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Polyandry in India refers to the practice of polyandry, whereby a woman has two or more husbands at the same time, either historically on the Indian subcontinent or currently in the country of India. An early example can be found in the Hindu epic Mahabharata , in which Draupadi , daughter of the king of Panchala , is married to five brothers.
Fraternal polyandry was (and sometimes still is) found in certain areas of Tibet, Nepal, and Northern India, as well as some central African cultures [10] where polyandry was accepted as a social practice. [6] [11] The Ezhava and Toda people of southern India practice fraternal polyandry, but monogamy has become prevalent recently. [12]
Muslims in the rest of the country are subject to the terms of The Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act of 1937, interpreted by the All India Muslim Personal Law Board. [ 8 ] However, in a judgment in February 2015, the Supreme court of India stated that "Polygamy was not an integral or fundamental part of the Muslim religion, and ...
The legal status of polygamy varies widely around the world. Polygamy is legal in 58 out of nearly 200 sovereign states, the vast majority of them being Muslim-majority countries. Some countries that permit polygamy have restrictions, such as requiring the first wife to give her consent.
Polyandry refers to a marriage where a woman is married to more than one man during the same period of time. This form of marriage was exceedingly rare among Hindu society in Indian history, and the Mahabharata's polyandrous marriage of Draupadi to the five Pandava brothers is the most cited example of this custom.
In Eritrea, India, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, and Sri Lanka polygyny is legal only for Muslims. In Nigeria and South Africa, polygynous marriages based on customary law are legally recognized for Muslims. In Mauritius, polygynous unions have no legal recognition. However, Muslim men may marry up to four women, but they do not have ...
The explanation for polyandry in the Himalayan Mountains is related to the scarcity of land; the marriage of all brothers in a family to the same wife (fraternal polyandry) allows family land to remain intact and undivided. If every brother married separately and had children, family land would be split into unsustainable small plots.
Polyandry persists informally in certain traditional societies, such as in the Himalayan regions of Tibet and Nepal, where fraternal polyandry helps preserve family property and manage limited agricultural land, and among communities like the Toda tribe in South India and parts of Himachal Pradesh, though it is not legally recognised. [51] [52]