Manusmriti with the Commentary of Medhatithi
by Ganganatha Jha | 1920 | 1,381,940 words | ISBN-10: 8120811550 | ISBN-13: 9788120811553
This is the English translation of the Manusmriti, which is a collection of Sanskrit verses dealing with ‘Dharma’, a collective name for human purpose, their duties and the law. Various topics will be dealt with, but this volume of the series includes 12 discourses (adhyaya). The commentary on this text by Medhatithi elaborately explains various t...
Verse 9.120 [Detailed Laws of Partition among Sons]
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
यवीयान्ज्येष्ठभार्यायां पुत्रमुत्पादयेद् यदि ।
समस्तत्र विभागः स्यादिति धर्मो व्यवस्थितः ॥ १२० ॥yavīyānjyeṣṭhabhāryāyāṃ putramutpādayed yadi |
samastatra vibhāgaḥ syāditi dharmo vyavasthitaḥ || 120 ||If the younger brother begets a son on the wife of the elder, the division in that case shall be equal; such is the settled law.—(120)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
This verse precludes the idea that the son of the elder brother begotten by the method of ‘authorisation’ is entitled to the ‘preferential share’ that would have been his father’s.
‘The division in that case shall equal’—That is, there shall be no ‘preferential share;’ nor shall the eldest receive ‘one more’ (as laid down in 117), or the ‘some trifle’ (laid down in 115).
It shall be equal:—equal to whom? To that of his begetter—his younger uncle.
The son horn without ‘authorisation’ is not entitled to any share,—as is going to be declared later on.
This text, is indicative of the rule that when the brother is not alive, the division shall be between the surviving brother and his nephew.
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse in quoted in Mitākṣarā (2.136), which says that this refers to cases where the brothers (the one dead and his younger brother who beget the son on bis sister-in-law)were not divided, while verse 146 below pertains to cases where they have been divided;—and in Vivādaratnākara (p. 542), which adds the following explanation:—The undivided elder brother having died without a son, if the younger brother begets, by commission, a son on his widow, then, when there comes about partition between this son and his uncle-progenitor, it will be done in equal shares, and the son shall not obtain any special share by reason of his dead father having been the elder brother.
Comparative notes by various authors
(verses 9.120-121)
Smṛti (Vivādaratnākara).—‘In the case of there being several sons of the same mother, but from diverse fathers, their shares shall be determined by the shares that should have been their fathers.’