दायभागकथनम्The law of inheritance
Verse 5
दण्डयेत् पापिनो राजा यथा पापापनुत्तये । तथैव विभजेद्दायान् नृणां सम्बन्धभेदतः ॥ ५ ॥
daṇḍayēt pāpinō rājā yathā pāpāpanuttayē | tathaiva vibhajēddāyān nṛṇāṁ sambandhabhēdataḥ || 5 ||
Translation
As the king punishes the wicked to remove their sin, so he should divide inheritances among men according to their relationship.
Word by word
- daṇḍayēt
- punishes
- pāpinaḥ
- (pāpinaḥ) the wicked
- rājā
- the king
- yathā
- as
- pāpa
- sin
- apanuttayē
- to remove
- tathā
- so
- ēva
- too
- vibhajēt
- should divide
- dāyān
- inheritances
- nṛṇāṁ
- of men
- sambandha
- of relationship
- bhēdataḥ
- (bhedataḥ) according to the kinds
Meaning
The two halves of the king's justice stand side by side: chapter 11 gave punishment, this chapter gives the division of property. Dāya, the commentary notes, means wealth that passes, an inheritance; the king divides it by the degree of relationship to the one who has died.
Commentary
Hariharānanda Bhāratī’s Sanskrit commentary, translated
But what is that rule, resting on which men will not fall from the good? He tells it with "daṇḍayet" and the rest. As the king, the lord of men, punishes sinful people to remove sin (pāpāpanutti, the destruction of guilt), so too he should divide (vibhajet, make separate) the inheritances (dāya), the property, of men according to the differences of their relationship. "Dāya is in the sense of a gift and of wealth, masculine; as an adjective it means the giver," says the lexicon.