The term for restriction of individual to one spouse at a time is:

The correct answer is Option (1) → Monogamy

Option (1) Monogamy — Correct. Monogamy is the form of marriage that restricts an individual to one spouse at a time: a man may have only one wife and a woman only one husband while the marriage lasts. ‘Mono’ means one.

Option (2) Polygamy — Incorrect. Polygamy is the opposite: a person has more than one spouse at the same time. Social reformers of the nineteenth century campaigned against it, as in the resolution condemning polygamy that was debated in the Muslim press.

Option (3) Endogamy — Incorrect. Endogamy is a rule about whom one may marry, not how many: marriage is restricted to members of one’s own group. Caste groups are ‘endogamous’ in this sense.

Option (4) Exogamy — Incorrect. Exogamy is the rule of marrying outside one’s own group, such as one’s clan or village. It too decides whom one may marry, not the number of spouses.

Note: The concepts in Option (1), ‘Monogamy’, and Option (4), ‘Exogamy’, are not in NCERT (2025-26); explained here for the benefit of the students.