A young Indian woman has spoken up about her husband being her five siblings. Rajo Verma, 21, sleeps on the floor on blankets in a room with his brothers. Because she sleeps with a new sibling each night, the mother of one has no idea who of her five related husbands is the father of her 18-month-old baby. It may seem weird, but it is customary for women in a tiny town near Dehradun, Northern India, to marry the brothers of their first marriage.
‘It felt strange at first,’ she told the Sun.
But I don’t prefer one over the other. Rajo and his first husband, Guddu, wedded in an organized Hindu ceremony four years ago. She has since married Baiju, 32, Sant Ram, 28, Gopal, 26, and, most recently, Dinesh, 19, who married her as soon as he reached 18 years old. Polyandry, an ancient Hindu ritual, was once widely practiced in India, but currently, only a small percentage of the population follows it. It occurs when a woman marries multiple men, which is most common in male-dominated areas. In fraternal polyandry, the lady is obligated to marry each of her original husband’s brothers. Draupadi, the daughter of the King of Pancha, is supposed to have married five brothers in the famous Sanskrit epic Mahabharatha. The ritual is also regarded to be a way of maintaining farmland in the family. It’s most common near the Himalayas in the north of the country, as well as in Tibet, which is a mountainous area. While the ancient ritual has essentially died out as a result of technological advancements in most places, the scarcity of women in countries like China and India has kept it alive as a solution to young men’s difficulties in finding a wife. Because her mother had married three brothers, Rajo claimed she was aware that she would be expected to accept all of her husbands. She added that they sleep together on alternate nights, but that they do not have beds and rely on ‘lots of blankets on the floor.’ ‘I get a lot more affection and care than most wives,’ she continued. Guddu, the first husband and sole registered spouse, claimed, ‘We all had sex with her, but I’m not envious.’ The narrator states, “We’re one huge happy family.”
