Chapter 5 - Division of Inheritance

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

Sons whose fathers and mothers or ancestors are alive cannot be independent (anīśvarā). After their time, division of ancestral property among descendants from the same ancestor shall take place, calculating per sterpes (according to fathers).^[1]

Self-acquired property of any of the sons, with the exception of that kind of property which is earned by means of parental property is not divisible.^[2] Sons or grandsons till the fourth generation from the first parent shall also have prescribed shares (aṃśabhāja) in that property which is acquired by means of their undivided ancestral property; for the line (piṇḍa) as far as the fourth generation is uninterrupted (avicchinna). But those whose line or genealogy from the first ancestor is interrupted (vicchinnapiṇḍa, i.e. those who are subsequent to the fourth generation), shall have equal divisions.^[3] Those who have been living together shall re-divide their property, whether they had already divided their ancestral property before or they had received no such property at all. Of sons, he who brings the ancestral property to a prosperous condition shall also have a share^[4] of the profit.^[5]

If a man has no male issue, his own brothers, or persons who have been living with him (saha jīvino vā), shall take possession of his property (dravya); and in their absence his daughters (born of marriages other than the first four), shall have his property (riktha). If one has sons, they shall have the property; if one has (only) daughters born of such marriage as is contracted in accordance with the customs of any of the first four kinds of marriage, they shall have the property; if there are neither sons nor such daughters, the dead man’s father, if living, shall have it; if he, too, is not alive, the dead man’s father’s brothers and the sons of his brothers shall have it;^[6] if there are many brothers of his father, all of them shall divide it; and each of the many sons of such brothers shall have one share due to his father (piturekamaṃśa); if the brothers (sodarya) are the sons of many fathers, they shall divide it, calculating from their fathers.

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);^[7] likewise the youngest on the eldest for is half share.

A father, distributing his property while he his 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.^[8] Father being dead leaving no proprety, the elder sons shall show favour to the younger ones, if the latter are not of bad character.^[9]

(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 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 (sanniviṣṭasamamasanniviṣṭebhyo naiveśanikam dadyuḥ)^[10]. Daughters, too (unmarried), shall be paid adequate dowry (prādānika), payable to them on the occasion of their marriages.^[11]

Both assets and liabilities shall be equally divided.^[12]

My teacher says that poor people (niṣkiñcanāḥ) shall equally distribute among themselves even the mud vessels (udapātra).

In the opinion of Kauṭilya, it is unnecessary to say so (chala); 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 (sāmānya) as well as the property constituting additional shares (aṃśa) 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 re-divided.^[13]

Property for which no claimant is found (ādāyādaka) 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 Brāhman learned in the Vedas. That (the property of the learned) shall be made over to those who are well-versed in the three Vedas.^[14]

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 (patitavarja) shall be entitled to only food and clothing.^[15]

* 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 Arthaśāstra of Kauṭilya. End of the sixty-second chapter from the beginning.]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

M. 9, 110.

[2]:

Y. 2, 118.

[3]:

Devala.

[4]:

The Munich Manuscript reads “dvyaṃśa,” two shares.

[5]:

M. 9, 210; Vas. 17,51.

[6]:

M. 9, 185; N. 13, 50; also Devala; Vi. 17, 4-9; Y. 2. 120.

[7]:

This applies to brothers (i.e. sons) begotten by many husbands on a widow.

[8]:

Kātyayana.

[9]:

M. 9, 108.

[10]:

Compare “Niveśakāla,” in Chapter II, Book III.

[11]:

N. 13, 27, 33; Y. 2, 124.

[12]:

Y. 2, 117.

[13]:

Y. 2, 126.

[14]:

N. 13, 51, 52; Vi. 17, 13; Baudh. 1, 2, 16.

[15]:

Y. 2, 140; Vi. 15, 32-35; M. 9, 202, 203; also Devala.