Dayabhaga and Mitakshara

Since the ancient times, patrilineal Hindu Law is divided into two schools—Dayabhaga and Mitakshara. Dayabhaga prevails in West Bengal, Assam and Tripura whereas Mitaksharais followed in the rest of India. Mitakshara school of law is further subdivided into Benaras, Mithila, Mayukha(Mumbai) and Dravidia (Southern) sub-schools. The schools differ radically in their approach and scope and in their interpretation of the term sapinda with respect to inheritance laws. Mitakshara interprets it as “of the same body” and as successor implies a close relative who is a descendent of a common ancestor. But such succession is required to be always from the male line thus implying that even distant male cousins can inherit property of a deceased but not his own daughter. While both the schools were based on texts of Manu, the Mitakshara system founded by Vigneswara followed a rigid patriarchal system where inheritance rights and competence of women were not recognized.Jimutvahana, the founder of Dayabhaga or the Bengal School of Law critically differed on this. According to him, sapinda is any relative who can offer pindas (balls of rice offered during funeral) to the deceased and includes cognates i.e women in the family as well, thus making them equally legitimate and free to inherit theproperty. Women, as per Mitakshara School however, have no direct right over property which they can inherit only through marriage or through their son. Dayabhaga contradicts this and proposes free and equal inheritance rights for a daughter of a deceased in the same manner as his sons. The two schools differ on widow rights too. While the Mitakshara reluctantly recognizes the property rights of a widow on the death of her husband only if he had no male heir or was separated from his brother—who otherwise should inherit first; in the Bengal School of Law, the widow’s right to property is natural and primary, irrespective of the fact whether her husband died united or separated from his brothers.This provision has often been considered to be a fundamental rational behind the infernal custom of Sati practiced among the Kulin Brahmins of Bengal in the early 19^th century,where widows were incited to self-immolate so that their inheritance rights could be transferred to others.