A Treatise on Inheritance, Gift, Will, Sale and Mortgage; With an Introduction on the Laws of the Bengal Presidency (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: I'1 CHAPTER V. On the Order of Succession according to Hindu Law. 1.?Introduction. Foundation of 149. The law of inheritance of the Hindoos is connected with the Hindu Law . . . ., ... ., ., ., CT of inheritance, their opinion about transmigration. Wealth, say tne bages, is 1 Spiritual either for temporal enjoyment, or for spiritual benefit; now since benefit of the deceased. the acquirer is dead, he cannot have the temporal enjoyment of it; it is therefore right that he should enjoy its spiritual benefit. The inheritance is therefore to be applied for the benefit of the deceased, and the order of succession is regulated by the degree of benefit. To extricate the spirit from its otherwise hopeless state, funeral rites are performed; to three, says Menu,1 must libations of water be made, to three must oblations of food be presented; the fourth in descent is the giver of those offerings, but the fifth has no concern with them. 2. Eight to The spiritual benefit of the deceased is thus the original founda- maintenance of . . survivors. tlon i the law of inheritance, but the right of certain persons to maintenance seems to have been subsequently recognised, and to have caused a new principle to be added,2 and persons to be admitted as heirs, who would otherwise have been excluded; and as the new principle does not well agree with the former, the reasonings and arguments of the learned, in order to obtain consistency, are sometimes rather confused. 1 Menu, book, ix. sect. 186. 2 Daya Bhaga, i. No. 45, " they who are born aad they who are yet unbe. gotten, and they who are actually in the womb, all require the means of support.'' Succession 150. The succession is consequently not regulated by near- upon nearae'ss nes3 kin, but by presentation of ...