Turner mentions that the Tibet women in his day, with their three or four husbands, were just i as jealous as a Muhammadan polygamist is of his several wives. He saw one woman who had five husbands, all brothers, though the chief, indeed real, husband is the elder brother. Major Cun ningham remarks that amongst the 'thou of Ladakh polyandry is strictly confined to brothers. Each family of brothers has only one wife in common. The most usual number of husbands is two but three and even four husbauds are not uncommon. This system, however, prevails only among the poorer classes, for the rich, as in all eastern countries, generally have two or three wives, according to their circumstances. Poly andry, he adds, is the principal check to the increase of population, and, however revolting it may be to our feelings, it was a politic measure for a poor country, which does not produce sufficient food for its inhabitants. Every spot of ground within the halls which can be culti vated, has been under the plough for ages ; the number of mouths must remain adapted to the number of acres, and the proportion is preserved by limiting each proprietary family to one giver of children. The introduction of Muhammadanism in the west, by enlarging the views of the people and promoting emigration, has tended to modify this rule ; and even among the Lamaic Tibetans, any casual influx of wealth, as from trade or other sources, immediately leads to the formation of separate establishments by the several members of a house. Mr. Dunlop, in his Hunting in the Himalaya (p. 181), observes that wherever the practice of polyandry exists, there is a striking discrepance in the proportions of the sexes among young children as well as adults. In a village with upwards of 400 boys, there were only 120 girls. He does not suppose that female infanticide prevails or is the cause of the preponderance, as a wife is generally purchased for a large sum from her parents. But in the Garhwal Hills, where polygamy is prevalent, there is a surplus of female children. The polyandry of Ladakh is noticed by Moorcroft (Tray. ii. pp. 321, 322), and also in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for 1844, p. 202, etc.
In Sirmore, three or four or more brothers marry one woman ; they are unable to raise the requisite sum individually, and thus club their shares, and buy one common spouse. Women are here articles of property. The custom has a deplorably injurious effect upon the morals of the females in this country, particularly in point of chastity. From the degree of community of intercourse prevailing by custom, the men do not feel shocked at an unlimited extension of it ; and the women do not feel shame in a practice from which they are not discouraged by early education. Of a family of four or five brothers, only one or two are in general at home at the same time ; some are out on service as soldiers, or with the minor chiefs ; others are travelling ; the elder usually remains at home. If any quarrel were to arise, a common cause would be made against the offender, and ejectment from house and board ensue. The first-born child is the property of the elder brother, and the next in suc cession are supplied in turn. The mean number
of inhabitants to a house in various parts of Kanawar is six. Polyandry, or a plurality of husbands, prevails also in Chinese Tartary and in the hilly tracts towards the plains. Besides this drawback on the increase of the population, there is another peculiar to Chinese Tartary and the adjoining countries,—that is, celibacy, which is professed by numbers of the inhabitants ; and in some villages the monks or lamas and nuns form almost half the population.
Masson, writing of the Sikhs, says it was no unusual arrangement for the many brothers of a family to have a wife in common ; and he had known the soldiers of M. Allard request permis sion to visit their homes, alleging that their brothers had gone on a journey, and their wives were alone. The plea was considered a good one. But such customs must not be imputable to them as Sikhs; they are rather the remains of an ancient and rude state of society prevailing among the Jat race.
Polyandry prevails in Kamaon between the Tons and Jumna about Kalsi, by Ilajputs, Brah mans, and Sudras, the brothers of a family all marrying one wife, the children all attributed to the eldest brother. The radon or Bor Abor in North-Eastern India are polyandrous, and it is not uncommon for an Abor woman to have two husbands, brothers, livino. under one roof. Among the Miri, a clan of the living two brothers will unite to buy a wife.—Etk. of Beng. p. 33.
Polyandry may somewhat explain the com parative indifference with which some races regard the purity of their unmarried women. And this view is supported by the still existing Hindu belief as to the visits of the gods to certain women. This is an ancient notion of the Aryan Hindus, as of the Greeks and Romans, and it is alluded to in the mythological history of the origin of the Pandava heroes, now demigods. Descended from the ancient sovereigns of the countries of Hin dustan bordering upon the Jumna, called Pan davan raj, or the kingdom of the Pandus, Pandu, son of Vyasa and Pandea, was the reputed father of these five heroes. Their mother's name was Kunti, the sister of a prince of Mathura, who was the father of Heri and Baldeva, the Indian Hercules. Kunti, in consequence of the sins of the ancestors of herself and her husband, was doomed to experience the greatest curse that can befall a Hindu woman, sterility. However, by a charm, she contrived to remove the anathema by enticing the gods to her bed. Thus, says Colonel Tod, she had by Dharmaraja (Varna or the Minos of the Greeks), Yudishthra ; by Pavana, Bliima ; by Indra, Arjuna ; and Nycula and Sydiva by the Aswini Kumara (the Hindu Escu lapius, or the sons of Surya), the twins of the Hindu Zodiac (Cole. Myth. Hind. p. 248). Over all Kamaon, amongst the richer people, the custom of many brothers having one wife in common has long ceased to be practised, though the widow of an elder brother is commonly remarried to the next brother. This is also a custom with some Jat and Gujar tribes. The Chamar or leather workers of Kanawar, however, like the Bhot, still practise polyandry.