What is the governing principle of succession ac­cording to the Dayabhaga?

The property of the deceased Hindu governed by Dayabhaga School of law passes by succession including his share in undivided property.

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Succession is governed by the capacity for conferring spiritual benefit. The foundation of the doctrine of spiritual benefit is the Parvana Sradha ceremony. Three kinds of offering are presented to the deceased.

(1) Pinda or an entire cake; called an undivided oblation.

(2) Pinda leaps or remnants of the pindas which cling to the hand while making the ingredients of which the pindas are com­posed, called a divided oblation; and

The pinda is offered to the three immediate paternal ances­tors, i.e., father, grandfather and the great grandfather; and the three immediate maternal ancestors, i.e. the maternal grandfather, the maternal great grandfather and the maternal great grandfather.

The pinda leaps are offered to three personal ancestors next above those to whom pinda is offered.

The libatius of water are offered to the seven paternal ances­tors next above those to whom pinda-leaps are offered.

He who offers a pinda-leaps and he to whom they are offered are the Sakulyas of each other.

He who offers libations of water and to whom they are offered arc Samanodakas of each other.

But this is not exhaustive list of Sapinda, Sakulyas and Sa­manodakas; persons who offer the oblations to the common an­cestors to whom the deceased would have offered, are also Sa­pindas, Sakulyas and Samanodakas of one another.

The three classes of offering give rise to three classes of heirs according to the Dayabhaga law, namely, (1) Sapindas, (2) Sakulyas and (3) Samanodakas.