दायभागकथनम्The law of inheritance
Verse 21
विद्यमानासु कन्यासु सन्निकृष्टास्वपि प्रिये । मृतस्य पौत्रो धनभाक् यतो मुख्यतरः पुमान् ॥ २१ ॥
vidyamānāsu kanyāsu sannikṛṣṭāsvapi priyē | mṛtasya pautrō dhanabhāk yatō mukhyataraḥ pumān || 21 ||
Translation
Even when daughters, who are nearer, are alive, O beloved, the dead man's grandson takes the wealth, for the male comes first.
Word by word
- vidyamānāsu
- being alive
- kanyāsu
- daughters
- sannikṛṣṭāsu
- nearer
- api
- even
- priyē
- O beloved
- mṛtasya
- of the dead man
- pautraḥ
- (pautraḥ) the grandson
- dhana
- the wealth
- bhāk
- takes
- yataḥ
- (yataḥ) for
- mukhyataraḥ
- (mukhyataraḥ) comes first
- pumān
- the male
Meaning
Nearness yields to sex here: a son's son inherits before the dead man's own daughters.
Commentary
Hariharānanda Bhāratī’s Sanskrit commentary, translated
Of a man who has gone to heaven, even when daughters nearer than the grandson are living, the grandson alone takes the wealth, because the male stands first: this he tells with "vidyamānāsu" and the rest. O dear one, even when the dead man's daughters are living, though they are nearer, near at hand, the grandson takes the wealth, because the male, the man, is more principal, stands first. Then the grandson alone takes the wealth.