The earlier writers have mentioned twelve kinds of sons. A few text writers mentioned two more kinds of sons. All of them except the following three have become obsolete:—
(1) The aurasa or the legitimate sons. The son begotten by a man himself upon his lawfully wedded wife is the aurasa, the best of all sons.
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(2) The dattaka or the adopted sons. A boy given voluntarily by his parents to an unfortunate son-less man being of the same caste and gift confirmed with a libation of water is known as the dattaka of the man to whom he is given.
(3) Kritrima or the son made. A boy accepted like one’s own son for the sake of his qualities as such, after examining his qualities or faults as a son of one’s own caste, is known as the Kritrima son. The latter two are different kinds of adopted sons.
The following kinds of sons have been enumerated under the old law:
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(4) Kshetraja—The son begotten by niyoga, as approved by the Shastra, on one’s own wife by another man with the consent of the husband, or impotent, is known as Kshetraja.
(5) Gudhaja—Son secretly brought forth by the wife. A son born in the family but as to who begot him being unknown, is known as the gudhottpanna (gudhaja) son of the one on whose wife he is begotten.
(6) Kanina—Son secretly born to an unmarried damsel. The secretly born to a maiden in her father’s house is known as the kanina son of the one who marries her.
(7) Putrika putra—Son of an adopted daughter. The sonless man may appoint his daughter with the words ‘the son of his daughter shall perform my Shraddha’ or this daughter of mine who has no brother, give thee decked with ornaments. The son begotten on her shall be like my son. The son begotten on a daughter appointed in this manner was called the putrikaputra and Manusmriti treated such a son at par with the aurasa son.
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(8) Sahodhaja—Son born of a wife who was pregnant at the time of marriage. The son born of that pregnancy is known as the sohadha (sohadhaja) son of that man.
(9) Krita—Son purchased. The son, whether of one’s own caste or not, purchased for a price from his parents is the Krita son of the purchaser.
(10) Kritrima—Son made that is orphan and adopted.
(11) Svayamadatta—Where an abandoned son offers himself to someone. An orphan or one who is without cause deserted by his parents, becomes the svayamadatta son of one to whom he offers himself as such.
(12) Paunarbhava—Son of a remarried woman. The son born to a woman deserted by her husband or a remarried widow, of her own desire, is known as the paunarbhava son of the begettor.
(13) Apviddha—Where an abandoned son was accepted by a person on his own initiative.
(14) One more kind of son was added by some law givers, called Nishad, i.e., a son of a Brahmin by his shudra wife.
Of these the first alone was recognised as the son in the proper sense of the term, and the second also was regarded as almost equal to him in rank. Besides these two, the others were sons only in a secondary sense, and were more or less held in disfavour. Manu has declared: “A person who wishes to cross the darkness of the future would through sons of an inferior class obtains the same sort of results as a person who wishes to cross a stream by an ill constructed vessel.”
The Privy Council in a case held that whatever may have been the original position and status of these twelve or the thirteen sons, all of them except the legitimately born and the adopted (i.e., Aurasa and Dattaka and the Kritrima son in Mithila and the son of an appointed daughter among the Nambudris of Malabar) are long since obsolete.
Manu declared that: “the one who tries to cross the hell with the help of bad sons obtains result similar to those obtained by one who tries to pass the water with the help of a slave. It is sometimes criticised that recognition of all these kinds of sons exhibits a big anamoly in the Hindu domestic life because recognition of illegitimate sons as sons in proper sence renders the Hindu Jurisprudence into low esteem.
But this kind of decision is not sustainable. Hindu Jurisprudence tried to bestow a status on these subsidiary sons so that they could be nourshiscd under the Patria Potestas under some individual so that they may not turn vagabonds and create problems in the society. It is not that the anxiety to have a son led the Hindus to go to the extent of permitting an immoral relations in the domestic life.
Parasher professed only four kinds of sons for the Kaliyug Aurasa, Kshetraja, Dattaka, and Kritrima but this list was further curtailed to only Aurasa and Dattaka kinds of sons. But in modern time, our present study concerned as we are with the secular aspect of Hindu law, we can classify sonship into: (1) Legitimate, (2) Illegitimate, and (3) Adoption.