History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c28.s1.1
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c28.s1.1
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v2.c28.s1.1.1
The passages cited above (note 1274) from the Ait. Br. and the Tai. S. that a woman cannot have several husbands at the same time make it clear that in those ancient times polyandry was unheard¹²⁸³ of. Not a single Vedic passage can be cited which clearly refers to the practice of polyandry. The most glaring example of polyandry in Sanskrit literature is that of Draupadī as the wife of the five Pāṇḍavas. Probably the tradition was too firmly rooted to allow the author to ignore it. The Mahābhārata shows that all were shocked by the resolve of Yudhiṣṭhira to make Draupadī the wife of the five brothers. Dhṛṣṭadyumna (Ādiparva¹²⁸⁴ 195. 27–29) tries vehemently to dissuade Yudhiṣṭhira, who tries to justify his action on the ground of ancient practice and the agreement of the brothers to share everything that any one of them may secure. But Yudhiṣṭhira could¹²⁸⁵ ferret out (Ādi. chap. 196) only two instances (rather mythical) in support of the practice viz. of Jaṭilā Gautamī (who had seven sages as husbands) and of Vārkṣī who had ten Prācetasa brothers as husbands. It is this fact that has led many scholars to regard the Pāṇḍus as a non-Aryan tribe somehow grafted on the Aryan stock and represented as relatives of the Kauravas by the editor of the Mahābhāratā. This too also sounds somewhat far-fetched.
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Kumārilabhaṭṭa in his Tantravārtika cuts this Gordian knot by putting forward three explanations, one of which boldly asserts that there were many Draupadīs very similar to each other and so the epic figuratively speaks of one Draupadī only.¹²⁸⁶ There were really five Draupadīs (and not one) married separately to the five Pāṇḍavas. In the Dharmaśāstra works there are traces of the knowledge of the practice of polyandry. Āp. Dh. S. (II. 10. 27. 2-4) refers to it 'One shall not make over (his wife) to strangers (for a son by *niyoga*), but only to one who is a sagotra; for they declare that a bride is given to the family (of brothers and not to one brother alone); that (*niyoga*) is forbidden on account of the weakness of men's senses.' Similarly Bṛhaspati, while illustrating the proposition that the king should not disturb popular usages even though they may be improper, cites several such practices among which he mentions 'In some other countries there is the most reprehensible practice of a brother taking (as wife) the widow of his deceased brother, and the practice of delivering a maiden to a family; similarly among the Pārasīkas (Persians) matches with a mother are seen'.¹²⁸⁷ Dr. Jolly is wrong in thinking that Bṛhaspati refers to polyandry as practised in the south.
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Bṛhaspati first referred to the practice of marrying a maternal uncle's daughter as prevalent amongst the southerners (dākṣiṇātyas) in his day and then adds that a practice of giving a girl to the family is in vogue in other countries. So he clearly means countries other than those of the dākṣiṇātyas. Prof. Keith appears to follow Dr. Jolly without any independent examination of the original passage (in E. R. E. vol. 8 on marriage, p. 453). Just as Bṛhaspati refers to the Pārasīkas, he speaks of polyandry as current among other countries (but not Aryan India). There are two types of polyandry,¹²⁸⁸ one matriarchal (where a woman forms simultaneous alliances with two or more men who are not necessarily relations of each other and therefore succession is traced through the female) and the other fraternal, where a woman becomes the wife of several brothers. The former practice once prevailed among the Nairs on the Malabar coast, but it has now died out. The latter form of polyandry is still to some extent found in Kumaon, Garhwal and among peoples in the Himalayan area up to Assam.¹²⁸⁹ Pandit Bhagwanlal Indraji (I. A. vol. 8, p. 88) says that in Kumaun between the Tons and Jumna river about Kalsi, Rajputs, brāhmaṇas and śūdras all practise polyandry and the children are attributed to the eldest brother who is alive. Nīlakaṇṭha,¹²⁹⁰ the commentator of the Mahābhārata, raises (on Ādiparva 104.
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35) the question about Draupadī's marrying five husbands and refers to the practice among very low castes in his day of one woman having two or three husbands.