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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.
Polyandry is a marital arrangement in which a woman has several husbands. In Tibet, those husbands are often brothers; "fraternal polyandry".Concern over which children are fathered by which brother falls on the wife alone.
Polyandry (/ ˈ p ɒ l i ˌ æ n d r i, ˌ p ɒ l i ˈ æ n-/; from Ancient Greek πολύ (polú) 'many' and ἀνήρ (anḗr) 'man') is a form of polygamy in which a woman takes two or more husbands at the same time. Polyandry is contrasted with polygyny, involving one male and two or more females.
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 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.
However, historians assert that there exists no authenticated case of polyandry among the Sambandham families. The Sambandham could be broken at the will of either party and they could move on to have another relationship. This was adopted to suit the military life , so that if the husband dies in a battle, the wife can move on and avoid widowhood.
Polyandry is also known among the Brokpa people of Merak and Sakten in eastern Trashigang. [4] A well-known example of a person in a polygamous marriage in Bhutan is the 4th King Jigme Singye Wangchuck , who is married to four sisters.
Another factor for its start was war. When numerous men die in combat, having more than one wife boosts the population. A person's status in society and wealth became associated with the number of wives a man had. On the contrary, polyandry was a way of limiting a population with few resources and too many people.