दायभागकथनम्The law of inheritance
Verse 19
स्थिते प्रेतस्य पौत्रे च भार्यायाञ्च पितर्यपि । पौत्र एव धनार्हः स्यादधस्ताज्जन्मगौरवात् ॥ १९ ॥
sthitē prētasya pautrē ca bhāryāyāñca pitaryapi | pautra ēva dhanārhaḥ syādadhastājjanmagauravāt || 19 ||
Translation
When the dead man's grandson, his wife and his father are alive, the grandson alone is entitled to the wealth, by the weight of birth in the descending line.
Word by word
- sthitē
- alive
- prētasya
- of the dead man
- pautrē
- the grandson
- ca
- and
- bhāryāyāṁ
- the wife
- pitari
- the father
- api
- also
- pautraḥ
- (pautraḥ) the grandson
- ēva
- alone
- dhana
- to the wealth
- arhaḥ
- (arhaḥ) entitled
- syāt
- is
- adhastāt
- (adhastāt) in the descending line
- janma
- of birth
- gauravāt
- (gauravāt) by the weight
Meaning
A son's son ranks above both the widow and the father: he is male and of the line that descends, and the descending line carries the greater weight (verse 7).
Commentary
Hariharānanda Bhāratī’s Sanskrit commentary, translated
But when a man has died, and his father, his wife and his grandson are living, which of them shares his wealth? To that he says "sthite" and the rest. When the grandson of the departed (preta), the dead man, is living, and the father too is living, and the wife is living, the grandson alone is entitled to the wealth, fit for it, because of the weight (gaurava, greatness) of those whose birth is below, in the descending line.