The Dayabhaga was a commentary by Jimutvahana and its authority prevailed in Bengal and Assam.
The Dayabhaga is a digest on the leading smritis. It primarily deals with inheritance, partition and joint family. The period of its composition, according to Kane is between 1090-1130 A.D. But the period of Dayabhaga is disputed. According to Siromani Jimuta refers to the opinion of Srikara, Bhajdeva, Vishwaraf and Govindaraja.
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He never expressly refers to the Mitakshara. But his whole work may be said to have extensively made use of the doctrines of the Mitakshara although at times those doctrines, he had assailed mercilessly. In some places, jimutvahana has apparently controverted the doctrines of Vachaspati. Had Vachaspati been a later author he would have taken care to refute Dayabhaga. It is not unlikely that Vachaspati was a contemporary of Jimuta. In that case Jimuta must have lived in the 15th Century. The latter view about the period of Dayabhaga appears to be logically founded.
In the words of Prof. Sarkar: The Dayabhaga was supposed to have been written by way of revolt against many artificial and sometimes even absurd principles of inheritance, based on theory of propinquity’ conscious of the shortcomings and limitations of Vijnaneshwar’s doctrine. Jimutavahana propounds the theory of spiritual benefit for the governance of the rules of succession. The immediate benefit of this new theory was the inclusion of many cognates in the list of heirs, excluded by the Mitakshara which was mainly agnatic.
In the Dayabhaga school, besides the authority of Dayabhaga, the following commentaries were followed:—
1. Dayatatya, 2. Dayakram-Sangrah, 3. Virmitrodaya and 4. Dattaka Chandrika.