The term ‘Polyandry’ means ____________.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Practice of a woman having several husbands
Polyandry is the practice of a woman having several husbands. The best-known example in early Indian texts is Draupadi in the Mahabharata, who was married to the five Pandavas.
The other options define related terms: a man having several wives is polygyny; marriage outside the unit is exogamy; marriage within a unit, such as a kin group, caste or locality, is endogamy.
NCERT (2025-26): “2.3 Rules of marriage … While sons were important for the continuity of the patrilineage, daughters were viewed rather differently within this framework. They had no claims to the resources of the household. At the same time, marrying them into families outside the kin was considered desirable. This system, called exogamy (literally, marrying outside), meant that the lives of young girls and women belonging to families that claimed high status were often carefully regulated to ensure that they were married at the ‘right’ time and to the ‘right’ person.…”
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