Vijnaneshvara

(12th c.) Author of the Mitakshara, a
voluminous commentary on the Yajnavalkya Smrti, itself an example of the
dharma literature, or texts on religious
duty. This particular commentary
played a pivotal role in the British
administration of India. The British were
largely content to have their Indian subjects governed by traditional religious
laws, but to do so, they needed an
accepted standard. For large sections of
British India, the Mitakshara was given
the status of traditional law and was
used as a legal code. The only major part
of India in which Hindus were not subject to this was in Bengal, where the legal
authority was the Dayabhaga. One of
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Vijnaneshvara
the major differences between the two
was in matters of inheritance. The
Mitakshara stresses inheritance by
survivorship, in which only living males
can inherit property, whereas the
Dayabhaga stresses inheritance by succession, in which a dead man’s heirs can
inherit in his name.