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Aliyasantana, literally "nephew as heir" in Kannada, is the matrilineal system of inheritance practiced by Tuluva community in the Tulunaad region of Karnataka, India.[1] It is similar to the Marumakkathayam system of the Malabar region. Nephew here means son of one's sister (brother's son is not considered as the heir).
The popular belief is that it had its source in the law promulgated by Bhūtāla-Pāndya, the sovereign prince who ruled this country at one time and that it was for the first time introduced by him. The popular version of it is contained in the Memorandum submitted to the Malabar Marriage Commission by one of its members, Mr. Mundappa Bangēra. "The Bhūtāla-Pandya's Aliya-santāna Law” shows that it was introduced by a despotic prince called Bhūtāla-Pāndya about the year 77 A.D., superseding the makkala-santana or inheritance from father to son which then prevailed (in what is now South Kanara). It is said that when the maternal uncle of Dēva-Pāņdya wanted to launch his newly constructed ships with valuable cargo in them, Kundōdara, king of demons, demanded a human sacrifice. Déva-Pāņdya asked his wife's permission to offer one of his sons but she refused, while his sister, Satyāvati, offered her son Jaya-Pandya, for the purpose. Kundōdara, discovering in the child signs of future greatness, waived the sacrifice and permitted the ships to sail. He then took the child, restored to him his father's kingdom of Jayantikā, and gave him the name Bhūtāļa-Pāņdya. Subsequently, when some of the ships brought immense wealth, the demon again appeared and demanded of Dēva-Pāņdya another human sacrifice. He again consulted his wife, she refused to comply with the request and publicly renounced her title and that of her children to the valuable property brought in the ships. Kundādara, then demanded Deva- Pāņdya, to disinherit his sons of the wealth which had been brought in those ships, as also of the kingdom and to bestow all, on his sister's son the above named Jaya-Pāņdya or Bhūtāla-Pāņdya. This was accordingly done. And as this prince inherited his kingdom from his maternal uncle and not from his father, he ruled that his own examples must be followed by his subjects and it was, thus, that the aliya-santāna system was established on the 3rd Māgha śudha of the year 1 of the era of Sālivāhana called Išvara about A.D.77. This Bhūtāļa-Pandya is said to have ruled for 75 years and his nephew, Vidyadyumna-Pāņdya, for 81 years. [2]
Tuluva sub-groups which practised a matrilineal system of inheritance included:
