Verse 9.215

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

भ्रातॄणामविभक्तानां यद्युत्थानं भवेत् सह ।
न पुत्रभागं विषमं पिता दद्यात् कथं चन ॥ २१५ ॥

bhrātṝṇāmavibhaktānāṃ yadyutthānaṃ bhavet saha |
na putrabhāgaṃ viṣamaṃ pitā dadyāt kathaṃ cana || 215 ||

Among undivided brothers, if there is a joint concern,—the father shall, on no account, make an unequal division among his sons.—(215)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

It has been said (yājñavalkya, 2.116) that—‘an unequal division has been declared to be legal, if made by the father’;—it is this that is denied here.

‘Joint concern,’—i.e., when all of them together earn something—one by agriculture, another by receiving gifts, another by service, while another takes care of what is earned by others, and invests them and uses them to the advantage of all;—all this shall be brought together and divided equally; and no excessive share shall be given to any one by the father, through his love for him.—(215)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

‘Saha utthānam.’—‘Joint acquisition—one earning by agriculture, another by receiving gifts, another by service, another taking care of what others bring in and so forth’ (Medhātithi);—‘joint concern,—such as joint trading and so forth’ (Nārāyaṇa).—Explained by Jīmūtavāhana (Dāyabhāga, 2.86) as ‘effort i.e., desire to have a division’ (Hopkins).

This verse is quoted in Vivādaratnākara (p. 468), which explains ‘utthānam’ as ‘action tending to the acquisition of wealth—in Aparārka (p. 719 and p. 727) as an exception to the general that the father may make an unequal division;—and in Vivādacintāmaṇi (Calcutta, p. 129), which says that this refers to cases where the property has been acquired by the equal efforts of all the brothers, and hence it does not conflict with the text which lays down that the brothers are to accept without demur even an unequal partition among them by their father, of the property acquired by him.

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Mahābhārata (13.105.12).—(Same as Manu.)

Yājñavalkya (2.120).—‘When a property has been acquired by several brothers in common, it shall be shared equally by all. Among sons of the several brothers, the shares shall be apportioned in accordance with what would have been the share of their respective fathers.’

Bṛhaspati (25.14, Aparārka, p. 727).—‘What has been acquired by several brothers living together,—in that property all are equal sharers; if each of them has an equal and unequal number of sons, these latter shall take the shares of their respective fathers.’