If any new person visit someone’s house in that place and ask any women, where her husband is there in the home or not, but the it will be difficult to get answer for this question. So if you ask 1^st husband or second or third like that or better to ask with the name then you will answer correctly for your question.

The places near himachal Pradesh and around Himalayas there are grand sons and daughters of pandavas. There are having more than one husband is common over there. In this custom the elder brother marries a lady and remaining brothers also becomes husband to the lady. That means she should fulfill and serve with all wife responsibilities for the remaining brothers of the husband. The person over there says that this is a common thing to them as they are grand children of pandavas. So they follow this custom.

            The places sangla valley, kinnera in himachal Pradesh and the villages around it , all follow thi custom. Accordingly the lady marries elder brother of a family and remaining brothers of that elder brother in that family will be her husband’s.  Just like drawpathi in maha bharatha. The children of them call the elder brother in that family as father and the remaining as uncle.

Benefits:

They feel that joint families are very happy. The separation of brothers mainly cause due to gold, wife and property. So as all brothers have a same lady as wife, then there will be no fights and misunderstandings between the them. There will be fewer children. Their children can be taken care very easily.  Being cooperative in taking responsibilities in home and work then the income also increases. Though there are many grandsons but property will be in the same family.  If they perform marriages by getting different women to the other brothers then they need to share the property and income among them. Then these shared one may not be sufficient to all the families. Then it will be difficult to look after children.

            A wife of these places says that they got used to this custom. Not only in himachal Pradesh, few villages of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Tibet, Nepal and china also have this custom. Especially this custom mostly followed in the villages of Buddhism and Hinduism around the Himalayas. This is custom is followed from centuries. This custom in our India and some other countries treated as crime. But also some people follow it. If police officers go to those places where this custom is followed and enquiry then they escape by saying that the elder son got married and the remaining are bachelors. As all the people of the village saying something. So government also could not stop this custom. Few ladies mahila mandal groups fought against this custom.

For property:

If we keep the custom aside then the benefit of this is for the people around the Himalayas live by cattle and agriculture only. As those villages are of Himalayas. So agriculture farms will be very less. The land which come to the family by their ancestors and if it is divided and shared then they will get very less shares which are not much sufficient to survive. If there are 3 brothers and there are 3 wives they will have children then population increases. So the income they earn may not be enough for filling their hunger. So if there they will have less kids and property also will be with the family. As TV, cell phone became popular. Children started studying and even doing job. So now people are coming away from this custom.

            At those places, the population of women is less. This is one of the reasons for having more than 1 husband.

• Written by sarala.
• In category Customs and Culture.
• 12 years ago.

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