MARITAL JEALOUSY 161 



Polyandry at one time seems to have been quite 

 common in the south of India, and even now it is not 

 wholly abandoned by some of the castes. A traveller 

 at the beginning of the sixteenth century relates that 

 at Calicut it was the custom for friends among the 

 gentlemen and merchants to exchange wives ; and 

 among the other castes one woman had five six or 

 seven, or even as many as eight husbands, each of 

 whom spent a night with her by turns. Any children 

 whom she had she assigned to one or the other of 

 the husbands, and her word was taken for the fact. 1 

 In the last quarter of the eighteenth century another 

 traveller reported that on the coast of Malabar, in the 

 caste to which the braziers belonged, the eldest 

 brother alone married ; but the others supplied his 

 place with their sister-in-law when he was absent. 2 

 To-day the Kammalans (artisans) of Malabar practise 

 fraternal polyandry. As part of the wedding ceremony 

 the bride and her bridegrooms sit in a row, the eldest 

 brother sitting on the right, the others in order of 

 seniority, and lastly the bride. A priest of the caste 

 takes some milk in a vessel and pours it into their 

 mouths one after the other. The eldest bridegroom 

 " cohabits with the bride on the wedding day and 

 special days are set apart for each of the others. 

 There seems to be a belief among the Kammalan 

 women that the more husbands they have the greater 

 will be their happiness. If one of the brothers, on the 

 ground of incompatibility of temper, brings a new wife 



1 di Varthema, 145. This seems to be the authority made use 

 of by Munster in his Cosmography translated by Eden in 1553 

 (Arber, First Three Bks. 1 7). As to polyandry in ancient India the 

 reader may consult Jolly, 47. 



2 Thurston, 113. 



