adoption & marriage: legal question

[Patrick Olivelle]

At least in the Dharmasastras, there is no instance of adoption for
the sake of marrying the daughter; also silent whether an adopted son
could marry a biological daughter -- probably not.
Patrick



>with regard to the suggestions regarding niyoga and appointment of a
>daughter as putrikaa, the (or rather an) interesting point is that
>the text is entirely uninterested in this aspect: there is no mention
>of inheritance. But I presume, and have not been disabused of this
>notion by the responses so far, that there is no particular reason
>for the son-in-law in the story in question to have been adopted,
>since the daughter could (although this is not mentioned) have
>inherited. Shall I assume that within the putative original context,
>an audience would have assumed the daughter to the heir, even if the
>story never mentions it? Moreover, may I presume by the silence of
>the zi.s.tas that another of my assumptions was correct and actually
>adopting the young man would, in fact, make his marriage to the
>daughter an incestuous one?
>
>JAS
>--
>Jonathan Silk
>Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures
>Center for Buddhist Studies
>UCLA
>290 Royce Hall
>Box 951540
>Los Angeles, CA 90095-1540
>phone: (310)206-8235
>fax:  (310)825-8808
>silk at humnet.ucla.edu