Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 412

THE DIVISION OF PROPERTY
372
The work from which I have extracted these particulars
relating to adoption also furnishes a solution of some of
the difficulties that arise in certain cases with regard to
the division of property. The little that it contains on
the subject seems to me sufficiently interesting.
find there laid down the supposititious case of a man
who, after adopting a son, has subsequently had, contrary
to his expectation, six children by his legitimate wife,
namely, four boys and two girls. The father and two of
one of the girls and the adopted son are
the boys die
married there remain two boys and a girl who are un-
married and provision must also be made for the sub-
The question is, How, in such
sistence of the widow.
a case, ought the property devolved by succession to be
We
;
;
;
divided
?
First, the
The answer given is to the following effect
amount necessary for the funeral expenses of the deceased
father ought to be set apart, and the money required for
:
the marriage of the three unmarried children ought to be
placed in the hands of a trustworthy executor.
Secondly, the property that remains after these amounts
have been set aside shall be divided into six shares. The
adopted son shall take for himself a share and a half, and
the remainder shall be equally divided among the brothers
and the mother. Should the mother be dead, the property
is divided only into five shares and a half, unless all the
brothers, with common accord, relinquish on behalf of their
unmarried sister, with the object of providing her with
jewels, that part of the inheritance which would have fallen
to the mother, who is perfectly at liberty, before her death,
to dispose of this share in favour of her daughters, without
the slightest objection being raised thereto by the sons.
If she has not done so, the brothers alone, independently
of the sisters, set apart a reasonable amount for a decent
funeral, and divide equally among themselves whatever
remains of her property.
This decision of the Brahmins, while in accordance with
the general custom of the country, which entitles sons to
equal shares of the paternal property, and excludes the
daughters by merely granting them a dowry, departs from
it in so far as mothers have no share whatever in the pro-