Previous Year Question
With reference to the history of ancient India, which of the following statements is/are correct?
Mitakshara was the civil law for upper castes and Dayabhaga was the civil law for lower castes.
In the Mitakshara system, the sons can claim right to the property during the lifetime of the father, whereas in the Dayabhaga system, it is only after the death of the father that the sons can claim right to the property.
The Mitakshara system deals with the matters related to the property held by male members only of a family, whereas the Dayabhaga system deals with the matters related to the property held by both male and female members of a family.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
Correct Answer: B
Detailed Solution
Statement 1 is incorrect. The distinction between Mitakshara and Dayabhaga was not based on upper and lower castes. They were two principal schools of Hindu law. Historically, Dayabhaga prevailed mainly in Bengal, while Mitakshara prevailed over most other parts of India and developed sub-schools such as Banaras, Mithila, Maharashtra and Dravida. Therefore, describing them as caste-based civil laws is incorrect.
Statement 2 is correct. This is one of the fundamental differences between the two systems. Under Mitakshara, a son acquired an interest in ancestral property by birth and therefore possessed a coparcenary interest even during his father's lifetime. Under Dayabhaga, the son acquired no such birthright in ancestral property; his right arose after the father's death through succession. Judicial explanations record this distinction very clearly.
In simple terms:
Mitakshara → right in ancestral property by birth
Dayabhaga → right arises after father's death
Statement 3 is incorrect. It is not correct to say that Mitakshara dealt only with property held by males. Chapter II, Section XI of the Mitakshara itself deals with women's property/Stridhana and its succession. Judicial decisions explicitly quote Vijnaneshvara's Mitakshara on property acquired by a woman through inheritance, purchase, partition and other means. Thus, describing Mitakshara as a “male-property only” system is factually incorrect.
The confusion arises because the traditional Mitakshara coparcenary conferred birth-based coparcenary rights principally on male descendants. But “membership of the coparcenary” and “whether the entire Mitakshara system dealt only with men's property” are different questions. Similarly, the existence of certain female inheritance rights under Dayabhaga does not make the basic distinction simply “men only versus men and women”. The central differences concerned principles such as birthright versus succession after death.