दायभागकथनम्The law of inheritance
Verse 36
अतः स्थितौ पितृव्यस्य धनं स्वसृगतञ्च सत् । पत्यौ स्थितेऽनपत्याया मृतौ पितृव्यमाश्रयेत् ॥ ३६ ॥
ataḥ sthitau pitṛvyasya dhanaṁ svasṛgatañca sat | patyau sthitē’napatyāyā mṛtau pitṛvyamāśrayēt || 36 ||
Translation
So, while the father's brother lives, wealth that went to a sister, if she dies childless, goes to the father's brother even though her husband is alive.
Word by word
- ataḥ
- (ataḥ) so
- sthitau
- being alive
- pitṛvyasya
- the father's brother
- dhanaṁ
- wealth
- svasṛ
- a sister
- gataṁ
- gone to
- ca
- and
- sat
- being
- patyau
- the husband
- sthitē
- being alive
- anapatyāyāḥ
- (anapatyāyāḥ) of the childless woman
- mṛtau
- at the death
- pitṛvyam
- (pitṛvyam) the father's brother
- āśrayēt
- goes to
Meaning
The sister received it from her brother; leaving no children, she cannot pass it down, so it climbs back through her brother and father to her father's brother, not to her husband. The commentary adds that if she has children it goes to them.
Commentary
Hariharānanda Bhāratī’s Sanskrit commentary, translated
"Ataḥ" and the rest. Therefore, because the property goes upward when there are no descendants, even while the husband, the sister's husband, is living, the wealth that had gone to the sister, on the death of the sister who was childless, without son or daughter, when the father's brother is living, goes to the father's brother: through her brother, her father and the rest it comes to the father's brother. By the qualification "childless" it is indicated that on the death of a sister who has children the wealth that had come to her goes to her children.