Woman as a sister has no claim to inheritance except to the Stridhanam. ‘ Sisters shall have no claim to inheritance: they shall have the bronze plate and jewellery of their mother after her death." 10

Regarding the sons of inter-caste marriage and sons of many wives, he says In the case of sons: such as Suta, Magadha, Vratya and Rathakara, inheritance will go to the capable; and the remainder will devolve upon him form subsistence. In the absence of the capable, all will have equal shares.

’With regard to sons of many wives: sons of two wives of whom only one woman has gone through all the necessary religious ceremonials, or one of whom ‘has been married as a maiden, and the other not as a maiden, or one of whom has brought forth twins, it is by birth that primogeniture is decided." 11

Kautilya thus portrays the position of women in society in Northern India in the fourth century B.C. In the south, Baudhayana, who is a century earlier than Kautilya, has framed laws according to his times. But in Kautilya we meet with greater detail in certain matters, as the marriage of women, elopement and divorce.