The male in general and the male child in particular have privileged position in the patriarchal family tradition. In the beginning of the establishment of the patriarchal joint family tradition during the post-Vedic period, Manu writes that according to this tradition, the fulfillment of dharma, the inheritance of family property and the performance of family sraddha can be done only by the father who is the head of the family and after him only by the eldest son because it is the male child along who is by birth endowed with economic, religious and spiritual merits (Kapadia 1972: 222). It is here that the gender inequality and eminence of the male person originates in the patriarchal tradition.
