In Hindu law, there
are various different inheritance arrangements.
Matrilineal succession, in which inheritance is handed down
via the mother's line, is practiced by a few groups in southern India.
In most of the remainder of India, inheritance is passed
down down the generations.
According to the instructions contained in two important
legal texts: the Dayabhaga in Bengal and variations on the Mitakshara across
most of India, patrilineal inheritance takes two primary forms.
Only men born into the male line are given joint family
property by the Mitakshara.
Although the head of the family is usually in charge of
running the family property, all men have equal interests.
The death of a male heir immediately raises the share of all
other surviving males, but the birth of a male diminishes the share of all
other surviving males.
Women do not have the right to inherit familial property
under the Mitakshara, but they do have rights to personal wealth (stridhan)
that was theirs to gift and inherit.
Only live persons may inherit property under the Mitakshara
system, which was founded on the concept of survivorship.
The Dayabhaga model emphasizes succession, with sons
becoming shares of the family property after their father's death, rather than
upon birth.
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.
Both widows and daughters might have a portion in family
property under the Dayabhaga model, and they are entitled to operate as agents
in their own right.
Although this seems to be significantly more beneficial to
women in principle, it is known to have had some horrific effects in practice.
The popularity of sati, the practice in which a widow is
burnt on her husband's funeral pyre, astounded the British when they first
arrived in Bengal late in the eighteenth century.
Sati seems to have been less widespread in many other
regions of India, based on admittedly little evidence.
One explanation for the disparity is that sati was used by the family to prevent their daughter-in-law, who was an outsider to the family, from gaining authority over their ancestral land.
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