The lending of wives in ancient times in India is repeatedly noticed in the writings of the Hindus. King Saudasa or Kalmashapada allowed his wife Madayanti to associate with the sage Vashislitha. According to some, this was a meritorious act on the king's part, and a favour to Vashishtlia ; according to others, it was to obtain progeny. Similarly, Colonel Yule (Cathay, i. p. lxxxix.) makes mention of the Ilazlakli, who are great gamblers, and stake wife, mother, or daughter on their play. When a caravan of travellers comes into their country, the wife or sister or daughter of some chief comes and washes them. And if any of these ladies takes a fancy for one of the strangers, she carries him home end entertains him with all kindness, and her husband or son or brother provide r him in every way ; nor as long as the guest keeping company with her does the husband me near them unless for necessary business.
its custom is related by Marco Polo of the Tie of Kamul. lie says of it, ' Il le tiennent grand houncur et n'en out nulle honte. Car it cil de ceste province sont si lionni de lever olierscomme vows avez ouy ' (Panthier, p. 157) ; and it is a notorious allegation against the llazaras of the IIindu Kush, that they carry on the same practice (Wood, p. 201, and Burnes).
The custom here seems of a kind similar to those noticed by Sir IL K. Porter amongst the Kisty tribe in Circassia, and amongst the Torneo in Lapland. Before the khalifs had extended their principles, with their power, over every part of N. Persia, in Atropatia (now restored to its more ancient name of Azerbijan) women estimated their dignity according to the number of husbands they could boast.
The prevalence of polyandry in the Vedic times is shown in Kashivat saying, ' Aswins, your admirable (horses) bore the car which you had harnessed (first) to the goal, for the sake of honour, and the damsel, who was the prize, came through affection to you and acknowledged your (husbandship) saying, You are my lords.' But polygamy was likewise known, for Kashivat, an illustrious rishi, married ten sisters at once ; and this practice continues to the present day amongst Kuhn Brahmans ; and the last raja of Tanjore, who died in 1855, a Mahratta Kshatriya and descendant of Sivaj i's brother, married eighteen young Mabratta women at once.
The fortunes of the five Pandava princes, and the history of their adventures in an archery contest at the court of Drona, is detailed in the epic poem of the Mahabharata. The third of the brothers, Arjuna, was declared victor, and received as his prize the king's daughter, Draupadi, who was equally the wife of his brothers, and possessed five husbands instead of one. When the Pandava were remonstrated with by king Drupada for making his daughter Draupadi their joint wife, Yudislithra, the eldest, according to the Malta bliamta, replied to him that Jatila, of the family of Gautatna, an excellent woman, had lived with seven saints ; and that Varkshi, the daughter of a Muni, resided with ten brothers, all of them called Pracheta, or men whose souls had been purified by penance. These two arguments leave no doubt
but that polyandry was then an institution in parts of India. Arjuna and his wife and her other four husbands lived for some years at the fort of Batrath, and the remains of a Gurkha structure on the same site are still visible on a bill near the north-west corner of the Doon. In British India, polyandry continues almost universal in the hill districts attached to the Doou, called the Jounsar and Bawer pargana. In the Jounear district, when the eldest brother niarricsr, the warren is equally the wife of his younger brothers, though the offspring are called the children of the eldest brother. When much difference exhita in the ages of the brothers of a family, the elder marry a wife, and when the younger grow up they marry another, but the two wives are considered equally the wives of all the brothers. M'Clelland (p. 180) gives a long list of polyandric races, namely, those of Tibet, Kashmir, of the Himalayan regions, the Toda, Coorg, Nair, and other races in India and Ceylon ; in New Zealand (1..tifitan, i. p. 555) and one or two other Pacific islands, in the Aleutian Archipelago, among the Koryak, the Saporogian Cossack, on the Orinoco, in parts of Africa, and in Lancerota. To these be adds the ancient Britons, some of the Median cantons, the Picts, and the Getes ; while traces of the custom occurred among the ancient Germans. To these Sir John Lubbock adds that of some families among the Iroquois.
It has certainly existed from time immemorial in the valley of Kashmir (Vigne, i. p. 37), in Tibet, and in the Siwalik mountains. It is found in Sylhet and Cachar (Jo. As. Soc. Ben. ix. p. 834) ; among the Coorgs, and on the Noilgherry Hills among the Todas. And it regulates the laws of inheritance amongst races in the southern extreme of the Peninsula of India. In Tibet polyandry continues prevalent. The eldest brother proposes to a girl's parents, and if agreed to, she is brought to her future home, where a three-days' carousal completes the ceremony. Iu the upper valleys of the Sutlej, in Spiti and Kanawar, are mixed races exhibiting much Tibetan blood, and religion apparently more Buddhist than Hindu. The Tibetan colony at Mahasu, just above Simla, are powerful, ruddy-looking people, entirely unlike Indians. Their women are industrious, but very unattractive. The Tibetan forms an interesting study for the curious in national manners and character. The eldest son has the privilege of choice, but the woman he marries is in common with his brothers. In such a state of society, female chastity is not much valued till the question becomes intermingled with the rights of property. Before marriage, therefore, a woman may associate with men with but little remark ; but after she has entered into the fraternal copartnery, they are taken cognisance of by the law.