("inheritance partition") Jimutavahana, a Bengali scholar, wrote a crucial legal work (early twelfth century).
The Dayabhaga was concerned with inheritance, partition, and property division, as its name suggests, and it ultimately became the fundamental legal code for the whole Bengal cultural area.
The Dayabhaga's inheritance pattern emphasizes succession rather than survivorship, which is substantially different from the typical Hindu pattern of survivorship.
Survivorship provides equal parts of the family property to all surviving males in the male line, but no inheritance to women.
When a male heir dies, the share of all the other surviving males rises, and when another male is born, the share of all the other surviving males drops.
The Dayabhaga succession model states that boys do not become shareholders in the family property upon birth, but rather at their father's death.
If a son dies before his father, the son's heirs (including his wife and kids) become inheritors as representatives of the dead heir, not as individuals.
Widows and daughters may therefore have a portion in family property and can serve as agents in their own right under the Dayabhaga.
Although this arrangement seems to be significantly more beneficial to women in principle, it has had some horrific consequences in practice.
When the British arrived in Bengal in the late eighteenth century, they were shocked to learn that sati, a ceremony in which a widow is burnt on her husband's burial pyre, was widespread.
In many other regions of India, sati seems to have been less frequent, and one explanation is that this process was used by the family to guarantee that their daughter-in-law, who was an outsider to the family, would not be able to obtain authority over any of their ancestral property.
You may also want to read more about Hinduism here.
Be sure to check out my writings on religion here.
