much marriage cost as is equal to that incurred in the marriages of married brothers (sannivishtasamamasannivishtebhyonaivesanikam dadyuh). Daughters, too, (unmarried) shall be paid adequate dowry (prádánikam), payable to them on the occasion of their marriages.

Both assets and liabilities shall be equally divided.

My teacher says that poor people (nishkinchanáh) shall equally distribute among themselves even the mud-vessels (udapátram).

In the opinion of Kautilya, it is unnecessary to say so (chhalam); for as a rule, division is to be made of all that is in existence, but of nothing that is not in existence. Having declared before witnesses the amount of property common to all (sámánya) as well as the property constituting additional shares (amsa) of the brothers (in priority of their birth), division of inheritance shall be carried on. Whatever is badly and unequally divided or is involved in deception, concealment or secret acquisition, shall be redivided.

Property for which no claimant is found (ádáyádakam) shall go to the king, except the property of a woman, of a dead man for whom no funeral rites have been performed, or of a niggardly man with the exception of that of a Bráhman learned in the Vedas. That (the property of the learned) shall be made over to those who are well-versed in the three Vedas.

Persons fallen from caste, persons born of outcaste men, and eunuchs shall have no share; likewise idiots, lunatics, the blind and lepers. If the idiots, etc., have wives with property, their issues who are not equally idiots, etc., shall share inheritance. All these persons excepting those that are fallen from caste (patitavarjah) shall be entitled to only food and clothing.

If these persons have been married (before they became fallen, etc.) and if their line is likely to become extinct, their relatives may beget sons for them and give proportional shares of inheritance to those sons.

[Thus ends Chapter V, “Procedure of Portioning Inheritance” in the section of “Division of Inheritance” in Book III, “Concerning law” of the Arthasástra of Kautilya. End of the sixty-second chapter from the beginning.]

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GOATS shall be the special shares of the eldest of sons, born of the same mother, among, Bráhmans; horses among Kshatriyas; cows among Vaisyas; and sheep among Súdras. The blind of the same animals shall be the special shares to the middle-most sons; species of variegated colour of the same animals shall be the special shares to the youngest of sons. In the absence of quadruped, the eldest shall take an additional share of the whole property excepting precious stones; for by this act alone, he will be bound in his duty to his ancestors.

The above method is in accordance with the rules observed among the followers of Usanas.

The father being dead, his carriage and jewellery shall be the special share to the eldest; his bed, seat, and bronze plate in which he used to take his meals (bhuktakámsyam), to the middle-most;. and black grains, iron, domestic utensils, cows and cart to the youngest. The rest of the property, or the above things, too, may be equally divided among themselves. Sisters shall have no claim to inheritance; they shall have the bronze plate and jewellery of their mother after her death. An impotent eldest son shall have only 1/3rd of the special share usually given to the eldest; if the eldest son follows a condemnable occupation or if he has given up the observance of religious duties, he shall have only ¼ of the special share; if he is unrestrained in his actions he shall have nothing.

The same rule shall hold good with the middlemost and youngest sons; of these two, one who is endowed with manliness (mánushopetah), shall have half the special share usually given to the eldest.

With regard to sons of many wives:--

Of sons of two wives of whom only one woman has gone through all the necessary religious ceremonials, or both of whom have not, as maidens, observed necessary religious rites, or one of whom has brought forth twins, it is by birth that primogenitureship is decided.

Shares in inheritance for such sons as Súta, Mágadha, Vrátya and Rathakára shall depend on the abundance of paternal property; the rest, i.e., sons other than Súta, etc., of inferior birth, shall be dependent on the eldest for their subsistence. Dependent sons shall have equal divisions.

Of sons begotten by a Bráhman in the four castes, the son of a Bráhman woman shall take four shares; the son of a Kshatriya woman three shares; the son of a Vaisya woman two shares, and the son of a Súdra woman one share.

The same rule shall hold good in the case of Kshatriya and Vaisya fathers begetting sons in three or two castes in order.

An Anantara son of a Bráhman, i.e. a son begotten by a Bráhman on a woman of next lower caste, shall, if endowed with manly or superior qualities (mánushopetah), take an equal share (with other sons of inferior qualities); similarly Anantara sons of Kshatriya or Vaisya fathers shall if endowed with manly or superior qualities, take half or equal shares (with others). An only son to two mothers of different castes shall take possession of the whole property and maintain the relatives of his father. A Palrasava son begotten by a Bráhman on a Súdra woman, shall take 1/3rd share; a sapinda, (an agnate) or a kulya (the nearest cognate), of the Bráhman shall take the remaining two shares, being thereby obliged to offer funeral libation; in the absence of agnates or cognates, the deceased father's teacher or student shall take the two shares.

Or on the wife of such a Bráhman shall a sagotra, relative bearing the same family name, or a (mátribandha) relative of his mother, beget a natural son (kshetraja), and this son may take that wealth.

[Thus ends Chapter VI, "Special Shares of Inheritance" in the section of "Division of inheritance” in Book III, “Concerning law” of the Arthasástra of Kautilya. End of the sixty-third chapter from the beginning.]

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MY preceptor says that the seed sown in the field of another shall belong to the owner of that field. Others hold that the mother being only the receptacle for the seed (mátá bhastrá), the child must belong to him from whose seed it is born. Kautilya says that it must belong to both the living parents.

The son begotten by a man on his wife who has gone through all the required ceremonials is called aurasa, natural son; equal to him is the son of an appointed daughter (putrikáputra); the son begotten on a wife by another man, appointed for the purpose, and of the same gotra as that of the husband; or of a different gotra, is called kshetraja; on the death of the begetter, the kshetraja son will be the son to both the fathers, follow the gotras of both, offer funeral libations to both, and take possession of the immovable property (ríktha) of both of them; of the same status as the kshetraja is he who is secretly begotten in the house of relatives and is called gúdhaja, secretly born; the son cast off by his natural parents is called apaviddha and will belong to that man who performs necessary religious ceremonials to him; the son born of a maiden (before wedlock) is called kánína; the son born of a woman married while carrying is called sahodha; the son of a remarried woman (punarbhátáyáh.) is called paunarbhava. A natural son can claim relationship both with his father and his father's relatives; but a son born to another man can have relationship only with his adopter. Of the same status as the latter is he who is given in adoption with water by both the father and mother and is called datta. The son who, either of his own accord or following the intention of his relatives, offers himself to be the son of another, is called upagata. He who is appointed as a son is called kritaka; and he who is purchased is called kríta.