Moulana Aneesur Rahman Nadvi

Today, there is widespread misconception that Islam is the only religion in the world which permits polygamy and that Muslim community is the only community in which a man marries more than one wife. However both these assumptions contradict the truth. In fact, Islam is not the first religion to introduce polygamy, but this practice was found in almost all ancient religions and civilizations of the world. Polygamy is found in all modern societies of the world in one way or the other. In this context, the role played by Islam was that of a reformer. It restricted the rights of a man who used to keep wives and concubines excessively with any limit and introduced many more reforms so that the rights of women should not get affected. A comparative study of polygamy will be put forward here in the light of world religions, Islamic and modern laws in the following pages. First, one should keep in mind various terms used in this regard.

Polygamy in World Religions
Since early times, different forms of marriage were prevalent in different societies of the world, whose brief account is given below. Polygamy involves marriage with more than one spouse. When a man marries to more than one wife at a time, it is called polygyny. When a woman is married to more than one man at a given time, it is called polyandry. In monogamy one man is married to one woman at a time. If a marriage involves many husbands and wives, it is called a group marriage. In this type of marriage men share wives, children, household expenses and other things. In general, polygyny is referred to as polygamy.

All these types of marriages have been prevalent in one or the other human society from primitive times and it continues to be so even in the modern times. Islam prohibits polyandry and group marriages. This topic requires a separate article. It permits monogamy and allows polygyny with strict terms. In the following pages, we will discuss polygyny in detail.

Polygyny in Hinduism
Almost all Hindu religious scriptures permit polygyny as a lawful practice. According to the Rig Veda, polygyny was common in Vedic period. This practice was attested in epics such as Ramayana and Mahabharata. The Dharmashastras permit a man to have many wives of lower castes provided that the first wife was of the equal caste. Vishnu Smriti linked the number of wives to the caste system. Hence, a Brahmin has been allowed to take four wives in direct order of the four castes, a Kshatriya three, a Vaishya two and a Shudra one only. A number of other Hindu scriptures support this linkage between caste and number of wives. Nevertheless, in Hinduism, only the first wife enjoyed legal and social superiority over other wives and was accorded the status of dharma-patni. According to some scriptures, only the first wife could inherit her husband, and hence she should be from the same caste as that of her husband.

In addition to polygyny, Hinduism permitted its followers to keep concubines. According to the Hindu scriptures, Lord Krishna had around 16,000 wives and concubines. The nineteenth century Indian ruler Ranjit Singh (d. 1839) had four wives and 6 concubines. All of whom committed sati during his cremation ceremony.

According to Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, the practice of polygyny is being practiced in India since ancient times till today. Polygyny enjoyed legal status in India until 1955 when Hindu Marriage Act made it illegal to everyone in India except for Muslims. Polygamy in modern India has been discussed later in this article.

Polygyny in Judaism
Polygyny has been permitted in Jewish scriptures. According to the Old Testament, the man can own as many women as he pleases, and as he can afford to buy and keep. Later the Talmudists restricted this permission to four wives and the rulers were allowed to have at the most 18 spouses. Polygyny was considered a realistic alternative in the case of famine, widowhood, or female infertility. The Torah also contains a few specific regulations that apply to polygamy and advises the men that if they take another wife they should take care of her food, clothing, and duty of marriage. According to Torah, many prophets had more than one wife, e.g. Jacob had two, David had seven, Solomon had 700, and many other prophets had more than one wives. In total, there is mention of 40 important figures in Torah who had more than one wife. But Torah restricts the inheritance right to the son who was actually born first.

Jews practice a certain form of polygyny in the form of levirate marriage, wherein a man was required to marry and support his deceased brother’s widow if the deceased person doesn’t had a male heir, whether or not he is already married. In the absence of brother, it becomes the duty of the father of the dead man to come forward and marry his daughter-in-law. The purpose of the whole custom is to preserve the family property of the Jewish people. In this marriage, the firstborn child will be treated as that of the deceased brother and not the genetic father and he will inherit the deceased man’s property.

Polygyny was common in Jews in the biblical period. It is said that some tribes of Jews abandoned polygyny in the eleventh century, whereas it was practiced by other Jewish tribes until more recently. Although the present Israeli government has banned polygyny, nevertheless this law has not been enforced strictly in Israel to allow for existing polygamous families emigrating from countries where this practice was legal.

Polygyny in Christianity
As stated above, the Old Testament has openly allowed polygyny, but the New Testament is largely silent on polygyny. It neither explicitly allowed polygyny, nor it has been prohibited it. Nevertheless, the Bible states in the New Testament that polygamy should not be practiced by certain church leaders. Based on this statement, the Christian world is divided in two groups. One group argues that it is prohibited only for church leaders not for all, while the other group claims it is prohibited for all. Roman Catholic does not allow polygyny, while Protestants led by Martin Luther and his followers permitted polygyny. Martin Luther allowed polygyny preferring it over adultery.

However, regardless of its validity or invalidity in the Christian scriptures, polygyny was very much prevalent in the ruling class, nobles, rich and wealthy people in the medieval Europe. The medieval history of Europe is full of such instances.

In addition to polygyny, the custom of keeping concubines was also common practice in medieval Europe. Since concubinage enjoyed legal acceptance to an extent compared to polygyny, people inclined towards it more. This custom was prevalent in all classes of society. According to New World Encyclopedia:

“However, the keeping of a mistress was not confined to monarchs and the nobility; it permeated down through the ranks. Anyone who could afford one, regardless of social position, could have a mistress.”

In the Middle Ages in Europe, the concubinage was so prevalent that people used to kidnap women against their will and forced them to live as their concubines. This heinous practice took the form of an epidemic in medieval Europe and the Church used to denounce this practice and appeal to the people to refrain from such practices. As far as the legal rights of these women are concerned, whether it is in the case of polygyny or concubinage, the women never used to enjoy any legal or social rights at all. Her condition used to be miserable.

Buddhism and Polygamy
Buddhist scriptures contain no clear provisions regarding polygyny; instead they are extremely vague and ambiguous. Some religious scriptures seem to treat polygyny as unfavorable. Nevertheless, in Buddhist societies, polygyny continued to be practiced right from primitive days until today. Until 2010, polygyny was legally recognized in Thailand. In Myanmar, polygyny was also frequent.

In addition to polygyny, the practice of polyandry is also prevalent in Buddhist societies more frequently. It is found in abundance in Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Ladakh, Tibet and the Indian sub-continent. It Bhutan and Ladakh, it is more popular. Tibet is home to the largest and most flourishing polyandrous community in the world today. One specific custom is prevalent here in which father and son share a common wife.

Polygyny in Other Religions
In addition to the above major religions of the world, polygyny has also been prevalent in other primitive religions of the world. Among those religions Zoroastrianism, Celtic pagans, and Chinese religions are noteworthy. In China, two factors limit the scope of polygyny: the number of available women; and the financial resources of the man. On fulfilling these conditions, a man can marry as many women as he desires.

Another form of polygyny was prevalent in China which is called Sororate marriage. Sororate marriage is a custom in which a man marries his wife’s sister(s). Later it is expanded to include her cousins or females from the same clan. It can happen at the same time as he marries the first wife, at a later time while the wife is still alive, or after she dies.

Polygyny in Other Societies of the World
An important research work has come up in recent years with regard to the marriage trends and the prevalence of polygamy in 1231 societies of the world. This study is called ‘Ethnographic Atlas’. This study has found that polygamy is widely accepted among different societies worldwide. According to the Ethnographic Atlas, of 1,231 societies noted, 588 had frequent polygyny, 453 had occasional polygyny, 186 were monogamous and 4 had polyandry.

In a nutshell, almost all the major religions of the world have permitted the practice of polygyny. Similarly, about 85 percent of the World cultures and civilizations continued to practice polygyny from ancient times until now, as its details have been discussed above.

References:
1 – See, Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, P. 514.
2 -Vishnu Smiriti, Chapter 24, Verses 1-4.
3 – Encyclopedia of Religions and Ethics, V. 8, P. 453.
4 – Encyclopedia Biblica, T. K. Cheyne & S. Black, V. 3, P. 2946.
5 – Deuteronomy 21:15–17.
6 – Ethnographic Atlas, George P. Murdock.