Vivadaratnakara of Candesvara Thakkura

The Vivadaratnakara of Candesvara Thakkure (14th cent.) is one of the most comprehensive works on the substantive portion of Hindu law and is respected by the Mithila school as a most authoritative treatise. The peculiar feature of the work is that it cites almost all the Codes of the sages, bearing on a particular subject and puts them in such an order that the various rules of law appear from the texts themselves in their logical sequence. As usual, the Vivadaratnakara contains an important section on Dayabhaga, i.e. laws on inheritance and succession. In this section the author who had been the Minister of Justice in the Court of a king of Mithila and a renowned jurist of his time, defines the term daya i.e. inheritance and judges the interests of different grades of successors. His classification of different types of ‘sons’ and their rights on the property of their deceased father is of great interest. The subject of the women’s right on inherited property has been treated by the author with an unbiased and progressive approach. The work had therefore, been held in great esteem not only by the Mithila school but also by early British jurists and law-makers in India. The present volume contains an accurately edited text of the Dayabhaga portion of the Vivadaratnakara and an English translation prepared by two versatile scholars and practicing advocates of the Calcutta High Court in the late nineteenth Century. The Translation is quite Illuminating and improves, to a great extent, on earlier translations. It removes many misconceptions and misinterpretations of the earlier law writers of British India. An exhaustive introduction presents a brief history of the development of Hindu law codes in general and of the laws of inheritance and succession in particular, and fully brings out the basic philosophy of Hindu law.