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

S. IV. 10 18-22 ] HEIRS TO STRIDHANA 185
M. p. 96 ll. 18 38 ]
'Apratiṣṭhitāḥ' (in Gautama) means 'devoid of wealth' (indigent)
The daughter of a brāhmaṇī wife however takes the wealth even of her
step-mother,¹ as Manu says (IX. 198) :—
The wealth of a woman that may have been given to her by her father
in any way shall be taken by the brāhmaṇī daughter or it may belong to
her offspring.
The word 'vā' (or) is (here) used in the sense of 'and' and there-
fore it follows (that she takes) by dividing (with the issue of the kṣatriyā
or vaiśyā co-wife). Some say that the word 'brāhmaṇī' is illustrative of
any daughter of equal or superior caste, but the authority for this (view)
is doubtful.²
In default of daughters, the issue of daughters succeed, since Nārada
p 189 v. 2) says :—
The daughters (take the wealth) of the mother; in the absence of
daughters, the issue.
The allotment of shares in the case of daughters sprung from different
mothers or daughter's sons (sprung from different mothers) is according to
the rule laid down in 'in the case of sons of different fathers the allotment
of shares is according to the fathers'³ (Yāj. II 120).' As for the text of
Yājñavalkya-(II 117) 'the daughters share the residue of their mother's
property after (the payment of her) debts and in default of them, the issue,'
there also, according to some, the word 'anvaya' (issue) means 'the issue,
of the daughter' But others say that in default of daughters, the sons alone

1. Kullūka explains that where a brāhmaṇa has wives of different castes, then if
   his wife of the kṣatriya or vaiśya caste receives wealth from her father and dies, then the
   brāhmaṇa's daughter born of his brāhmaṇī wife would solely succeed to the strīdhana of
   her step-mother even if the latter has her own daughter or son and that the kṣatriya wife's
   children would succeed only if the daughter of the brāhmaṇī co-wife be dead. Nīlakaṇṭha
   twists the meaning and takes 'vā' (or) in the sense of 'and' and says that the issue of
   a brāhmaṇī co-wife would succeed equally with the issue of the kṣatriya wife
2. The view of some writers was that if a kṣatriya had several wives of the same
   caste or one wife of the kṣatriyā caste and another of the vaiśya caste, then the daughter
   of the kṣatriya wife would take the strīdhana wealth of other wives of the same caste or the
   strīdhana of the wife of the vaiśya caste, even though the vaiśya wife had a child of her
   own. Vide notes to V. M. pp. 294-295. The Mit. countenanced the view that the
   daughter of a kṣatriya co-wife would take the strīdhana of a vaiśya co-wife if the
   vaiśya co-wife died without issue. Nīlakaṇṭha does not accept this. According to him
   Manu's rule is strictly restricted to the daughter of a brāhamaṇī and in other cases
   the strīdhana would go to the husband if the woman died without children or to
   her own children if any.
3. If there is no daughter, but there are grand-daughters born of different daughters
   or if there be no daughter or daughter's daughters but only daughter's sons then the
   estate will be divided into as many shares as there are daughters and the children of one
   daughter will together take the share that would have fallen to that daughter i. e. the
   division is per stirpes and not per capita.
   V. M. 24