310 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [Sept., 1914 



castes, a second wife is allowed not as a luxury at the mere 

 caprice of the husband, but only when the existing wife 

 either proves barren, or is afflicted with some loathsome or 

 incurable disease or is guilty of immoral conduct. How much 

 polygamy is discouraged may be judged from the fact that 

 the first wife alone, except when cast off for immoral conduct, 

 is entitled to join the husband in religious ceremonies, and 

 that the second or subsequent wife has no status here except 

 with acquiescence and consent of the first wife. Thus the 

 first wife is the real mistress and the rest are little better 

 than handmaids or superior class of concubines, like those 

 of the Jewish patriarchs. 



Hindu law books do not restrict the number of wives 

 whom a man is permitted to marry. Undoubted cases of 

 polygamy are found in the hymns of the Rig Veda, and 

 several passages in the law of Manu provide for a plurality of 

 wives without any restriction. 1 Tradition shows that poly- 

 gamy and concubinage were customary among the Jews 

 during the patriarchal age. Esau married Judith and Base- 

 meth, Jacob married Leah and Rachael.* In later times, 

 we read of Solomon who had "700 wives, princesses, and 

 300 concubines, and of Rehoboam who took 18 wives and 

 three score concubines." According to the Talmudic right 

 also, it was permitted no longer, though the number of legiti- 

 mate wives was restricted to four. The Cochin Jews are now 

 mostly monogamous. 



The Koran allows a man to have four legitimate wives, 

 and he may take as many concubines as he likes. Between 

 a wife and a concubine, the difference is indeed not very 

 great. The former has her father as her protector, while 

 the latter is defenceless against the husband. 5 



Polygamy is very much in vogue among the Jonakan 

 Mapillas of the State, as well as amongst those in the Ernad 

 and Valluvanad taluks of South Malabar. It may be stated 

 without fear of contradiction that a very large number of these 

 people are polygamists, having more than two wives, and some 

 amongst them have even four. The wives all stay with him 

 in the same house, and disunion amongst them is a perennial 

 source of uneasiness to the husband, and frequently leads to 

 divorce. Disparity in age is never considered objectionable. 



It is evident that Islamism arose amidst the full polygamic 

 regime. Its founder could not dream of establishing any other. 

 Polygamy was therefore established by divine right among the 

 faithful, and as at the bottom it is in accord with primitive 

 instincts of man, it has maintained itself in Mussalman 



l Code of Manu, chap, ix, verses 149-151. 



* Genesis, chap, xxvi, verse 34: chap, xxiv, verses 23-28. 



3 Westermark's History of Human .Marriage, chap, xx, page 442 



