Note 20 — G

Inheritance. 7. They follow the Hindu law of inheritance. Among the married people (grihasth) the daughter has no rights of succession; among the dancing classes, on the contrary, the shares of a daughter and a son are equal, and if a dancing girl lives with her friends and dies among them, the uncle, mother, son, daughter, and brother would share equally. On this question the Hindu law, as laid down by Mr. Mayne,20 is clear. “It is hardly necessary to say that as under the ordinary Hindu law an adoption by a widow must always be to her husband, and for his benefit, an adoption made by her to herself alone would not give the adopted child any right, even after her death, to property inherited by her from her husband, nor indeed to her own property, however acquired, such an adoption being nowhere recognised as creating any new status, except in Mithila, under the Kritima system. But among dancing girls it is customary in Madras and Western India to adopt girls to follow their adoptive mother’s profession, and the girls so adopted succeed to their mother’s property. No particular ceremonies are necessary, recognition alone being sufficient. In Calcutta, however, such adoptions have been held illegal, and it seems probable that the recognised immorality of the class of dancing girls might lead the courts generally to follow this view.”