Summary
Sambandham was a mode of marriage followed by Nambudiris, Nairs, Samantha Kshatriyas, Kshatriyas and Ambalavasis among their own communities as well as with each other, in colonial Kerala, India.[1][2] This practice was stopped during the late 1920s, and is no longer observed.
The Malabar Marriage Act, 1896 defined Sambandham as, "An alliance between a man and a woman, by reason of which they, in accordance with the custom of the community to which they belong, or to which either of them belongs, cohabit or intend to cohabit as husband and wife."[3]
Sambandham also denoted reciprocal marriage among Nairs and this term was not used just to denote hypergamous marriages between the Nambudiris and the Nairs.[4] Alternate names for the system were used by different social groups and in different regions;[4] they included Pudavamuri, Pudavakoda, Vastradanam, Vitaram Kayaruka, Mangalam and Uzhamporukkuka.
Practice edit
The Sambandham system had led to many controversies and misconceptions associating with polyandry. Most of the mentions about Nair women having multiple Sambandham partners comes from accounts of foreigners who visited Kerala during the pre-colonial era. However, historians assert that there exists no authenticated case of polyandry among the Nairs. The Sambandham could be broken at the will of either party and they could move on to have another relationship.This was adopted to suit the military life of Nairs, so that if the husband dies in a battle, the wife can move on and avoid widowhood. The foreign authors would’ve mistaken both of them as standard marriages in the European sense, hence would’ve deduced that the Nair women had more than one partner. This is not surprising as foreigners never would’ve gotten a chance to observe Nair rites closely since they always had to maintain distance from the Nairs due to rigid social rules which existed back then, and would’ve been confused about the Nair rites.[5]The extensive Malayalam literature on the subject provides a more nuanced and culturally informed perspective.[6]
It is also to be noted that even though second marriage after divorce is allowed, it was looked down upon and didn’t involve celebrations as the first marriage, as the 1891 Madras census says: “Sambandham is, strictly speaking, dissoluble at the will of either party without any formal ceremony being gone through for the purpose, but that will is controlled by public opinion which views with disfavour divorces made for trivial reasons. In cases of divorce, the children always go with their mother. Their legal guardian is their uncle, or karanavan (managing member) of the mother’s house. Both widows and divorced women are allowed to remarry, but the second and subsequent marriages of women are not celebrated with even as much formality as the first marriage. The man goes to the woman’s house with friends, and giving her betel-leaves and nut or dresses, takes her to wife.”[7]
See also edit
References edit
- ^ Fuller, C. J. (30 December 1976). The Nayars Today. CUP Archive. ISBN 978-0-521-29091-3.
- ^ "Seeking royal roots". The Hindu. 3 March 2003. Archived from the original on 22 October 2010.
- ^ Panikkar, K. M. (July 1918). "Some Aspects of Nayar Life". Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 48: 271.
- ^ a b Kodoth, Praveena (May 2001). "Courting Legitimacy or Delegitimizing Custom? Sexuality, Sambandham and Marriage Reform in Late Nineteenth-Century Malabar". Modern Asian Studies. 35 (2): 351. doi:10.1017/s0026749x01002037. JSTOR 313121. PMID 18481401. S2CID 7910533.
- ^ "On The Nair Community Of Kerala And Their Sambandham System". Indiafacts. 21 August 2020. Retrieved 24 February 2024.
- ^ Panikkar, K. M. (1918). "Some Aspects of Nayar Life". The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 48: 254–293. doi:10.2307/2843423. JSTOR 2843423 – via JSTOR.
- ^ "Madras Census Report, 1921". The Lancet. 201 (5185): 85–86. 13 January 1923. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(00)54910-1.
Sources edit
- Moore, Melinda. "Symbol and Meaning in Nayar Marriage Ritual." American Ethnologist. 15 (1998) 254–273
- Gough, K. (1961) Nayar: Central Kearla, in Schneider, D. M. & Gough, K. (Eds.) Matrilineal Kinship. Berkeley & Los Angeles, p298-404
- Karl, R. (2003) Women in Practice: A Comparative Analysis of Gender and Sexuality in India. 2003 Marleigh Grayer Ryan Student Prize ; Moore, M. (1998) Symbol and Meaning in Nayar Marriage Ritual, American Ethnologist 15:254-73
- Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi (1975) An Introduction to the Study of Indian History.
- Dirks, Nicholas. "Homo Hierarchies: Origins of an Idea." Castes of Mind. Princeton: Princeton University Press 2001.