व्यवहारमयूख (नीलकण्ठ भट्ट - पश्चिमी भारत की हिन्दू न्याय-संहिता एवं व्यवहार कोष)

S. IV 5 6-8
M: p. 52 ll. 5-25 ]
ADOPTION
109

nayana) rite is performed, who is a brāhmaṇa of eight years and a male.¹
This reasoning refutes the dictum of some that the word dattrima end-
ing in map (i. e ma) according to the rule of (Pāṇini IV 4 20) "the
affix map is invariably added in the sense of 'effected or brought about' to
a formation ending in tri²" expresses also a girl given away to a bride-
groom (in marriage) or to another (in adoption), since (in her case also)
there is no distinction as to the fact of being brought about by gift.
S'aunaka speaks of the mode of accepting a son (in adoption):—
I, S'aunaka, will now expound the excellent (mode of) adoption. One
having no son (male issue)³ or one whose son (male issue) is dead,
having observed a fast for the sake of (adopting) a son, having made
gifts of a pair of wearing garments, a pair of ear-rings, a turban and a ring
to an ācārya (priest), who is a thorough master of the Vedas, a devotee
of Viṣṇu and who is religiously disposed, and having brought a bundle of
kuś'a grass and fuel-sticks of the palāś'a (Butea Frondosa) tree, having
summoned his relatives and kinsmen and having feasted them and
specially brāhmaṇas, having performed the whole of the details (tantra)
of the rites commencing with anvādhāna (placing of fuel-sticks on
the consecrated fire) and such other rites as purification of the clarified
butter (by passing two blades of kuś'a grass through it) and having gone
before the giver (natural father of the boy), he should cause a request

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1 For supporting his proposition that only a male can be adopted, Nīlakaṇṭha cites
a parallel based on a Vedic text Upanayana (initiation for Vedic study) is performed
only in the case of males, so adoption also should be confined to males. Vide
Āpastambagṛhya IV 10 2 and Sudarśanācārya's commentary thereon for the Vedic
text 'aṣṭavarṣam' &c. The general rule is that the number and gender of a word
are not to be insisted upon as in the well-known example 'he cleanses the cup', where
though the singular is used all cups are to be cleansed But in certain cases the gender
of a word is to be insisted upon as laid down by Jaimini in IV 1 17 The word guṇa
(subsidiary matter) is used in a technical sense Vide notes to V M pp 168-169.
2 Tri is affixed according to Pāṇini (III 3 88) and has ma then added on.
The word dattrima according to Pāṇini means 'brought about by gift', which may
apply to a male as well as female Just as a son is dattrima because his status ('as
adopted son) is brought about by the action of giving, so a girl adopted by another or
married by another may also be called dattrimā since her status as bride or as adopted
daughter is equally brought about by the act of giving This is the reasoning of some.
Nīl. says that this is refuted by the parallel example of upanayana.
3 The word putra stands for son, grandson and great-grandson In Hanmant
v Bhīmacharya I L R 12 Bom 105 it was held that an adoption by a childless
Hindu is valid even though his wife be pregnant at the time of adoption and even if
she later gives birth to a son In Gopal v Narayan 12 Bom 329 it was held that an
unmarried man may adopt In Bharmappa v Ujjangauda 46 Bom 455 (=23 Bom L R
1320), after referring at p 459 to the texts of Atri, Manu and S'aunaka and to Mandlik's
translation of aputra (at p 460) it was held that a man having a grandson disqualified
from inheritance owing to congenital and incurable dumbness cannot adopt a son and that
there is nothing in the Vyavahāramayūkha to lend support to the view that he can adopt.
Vide Nagammal v Saṅkarappa 54 Mad 576, 585 which dissents from 46 Bom. 455.