Answer: Polyandry in India refers to the practice of polyandry, whereby a woman has two or more husbands at the same time, either historically on the Indian subcontinent or currently in the country of India. An early EXAMPLE can be found in the Hindu epic Mahabharata, in which Draupadi, daughter of the king of Panchala, is married to five brothers.[1]

Polyandry was mainly prevalent in the Kinnaur Region, a part of Himachal in India which is close to the Tibet or currently the Indo-China BORDER. As mentioned in the epic Mahabharata, the Pandavas were banished from their kingdom for THIRTEEN years and they spent the last YEAR hiding in this hilly terrain of Kinnaur. A minority of the Kinaauris still claim to be descendants of the Pandavas[citation needed] and thus justify the practice of polyandry. However, this is a debatable issue as Kinnauris existed long before the Pandavas as mentioned in the epic.

Apart from Kinnaur, polyandry was practised in South India among the Todas tribes of Nilgiris, Nanjanad Vellala of Travancore.[2] and some Nair castes. While polyandrous unions have disappeared from the traditions of many of the groups and tribes, it is still practiced by some Paharis, especially in the Jaunsar-Bawar region in Northern India.

Recent years have seen the rise in fraternal polyandry in the agrarian societies in Malwa region of Punjab to avoid division of farming land.