Throughout the interior of Ceylon, among the Kandyans, and them only, polyandry is prevalent, and the wife has the possession of all the brothers, of whom so many as eight have been known. The children call the eldest brother father. A man can bring in another, not a relation, to have joint marital rights with himself ; indeed, the first husband can so introduce as many as the wife will consent to receive as husbands. In Kandy, in the Beena marriage, the husband goes to reside in the wife's house, and the woman shares the family inheritance with her brothers. The husband in this marriage can be dismissed summarily by the family of the wife. In the Deega, a more respectable marriage, the wife leaves her own house for that of her husband,— forfeits all her claim on the property of her parents, but acquiring some claim on that of her husband, and the wife cannot obtain divorce unless with the full consent of the husband. Divorces are constantly sought for by women on trivial pretences. A child born within nine months of the divorce must be maintained by the husband.
North of Ceylon, in British India, tho poly andry customs of the Reddi race have already been alluded to. Among the Karakat IreBaler of Madura, adultery with a husband's brother or kinsman is condoned ; farther north, among the Nuuiya and Ahir, the Levirate law pre vails ; and with the Gujar and the Jet polyandry customs are permissive. Still farther northwards, in Sirrnore, one of the sub-llimalayan Hill States, polyandry is almost universal ; in Lahoul, a sub division of the Kangra district of the Panjab, polyandry is the custom of the people, who are Bhutiyas or Tibetans ; and the Kanet, who make up the mass of the population, are of mixed Indian and Mongol origin, the latter element predominating. They are Buddhists, numerous
monasteries stud the hills, and they bear a good character. In Spiti, a district of the Kangra division, polyandry no longer prevails ; but the same object is attained by their primogeniture custom, by which only the eldest son marries, while the younger sons become monks. Crime is rare, but chastity and sobriety are almost unknown. And in the very south of India, among the Nam burl Brahmans of Travancore, the eldest son alone marries and inherits, and they allow their girls to remain unmarried to any age, and even to die unmarried.—Yelle, Cathay, i. p. 189; Pan thier, p. 157 ; Wood, p. 201 ; Burnes' Tr. ; Porter's Travels, i. pp. 143, 144, 340 ; Vigne's Kashmir, i. p. 37, v. p. 13 ; Beng. As. Soc. Ann'. ix. p. 834 ; Asiatic Researches, v. p. 13 ; Institutes of Menu ; Ctesar's Commentaries, book v. chaps. x.–xiv.; Westminster Review, April 1868 ; Polybius, book iv. chap. iii., book xii. ex. xii.; Sirr's Ceylon ; Ilumboldes Travels ; Dr. Vaughan's Revolutions in English History, pp. 97, 98 ; Cunningham's History of the Sikhs, p. 18; Ravenstein's Russians, p. 391 ; Fraser's Himalaya Mountains, pp. 70, 206, 218, 368 ; Moorcroft's Travels, ii. pp. 321, :322; Abbe Donwnech, ii, p. 314 ; Lubbock, Origin of Civilisation ; Tod's Rajasthan, i. p. 345; Sir .1. E. Tennant's Ceylon ; Colonel Marcy, Thirty seven Years' Army Life of the Border. See Genesis xi. 29, xiv. 14.