दायभागकथनम्The law of inheritance
Verse 9
मृतस्य पुत्रे पौत्रे च कन्यासु पितरि स्थिते । भार्यायामपि दायार्हः पुत्र एव न चापरः ॥ ९ ॥
mṛtasya putrē pautrē ca kanyāsu pitari sthitē | bhāryāyāmapi dāyārhaḥ putra ēva na cāparaḥ || 9 ||
Translation
When a man dies leaving a son, a grandson, daughters, a father and a wife, the son alone takes the inheritance, and no other.
Word by word
- mṛtasya
- of the dead man
- putrē
- a son
- pautrē
- a grandson
- ca
- and
- kanyāsu
- daughters
- pitari
- a father
- sthitē
- being alive
- bhāryāyām
- (bhāryāyām) a wife
- api
- also
- dāya
- the inheritance
- arhaḥ
- (arhaḥ) entitled to
- putraḥ
- (putraḥ) the son
- ēva
- alone
- na
- not
- aparaḥ
- (aparaḥ) another
Meaning
The son unites all three principles: he is nearest, he is of the descending line, and he is male. The commentary gives the reasons the others are passed over: the grandson is farther, the wife and daughters are women, the father is of the ascending line.
Commentary
Hariharānanda Bhāratī’s Sanskrit commentary, translated
But of a man who has gone to the five elements (has died), among the wife, daughters, father, son and grandsons who remain, which takes his wealth? He tells it with "mṛtasya". When a dead man's son, grandson and father are living, and his daughters, his own born girls, are living, and his wife is living too, the son alone is entitled to the inheritance, being nearest, being male and so more principal, and being of the descending line and so greater; no other, the grandson or the rest, is entitled. The grandson is farther than the son; the wife and daughters are not principal, being women; and the father is not greater, being of the ascending line: so they are not entitled. That is the sense.