While the Mitakshara is adopted in all parts of India as authoritative, the Dayabhaga and other commentaries of the Bengal school reverted to an older source, viz, Katyayana and Yajnavalkya , though instances of their-agreement with the Mitakshara law are not wanting. The connecting link between the Mitakshara and Dayabhaga law, as Prof. Jolly has pointed out, has been lost and, when the commentators of Bengal wrote their expositions of the texts, they often protested against the Mitakshara law, though they conformed to the injunctions of Yajnavalkya and Katyayana, and in course of time proved themselves formidable rivals to the Benares school.

The South maintained an unbroken tradition of Vedic culture, and hence the books and commentaries of the South came to be considered as the most authoritative treatises and were accordingly adopted all over India. The position of woman, as gathered from these commentaries, is pitiable. Many of the older institutions, giving woman greater freedom in society, are now abolished; and in their place child- marriage, polygamy, Sati rite, seclusion of women and such customs that helped to stagnate the life of a woman came into force. She had, however, some right over the Stridhana; but we find the commentators trying to restrict its value as far as they possibly could. Katyayana limits a woman is property to 2,000 annas only.