Dāyāda

Dāyāda · dāya-āda, “one who takes a share, an heir”

Grammar: masculine noun; dāya (a share, an inheritance) and āda (taking): “one who takes a share”.

Meaning: (1) an heir, a son who inherits from his father; (2) in the plural, kinsmen of the same family line.

In the scriptures: Sanatkumāra, the son of Dharma and Ahiṃsā Devī, asks Brahmā (Pitāmaha) for yoga, and Brahmā says that if his parents give him, he will become Brahmā’s son. Sanatkumāra asks what a dāyāda is. Pitāmaha smiles and names two lists of six:

• The first six are the aurasa, kshetraja, datta, kṛtrima, gūḍhotpanna and apaviddha. To these the ṛṇa (debt), the piṇḍa, the dhana (wealth), the kriyā (rites), the gotra-sāmya (sameness of gotra), the kula-vṛtti (family calling) and the pratishṭhā (standing) pass naturally from the parents.
• The other six are the kānīna, sahoḍha, krīta, punarbhava, svayaṃdatta and pāraśava. To these the same things do not pass; they are sons in name only, not born of the kula and gotra.

Asked for the particulars, Brahmā explains. The aurasa is born to one’s wife from oneself, the very image of the father. The kshetraja is borne by the wife to another man, with the consent of a husband who is impotent or weakened by vices. The datta is given in adoption by his mother and father. One given by a friend, or a friend’s son, the elders call krīta. The gūḍhaka is one of whom it is not known in which house, or to whom, he was born. One brought from outside and raised is the svayaṃdatta. The kānīna is born to a maiden before marriage; the sahoḍha to a wife who was pregnant before the marriage; the krīta is bought for a price; the punarbhava is born after a man carries off by force a maiden already given to another and marries her; the svayaṃdatta is one who, in famine, drought or hunger, comes and gives himself over; and the pāraśava is the son of a brāhmaṇa by a śūdra woman. “So I cannot take you as my son on your word alone,” Brahmā says; “call your mother and father.” Dharma and Ahiṃsā Devī come and give him to Pitāmaha (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 35).

In the plural the word means kinsmen. At the Gayāśira kshetra the merchant Sudharma offers piṇḍa to the preta-leader Somaśarmā and his fellow pretas by their names and gotras, then to his own pitṛ devatās and dāyādas, and offers piṇḍa without sesame for himself and others. At once all those pretas leave the preta state and go to Brahmaloka (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 53).

Related terms: Aurasa · Kshetraja · Datta · Gūḍhotpanna · Apaviddha · Piṇḍa · Gotra

Sources

• Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 35, 53