PROVASHINI DEBI Vs. JOGGESWAR BANERJEE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The question which we are required to determine in this appeal, is whether under the Hindu law current in the Bengal School, a Brahmin rival wife's daughter is entitled to succeed to the streedhan of a deceased Hindu in preference to her husband's brother. The property is the pitridatta streedhan property of the deceased, that is to say, it is gift and a bequest from her father after marriage. The decision of the question depends on the meaning of para. 16 in Ch. IV Section ii of Dayabhaga of Jimutavahana, who is the paramount authority in the Bengal School. That paragraph has been translated by Colebrooke as follows:

(2.) The correctness of the translation is not challenged. The word 'damsel' in the translation by Colebrooke represents the word 'Kanya' in the original text of Manu.

(3.) Learned counsel for the appellant lays Stress on the word 'Brahmani' in the words 'Brahmani Kanya' and says that the paragraph has reference to a Brahmin rival wife's daughter. He contended that in early days a Brahmin male could take for a wife a Brahmin or a Kshatriya or a Sudra wife and the use of the word 'Brahmani' suggested that it was the daughter of the Brahmin rival wife who would succeed in preference to the offspring of a rival wife belonging to other caste. We are unable to accept that contention because it overlooks the succeeding words 'or let it belong to her offspring.'