DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16243#0244
210
PEOPLE OF INDIA
bridal chamber before her female relatives. As to the negotia-
tions which precede it opinions seem to differ. One authority
describes it as "generally effected with mutual consent," while
another says that " in most cases the bride and bridegroom
are utter strangers to each other until this night." All agree
that Sdmbandham is followed by consummation, and that it is
terminable at the will of either party. Frivolous divorces,
however, are said to be rare and to be discouraged by public
opinion and by the influence of the karnavan, the autocratic
head of the Malabar tanvad, a joint family tracing its descent in
the female line from a common ancestress. Where the husband
can afford it, his wife lives with him ; in other cases she lives
with her tanvad and he visits her there—a plain survival of the
earlier conditions described above. The children are usually
educated by the tanvad.
Taking the evidence as a whole, it seems to point to the
conclusion that within the last two or three generations the
refining influence of higher education has induced the Nayars
to abandon the practice of polyandry and to attach to the Sam-
bandham connexion the full sanctity of a monogamous union.
Their marriage ritual and their law of inheritance still retain
unmistakable traces of polyandrous usage, but the tendency is
to relegate these to the background. A series of judicial
decisions have given to any member of a Malabar joint family
the absolute disposal during his lifetime of property acquired
by himself, and recent legislation has enabled him to bequeath
such property by will to his children by his Sanibandham wife
In the Himalayan region where fraternal polyandry is in
Fraternal poly- vogue, there are no indications of any moral
andry in Tibet and revolt against the system, unless indeed the
Sikkim. germs of such a feeling may be traced in the
slight shyness which people are apt to display when questioned
on the subject, and in their manifest preference for discussing
the connubial arrangements of some family other than their
own. In Western Tibet even these faint signs of grace are
wanting, and the account given by the latest observer points
to the prevalence of considerable sexual depravity.
" Each household contains for all practical purposes three
or four families,* and one can imagine the atmosphere in which
the children are brought up with polyandry all round theni;
and when the time comes for a girl to enter another similar
household, and be the bride of numerous brothers, it may truly
* Charles A. Sherring, Western Tibet andthe British Borderland, 1906, p. 190.
PEOPLE OF INDIA
bridal chamber before her female relatives. As to the negotia-
tions which precede it opinions seem to differ. One authority
describes it as "generally effected with mutual consent," while
another says that " in most cases the bride and bridegroom
are utter strangers to each other until this night." All agree
that Sdmbandham is followed by consummation, and that it is
terminable at the will of either party. Frivolous divorces,
however, are said to be rare and to be discouraged by public
opinion and by the influence of the karnavan, the autocratic
head of the Malabar tanvad, a joint family tracing its descent in
the female line from a common ancestress. Where the husband
can afford it, his wife lives with him ; in other cases she lives
with her tanvad and he visits her there—a plain survival of the
earlier conditions described above. The children are usually
educated by the tanvad.
Taking the evidence as a whole, it seems to point to the
conclusion that within the last two or three generations the
refining influence of higher education has induced the Nayars
to abandon the practice of polyandry and to attach to the Sam-
bandham connexion the full sanctity of a monogamous union.
Their marriage ritual and their law of inheritance still retain
unmistakable traces of polyandrous usage, but the tendency is
to relegate these to the background. A series of judicial
decisions have given to any member of a Malabar joint family
the absolute disposal during his lifetime of property acquired
by himself, and recent legislation has enabled him to bequeath
such property by will to his children by his Sanibandham wife
In the Himalayan region where fraternal polyandry is in
Fraternal poly- vogue, there are no indications of any moral
andry in Tibet and revolt against the system, unless indeed the
Sikkim. germs of such a feeling may be traced in the
slight shyness which people are apt to display when questioned
on the subject, and in their manifest preference for discussing
the connubial arrangements of some family other than their
own. In Western Tibet even these faint signs of grace are
wanting, and the account given by the latest observer points
to the prevalence of considerable sexual depravity.
" Each household contains for all practical purposes three
or four families,* and one can imagine the atmosphere in which
the children are brought up with polyandry all round theni;
and when the time comes for a girl to enter another similar
household, and be the bride of numerous brothers, it may truly
* Charles A. Sherring, Western Tibet andthe British Borderland, 1906, p. 190.