Page images
PDF
EPUB

attains immortality, was begotten from a 'fense of duty: all the reft are confidered by the wife as begotten from love of pleasure.

[ocr errors]

108. Let the father alone fupport his fons; and the first born, his younger brothers; and let them behave to the eldeft, according to law, as children should behave to their father. The first born, if virtuous, exalts the family, or, if vitious, destroys it: the first born is in this world the most respectable; and the "good never treat him with disdain.

109.

6

110. If an elder brother act, as an elder brother ought, he is to be revered as a mother, as a father; and, even if he have not the behaviour of a good elder brother, he should be refpected as a maternal uncle, or other kins

· man.

[ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors]

111. Either let them thus live together, or, if they defire separately to perform religious rites, let them live apart; fince religious duties are multiplied in feparate houses, their feparation is, therefore, legal and even laudable.

-་ I 12.

The portion deducted for the eldest is

a twentieth part of the heritage, with the beft

of all the chattels; for the middlemoft, half

of that, or a fortieth; for the youngest, a quarter of it, or an eightieth.

113.

The eldest and youngest refpectively

'take their just mentioned portions; and, if there be more than one between them, each • of the intermediate fons has the mean portion, " or the fortieth.

[ocr errors]

114.

' Of all the goods collected, let the first born, if he be tranfcendantly learned and vir'tuous, take the beft article, whatever is most • excellent in its kind, and the best of ten cows or the like:

115. But, among brothers equally skilled in performing their feveral duties, there is no deduction of the beft in ten, or the most excel'lent chattel; though fome trifle, as a mark of greater veneration, fhould be given to the first • born.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

116. If a deduction be thus made, let equal 'fhares of the refidue be afcertained and reIceived; but, if there be no deduction, the • shares must be diftributed in this manner:

[ocr errors]

117. 'Let the eldest have a double fhare, and the next born, a fhare and a half, if they clearly furpass the reft in virtue and learning; 'the younger fons must have each a share: if ⚫ all be equal in good qualities, they must all take 'fhare and share alike.

118. To the unmarried daughters by the 'fame mother, let their brothers give portions out of their own allotments refpectively, according to the claffes of their feveral mothers:

'let each give a fourth part of his own distinct ' share; and they, who refuse to give it, shall ⚫ be degraded.

[ocr errors]

119. 'Let them never divide the value of a fingle goat or fheep, or a single beast with • uncloven hoofs: a fingle goat or sheep remaining after an equal diftribution belongs to

6

the first born.

120. Should a younger brother in the manner before mentioned have begotten a fon on the ' wife of his deceafed elder brother, the divifion 'must then be made equally between that fon, • who reprefents the deceased, and his natural father: thus is the law fettled.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

121. The representative is not so far wholly fubftituted by law in the place of the deceased principal, as to have the portion of an elder fon; and the principal became a father in confequence of the procreation by his younger brother; the fon, therefore, is entitled by law to an equal share, but not to a double portion.

122. A younger fon being born of a first 'married wife, after an elder fon had been "born of a wife last married, but of a lower Sclafs, it may be a doubt in that cafe, how the divifion fhall be made:

[ocr errors]

123. Let the fon, born of the elder wife, take one moft excellent bull deducted from the inheritance: the next excellent bulls are

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

for thofe, who were born firft, but are inferior on account of their mothers, who were married

laft.

124.

A fon, indeed, who was first born, and brought forth by the wife first married, may take, if learned and virtuous, one bull and fifteen cows; and the other fons may then take, each in right of his feveral mother; fuch is the fixed rule.

125. 'As between fons, born of wives equal in their clafs and without any other diftinction, there can be no feniority in right of the mother; but the feniority ordained by law, is according to the birth.

126. The right of invoking INDRA by the texts, called fwabrábmanyá, depends on actual priority of birth; and of twins alfo, if any fuch • be conceived among different wives, the eldest is he, who was firft actually born.

[ocr errors]

127. He, who has no fon, may appoint his

daughter in this manner to raise up a son for • him, faying: "the male child, who fhall be "born from her in wedlock, fhall be mine for "the purpose of performing my obfequies."

[ocr errors]

128. In this manner DACSHA himfelf, lord of created beings, anciently appointed all his * fifty daughters to raise up fons to him, for the 'fake of multiplying his race:

129. • He gave ten to DHERMA, thirteen to

CASYAPA, twenty-feven to SóмA, king of

• Bráhmens and medical plants, after doing ho

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

nour to them with an affectionate heart.

130. THE fon of a man is even as himself; and as the fon, fuch is the daughter thus appointed: how then, if he have no son, can any inherit his property, but a daughter, who is clofely united with his own foul?

[ocr errors]

131. Property, given to the mother on her marriage, is inherited by her unmarried daughter; and the son of a daughter, appointed in the manner juft mentioned, fhall inherit the whole estate of her father, who leaves no fon by himself begotten:

132. The fon, however, of fuch a daughter,

who fucceeds to all the wealth of her father

dying without a fon, must offer two funeral

cakes, one to his own father, and one to the 'father of his mother.

133. Between a fon's fon and the fon of 'fuch a daughter, there is no difference in law; fince their father and mother both sprang from the body of the fame man:

[ocr errors]

134. But, a daughter having been appointed to produce a fon for her father, and a fon, begotten by himself, being afterwards born, the divifion of the heritage muft in that cafe be equal; fince there is no right of primogeni⚫ture for a woman.

« PreviousContinue »