POLYANDROUS SOCIETIES IN INDIA RELEVANCE AND STATUS GENDER,SCHOOL AND SOCIETY

1. POLYANDROUS SOCIETIES
IN INDIA :
RELEVANCE AND STATUS
Course title : GENDER,SCHOOL AND
SOCIETY .
Course Code : B.ed 210 (4th Semester)
BY : TIRU GOEL
Roll number : 07314902117

2. MEANING :
• Poly means ‘many’ and ‘andry’ means husbands .
Polyandry type of marriage is one where a
woman marries more than one man at a time .
• In the broadest sense , Polyandry refers to sexual
relations with multiple men within or without
marriage.
• The classic example is found in our epic –
Mahabharata in which DRAUPADI- daughter of
king Panchala is married to five brothers.

3. CAUSES OF POLYANDRY SOCIETY
• Polyandry is more likely in societies with
scarce environmental resources
• It is believed to limit human population
growth and enhance child survival
• It is a rare form of marriage that exist more in
peasant families of India
• The eldest brother is superior to other
husbands and has the right of children to take

4. • People practicing it believe that allows family
land to remain intact and undivided
• Both men and women have equal right to end
the marriage
• Traditionally , It is based on the principles of
joint family and distribution of family burden

6. TYPES OF POLYANDROUS MARRIAGE :
FRATERNAL POLYANDRY :
• It is when the woman is married two or more
brothers of the same family.
• The children in this case would be off-springs
of the eldest brother.
• This type of marriage is practiced in Tibet ,
Laddakh , Assam .

7. NON-FRATERNAL POLYANDRY :
• It is when women marry multiple men but
they are not from one single family or are
brothers .
• In case of children , a special ritual is arranged
and the parents of the children are selected in
this type of marriage
• This type of marriage was practiced in Arab
before the prophet.

8. RELEVANCE OF POLYANDRY TODAY:
KINNAUR
• Many villages in this district of Himachal
Pradesh practice fraternal polyandry .
• People use paternity tests using DNA to
resolve inheritance disputes in this region
• The rules of breaking the marriage are strict
and a brother going against them is out casted
while losing his share in the property

10. TODA
• Tribal people living in Nilgiri hills in South India
practice a form of polyandry which is considered
classic as it is a mix of both fraternal and
sequential polyandry
• A Toda woman when married is automatically
married to her husband's brothers .
• When the wife became pregnant, one husband
would give a bow and arrow to the wife, and
would be the father of that child. When the next
child arrived, another husband would perform the
ceremony and become the father

12. JAUNSAR - BAWAR
• A distinct group of people called Paharis live in the lower
ranges of Himalayas in Northern India practice Polyandry.
• The practice is believed to have descended from their
ancestors who had earlier settled down in the plains from
Himalayas.
• Polyandrous union occurs in this region when a woman marries
the eldest son in a family. The woman automatically becomes
the wife of all his brothers upon her marriage.
• The brothers can be married to more than one woman if the
age difference of the brothers were large. The wife is shared
equally by all brothers and no one in the group has exclusive
right on the wife.
• The woman considers all the men in the group her husband
and the children recognise them all as their father.

14. OTHER POLYANDROUS SOCIETIES :
• Fraternal polyandry exists among the Khasa of
Dehradun; and among the Gallong and Memba of
Arunachal Pradesh, the Mala Madessar , the Mavilan
etc. of Kerala.
• Non-fraternal polyandry exists among the Karvazhi
, Pulaya , Muthuvan , and Mannan in Kerala.
• In the 1911 Census of India, E.A. Gait mentions
polyandry of the Tibetans, Bhotias, Kanets of Kulu valley,
people of state of Bashahr
, Thakkars and Megs of Kashmir , Gonds of Central
provinces
• Todas and Kurumbas of Nilgiris , Kallars of Madurai
, Tolkolans of Malabar, Ishavans, Kaniyans and Kammala
ns of Cochin, Muduvas of Travancore and of Nairs.[

15. THANKYOU