दायभागकथनम्The law of inheritance
Verse 99
पुण्यं वित्तं च विद्या च नाश्रयेदशरीरिणम् । शरीरन्तु पितुर्यस्मात् किन्न स्यात् पैतृकं वसु ॥ ९९ ॥
puṇyaṁ vittaṁ ca vidyā ca nāśrayēdaśarīriṇam | śarīrantu pituryasmāt kinna syāt paitṛkaṁ vasu || 99 ||
Translation
Merit, wealth and learning do not rest on one who has no body; and since the body is from the father, what wealth would not be the father's?
Word by word
- puṇyaṁ
- merit
- vittaṁ
- wealth
- ca
- and
- vidyā
- learning
- na
- not
- āśrayēt
- rest on
- aśarīriṇam
- (aśarīriṇam) one without a body
- śarīram
- (śarīram) the body
- tu
- and
- pituḥ
- (pituḥ) from the father
- yasmāt
- (yasmāt) since
- kim
- (kim) what
- syāt
- would be
- paitṛkaṁ
- the father's
- vasu
- wealth
Meaning
Verses 99-101 meet an argument: everything a man gains rests on his body, and his body is from his father; so is not everything he gains his father's, to be shared by all the heirs? Verse 99 states the argument.
Commentary
Hariharānanda Bhāratī’s Sanskrit commentary, translated
If, because the body is from the father, learning, wealth and the rest that rest on the body were also paternal, then all wealth earned even by men living apart with separate food and property would belong to the father, and nothing would be self-earned. Therefore all property gained by one's own toil is to be known as self-earned and owned by the earner alone: this he tells in three verses, from "puṇyam" to "na cāparaḥ". Since merit (puṇya, dharma), wealth and learning, knowledge of the truths of the śāstras and the rest, do not rest on, do not cling to, one without a body, but rest only on one who has a body, and the body is the father's, belongs to the father, why then would not all wealth (vasu) be paternal, belong to the father? All wealth would surely be paternal.