दायभागकथनम्The law of inheritance
Verse 106
अस्वामिकानां जीवानामस्वामिकधनस्य च । प्राप्ता तत्र भवेत् स्वामी दशमांशं नृपेऽर्पयेत् ॥ १०६ ॥
asvāmikānāṁ jīvānāmasvāmikadhanasya ca | prāptā tatra bhavēt svāmī daśamāṁśaṁ nṛpē’rpayēt || 106 ||
Translation
Of creatures and wealth that have no owner, the finder becomes the owner; he should give a tenth to the king.
Word by word
- asvāmikānāṁ
- having no owner
- jīvānām
- (jīvānām) of creatures
- asvāmika
- ownerless
- dhanasya
- of wealth
- ca
- and
- prāptā
- the finder
- tatra
- there
- bhavēt
- becomes
- svāmī
- the owner
- daśama
- a tenth
- aṁśaṁ
- share
- nṛpē
- to the king
- arpayēt
- should give
Meaning
Stray cattle or horses and ownerless goods belong to the finder, less the king's tenth.
Commentary
Hariharānanda Bhāratī’s Sanskrit commentary, translated
But do ownerless creatures that are found, cattle, horses and the like, and such goods found, go to the finder or to the lord of the land? To this doubt he says "asvāmikānām" and the rest. Of ownerless creatures, without a master, cattle, horses and the rest, and of ownerless wealth, the person who finds them becomes the owner of what he has found; and of it the finder should hand over, give, a tenth share to the king. In "jīvānām" and "dhanasya" the genitive is of the object, by "kartṛkarmaṇoḥ kṛti".