Page:A Digest of the Hindu Law of Inheritance, Partition, and Adoption.djvu/224

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128

HINDU LAW.

[BOOK I.

§ 1. B. (17) Spiritual Relations.—On the failure of Bandhus a a preceptor, on failure of him a pupil, and on failure of him a fellow-student, inherit the property of a separate house-holder of the Brahman caste.

Authorities.

Mit. Chap. II., sec. 7, paras. 1 and 2; Vyav. May. Chap. IV., sec. 7, paras. 24 and 25.

§ 1. B. (18) The Brahman Community.—On the failure of a fellow- student, learned Brahmans (Srotriyas), on failure of them other Brahmans, take the estate of a separate householder of the Brahman caste.

Authorities.

Mit. Chap. II., sec. 7, paras. 4 and 5; Vyav. May. Chap. IV., sec. 8, paras. 25 and 26.

For the point that this succession is restricted to the property of a Brahman, see the passage from Vijnanesvara, translated above p. 125, where no mention is made of the Brahman community by Yajnavalkya, and the Mitakshara expressly excludes it from succession to a trader.

This succession has been disallowed by the English Courts. See Stokes's Hindu Law Books, p. 449, note a, and The Collector of Masulipatam v. Cavaly Vencata Narrainappa^[1].

↑ 8 M. I. A. 520. The succession of the caste on failure of other heirs is not provided for except in the case of Brahmans. In their case it rests perhaps on an idea of dedication in grants to a Brahman, so that resumption would be a kind of sacrilege, and property once given must in case of need çy près to other Brahmans who have moreover a kind of spiritual title to the world and all that it contains (Col. Dig., Book II., Chap. II., T. 24; Manu. VIII. 37, VII. 33). But tribal succession is found in many districts on the Northern frontier of India where any tribal organisation has been preserved, and was probably at one time general amongst the indigenous tribes (see Panj. Cust. Law. vol. II., p. 240, etc.). It may be traced to tribal distribution of the whole or of part of the tribal lands to individual members, of which many instances occur; ibid. pp. 254, 214, and vol. I., pp. 93, 94. See also Mr. Chaplin's Report on the Dekkhan, Rev. and Jud. Sel. vol. IV., pp. 474, 475; and comp. Arist. Pol. IV. (VII.) Chap. X., and Bolland and Lang's Edn. Introd. Chaps. IV. and XIII.

[1] 8 M. I. A. 520. The succession of the caste on failure of other heirs is not provided for except in the case of Brahmans. In their case it rests perhaps on an idea of dedication in grants to a Brahman, so that resumption would be a kind of sacrilege, and property once given must in case of need çy près to other Brahmans who have moreover a kind of spiritual title to the world and all that it contains (Col. Dig., Book II., Chap. II., T. 24; Manu. VIII. 37, VII. 33). But tribal succession is found in many districts on the Northern frontier of India where any tribal organisation has been preserved, and was probably at one time general amongst the indigenous tribes (see Panj. Cust. Law. vol. II., p. 240, etc.). It may be traced to tribal distribution of the whole or of part of the tribal lands to individual members, of which many instances occur; ibid. pp. 254, 214, and vol. I., pp. 93, 94. See also Mr. Chaplin's Report on the Dekkhan, Rev. and Jud. Sel. vol. IV., pp. 474, 475; and comp. Arist. Pol. IV. (VII.) Chap. X., and Bolland and Lang's Edn. Introd. Chaps. IV. and XIII.

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