The practice of several men sharing one wife is called Polyandry, a matrimonial arrangement, which allows a female to have more than one husband.

The Mahabharata shows us one of the earliest cases of polyandry. It describes the union of Draupadi with the Pandavas.

Polyandry is still prevalent in some of the remote Indian and Himalayan communities like in Uttarakhand. One such example is Rajo Verma, an occupant of a small village close to Dehradun with her baby son and her five husbands. Rajo stands by this tradition. All her husbands are brothers and she is asked to sleep with a different brother every night. This has led to the confusion about the real biological father of her 18-month-old son. Rajo also mentioned that her mother had been married to three brothers.

Rajo married Guddu (her first husband) some years back in a traditional Hindu ceremony. Since then Rajo tied the nuptial knot to all of Guddu’s brothers including Baiju, Sant Ram, Gopal and Dinesh.

First hubby Guddu, who continues to be Rajo’s official another half, stated, “We all have sex with her but I’m not jealous. We’re one big happy family.” The complete family sleeps together on the floor as there are no beds in the house.

She added, “Initially it felt a bit awkward. But I don’t favor one over the other. I get a lot more attention and love than most wives.”

PNN