[INDOLOGY] polyandry in the Mahaabhaarata and among the Todas of the Nilgiris

[Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan]

I have not read Parpola’s article on the Todas. But polyandry in South India is not confined to the Todas alone. Fraternal polyandry has been practiced by some castes in Kerala too. This issue was the focus of a 1993 Malayalam movie entitled ‘Veṇkalam’. Interestingly, the movie discusses the example of Draupadī too. For more details, see https://malayalaulagam.wordpress.com/2016/12/22/venkalam/.

 

Why should the custom of polyandry have been borrowed from outside India?

 

Regards,

Palaniappan

 

From: INDOLOGY <indology-bounces at list.indology.info> on behalf of Asko Parpola via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info>
Reply-To: Asko Parpola <aparpola at gmail.com>
Date: Thursday, November 8, 2018 at 5:16 AM
To: Indology <indology at list.indology.info>
Subject: [INDOLOGY] polyandry in the Mahaabhaarata and among the Todas of the Nilgiris

 

Today I received from Jan Houben a message, which begins:

 

Dear Asko, from your formulation I infer that you had intended this message to go to the list... but it came only to me. Do you perhaps have a scan of this article that appeared in the Amrtadhaaraa volume? I have many of your offprints in Leiden but don't have them with me here in Paris… 

 

It was indeed my intention to send the message also to Indology, so I do it now. Unfortunately I do not have a pdf of the paper, but would be grateful for it if somebody else has.  

 

With best wishes, Asko

 

 

On Mon, 29 Oct 2018 at 12:01, Asko Parpola <aparpola at gmail.com> wrote:

 

In the two refernces cited by Jan below, I suggest that polyandry was brought to India by Iranian speakers appearing as “PaaNDavas” in the Mahaabhaarata. I cited Herodotus on the Iranian tribe of Massagetae. But the polyandry of the Toda tribe of the Nilagiris is further evidence for the Iranian origin of polyandry in India. Archaeological evidence suggests that a batch of  Iranian speaking horsemen - Sakas - came to the Nilagiris in the early centuries CE, while the phonology of the Toda language, which is radically different from related Dravidian languages can only be explained by assuming that it reflects a Dravidian language (Pre-Tamil) adopted by Iranian speakers. See

Parpola, Asko, 1984. The Todas of the Nilgiris:  Hypothesis of a twofold origin -- Pre-Tamil and Saka*. Pp. 319-336 in: Joshi, S.D., (ed.),  Amṛtadhārā: Professor R. N. Dandekar felicitation volume. Delhi: Ajanta Publications International. 

 

Best regards, Asko

_______________________________________________ INDOLOGY mailing list INDOLOGY at list.indology.info indology-owner at list.indology.info (messages to the list's managing committee) http://listinfo.indology.info (where you can change your list options or unsubscribe) 



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://list.indology.info/pipermail/indology/attachments/20181108/ce83d8ff/attachment.htm>