These terms are also used as expressions of friendship or endowment and also to denote other forms of kinship. The term ‘father’ is applied to a mother’s sister’s husband, or a step father; ‘mother’ to a father’s brother’s wife or a step mother; ‘uncle’ to a father’s sister’s husband or a father-in-law. ‘Aunt’ to a mother’s brother’s wife or mother-in-law. ‘Brother’ to a wife’s or husband’s brother-in-law or a maternal cousin’s husband; ‘Sister’ to a wife’s or husband’s sister-in-law or a maternal cousin’s wife, “male cousin” to a brother-in-law or a paternal cousin’s husband; “female cousin” to a sister-in-law or a paternal cousin’s wife.
The terms son, daughter, nephew, niece, grandson, grand daughter, great grandson and great grand daughter include many kinsfolk of the same generation. A son is one’s own son, or the son of a brother (male speaking), or the son of a sister (female speaking); a daughter is one’s own daughter, the daughter of a brother (M. S.) or the daughter of a sister (F. S.); a nephew is a son-in-law, the son of a sister (M. S.) or the son of a brother (F. S.); a niece is a daughter-in-law, the daughter of a sister (M. S.) or the daughter of a brother (F. S.); a grandson and grand daughter are a ‘son’s’ or ‘daughter’s’ or a ‘nephew’s’ or ‘niece’s’ children, and their sons and daughters are great grand sons and great grand daughters.
Land disputes and the petty offences of a village were settled by the elders in an assembly held at the ambalama or under a tree. The serious difficulties were referred by them in case of a freehold community to the district chief, and in the case of a subject community to the overlord. A manorial overlord was invariably the chief of the district as well.
The paternal ancestral holding of a field, garden and chena devolves on all the sons, but not on sons who were ordained as Buddhist Priests before the father’s demise, nor on daughters who have married and left for their husbands’ homes.
A daughter, however, who lived with her husband at her father’s house has all the rights and privileges of a son, but the husband has no claim whatsoever to his wife’s property, and such a husband is advised to have constantly with him a walking stick, a talipot shade and a torch, as he may be ordered by his wife to quit her house at any time and in any state of the weather.
A daughter who lives in her husband’s home can claim a share in the mother’s property only if the father has left an estate for the sons to inherit; she has, however, a full right with her brothers to any inheritance collaterally derived.
She will not forfeit her share in her father’s inheritance if she returns to her father’s house, or if she leaves a child in her father’s house to be brought up or if she keeps up a close connection with her father’s house.
After her husband’s death she has a life interest on his acquired property, and a right to maintenance from his inherited property. Failing issue, she is the heir to a husband’s acquired property, but the husband’s inherited property goes to the source from whence it came.
A child who has been ungrateful to his parents or has brought disgrace on the family is disinherited; in olden times the father in the presence of witnesses declared his child disinherited, struck a hatchet against a tree or rock and gave his next heir an ola mentioning the fact of disherision.
There is no prescribed form for the adoption of a child who gets all the rights of a natural child, but it is necessary that he is of the same caste as the adopted father, and that he is publicly acknowledged as son and heir.