Communities where women marry multiple men exist all over the world. They often have one thing in common

7 months ago

High in the misty hills of Himachal Pradesh this summer, a wedding drew hundreds of villagers – not for its pomp, but for its rarity. Sunita Chauhan stood at the altar flanked by two grooms, brothers Pradeep and Kapil Negi, as she entered into a kind of a union that held families together in this Himalayan region for centuries.

In this part of northern India, polyandry – the practice of a woman marrying multiple men – is known variously as Jodidara or Pandav Pratha, invoking the legend from the Hindu epic Mahabharata of Draupadi, the daughter of the king of Panchala, marrying the five Pandava brothers.

Though polyandry isn’t uncommon, particularly in the north, the Negi wedding in the hamlet of Shillai made global...

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