Historical perspective of traditional Hindu law as a background to the study of Hindu succession Act 1956

Your grandfather's house in Dadar or Pune may have been held for decades by three brothers who never formally divided it. Everyone simply called it the family property. Why did the law once say that a son was a co-owner of it from the day he was born, while a daughter was not? And why does it say something different today? The answer lies in a long tradition of texts, commentaries and customs, and in the 1956 Act that finally replaced much of it with a written code.

In two minutes

Before 1956 Hindu succession was governed by uncodified sources (sacred texts, commentaries, digests and custom) read through two main schools, Mitakshara and Dayabhaga; the Hindu Succession Act 1956 replaced these rules wherever it makes provision, and s.4 says so expressly.

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