Polyandry: A custom or survival in Himalayas

Polyandry: A Custom or Survival in Himalayas

“Polyandry: A practice of women having more than one husbands.”

Polyandry as evident by its definition, involves a women having more than one husbands or one or more brothers sharing a single wife. The practice evolved in the Northern Himalayan Societies as well as some of the South Indian communities such as Todas. Even in Hindu mythology, this practice finds its mention where five brothers, who were hiding in the Himalayas shared one wife among each other. As per this practice,a single wife is shared by one or more brothers and the children born out of the communion are given name of their respective fathers, for instance as the first child belongs to the eldest brother, the second child belongs to the second eldest brother and so on. Even in legal documents of children, the name of the father is given as decided by the above mentioned practice.

Tracing, the Genealogy of Polyandry, it has been observed that Polyandry has its roots in the societies which were based in the remoteregions and had similarities with each other. The societieswhere Polyandry evolved were spread from Western, Central to Eastern Himalayas and form a continuous chain where this custom seems to have flourished. Some of the similarities that these societies shared were that these were hill societies and were isolated from the mainland, had high poverty levels, had to face hostile natural environments, there were little or no arable lands available. It was amidst these conditions that the custom of polyandry evolved in these societies. Each of these factors contributed its bit to the evolution of Polyandry in these Himalayan societies.Let us begin by examining these factors one at a time. Isolated societies- In the earlier part of the previous century, due to heavy snowfall in winters and landslides during the rainy season, these parts of the world used to get disconnected from the remaining parts and faced severe isolation. This isolation led to the development of customs which were relatively unknown or unheard of in the remaining parts of the world. The societies became closely knit with each other and due to lack of communication, the influence of the other societies over them vanished over the period of time. In certain Himalayan pockets, the extreme differences in languages amongst each other exemplify this lack of communication. Since, the exchange of ideas or thoughts or personnel became very little, any natural or unnatural change in the demographic conditions could have easily forced the evolution of polyandry custom. High Poverty Levels – These societies had nothing but forest produce to survive upon, since there were no floodplains or fertile lands, but only uneven and rugged Himalayan topography.These societies had no alternate sources of income and they had to suffer severe poverty levels when it was not possible to venture into the forest. In these cases, when one brother was not able to take good care of a single wife, it was customized to share single wife among brothers so that the economic burden does not fall on a single brother. Hostile Environments –the environment across the entire length and breadth of Himalayas is hostile, with extreme levels of height from sea level giving heavy snowfalls in the winters and little vegetation made survival difficult for people in these societies.In such conditions, when the mortality rate was already high due to lack of medical facilities and it raised even further due to the hostile natural environment, if something happened to a single brother, there was another one to take care of the wife and the children. Availability of little or no arable lands – The lands available was uneven to say the least and were not fallow like the ones found in plains. These regions lie between the dry regions from one end to the cold deserts at the other end, this greatly reduced the scope of food crops to be grown in a single year. In any case, if the customs of the plains were to be followed here, it would have greatly shrunk the size of the arable land whatsoever available, incase of division of land among siblings.

                  After examining these factors, one can decipher the reasons behind the evolution of this custom. The custom of Polyandry cannot be shrugged off as a sociological practice but it can also be seen as the cause of survival of these societies. In these societies, if the practice of polyandry were not there, these societies would have become extinct from the face of the world a long time ago. Polyandry helped in keeping the population levels to a manageable extent, if the populations were to exceed beyond a certain level, the limited resources would have faced the strain and the societies would have collapsed. This is the reason, why almost all of the Himalayan societies have meagre levels of population.

The societies which evolved the practice of Polyandry may not be considered as inferior or superior to other societies. It is that these societies can be deemed as quite different by a mere plain look at them, owing to the conditions under which these societies originated and survived. Like most other societies, these societies too had survival instincts at their core which made them evolve the practice of Polyandry. Of all the effects, the containment of population was one intended effect of Polyandry which saved these societies from collapse. The practice of Polyandry also gave rise to the practice of lifelong bachelorhood. In these Himalayan societies, unlike other societies staying single through life is not considered as a social stigma. Almost in every family at least one boy or one girl or both stay single throughout their lives. Like Polyandry, this practice has also evolved over a period of time according to the survival needs of theHimalayan societies.

The evolution of Polyandry as a custom may be seen on the wider canvas of the conditions under which these societies had to struggle for their survival and propagation despite the adverse conditions surrounding them.