Part 6 (2/2)

”No person is to obtain the land of a _co-heir_, as of a brother, or of a cousin, or of a second cousin, by claiming it as heir to that one co-heir who shall have died without leaving an heir of his body: but by claiming it as heir _to one of his own parents_, who had been owner of that land until his death without heir, whether a father, or grandfather, or great-grandfather: that land he is to have, if he be the nearest of kin to the deceased.”(135)

This of course refers to inheritance within the group of co-heirs, the members of which held their position by virtue of their common relations.h.i.+p within certain degrees to the founder. And we may infer that emphasis was thus laid on the proof of relations.h.i.+p by _direct descent_, in order to prevent shares in the inheritance pa.s.sing from hand to hand unnoticed, beyond the strict limit where subdivision could be claimed _per capita_ by the individual representatives of the diverging _stirpes_.

(M62) The kindred in the _Ordinances of Manu_ is divided into two groups:-

1. Sapindas, who owe the _funeral cake_ at the tomb.

2. Samanodakas, who pour the _water libation_ at the tomb.

”To _three ancestors_ the water libation must be made; for _three ancestors_ the funeral cake is prepared; the fourth (descendant or generation) is the giver (of the water and the cake); the _fifth has properly nothing to do_ (with either gift).”(136)

This may be put in tabular form:-

Receivers of water.

1. Great-grandfather's great-grandfather.

2. Great-grandfather's grandfather.

3. Great-grandfather's father.

Receivers of cake.

1. Great-grandfather.

2. Grandfather.

3. Father.

4. Giver of cake and water 5. Excluded

Or inversely:-

Givers of cake or _Sapindas_.

Householder Brothers 1st cousins 2nd cousins

Pourers of water or _Samanodakas_.

3rd cousins 4th cousins 5th cousins

Within the _Sapinda_-s.h.i.+p of his mother, a ”twice-born” man may not marry.(137) Outside the _Sapinda_-s.h.i.+p, a wife or widow, ”commissioned” to bear children to the name of her husband, must not go.

”Now _Sapinda_-s.h.i.+p ceases with the seventh person, but the relations.h.i.+p of a Samanodaka (ends) with the ignorance of birth and name.”(138)

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