Note 259 — Chapter XII

"In Ceylon the joint husbands are always brothers, and this is also the case among the tribes residing at the foot of the Himalaya mountains." (Lord Avebury's Origin of Civilisation, 6th ed. p. 153.) A fuller account of polyandry in Ceylon may be found in Tennent's Ceylon (Longmans, 1859, 2nd ed. vol. ii. pp. 428 seq.). Tennent points out that polyandry can be traced back to very ancient times. It "receives a partial sanction in the Institutes of Manu," and is referred to without reproach in the Mahabharata. Herbert Spencer (Principles of Ethics, pt. ii. ch. 13) says that in Tibet, "polyandry appears more conducive to social welfare than any other relation of the sexes. It receives approval from travellers, and even a Moravian missionary defends it: the missionary holding that superabundant population, in an unfertile country, must be a great calamity and produce 'eternal welfare or eternal want.'" See also Principles of Sociology. Polyandry is forbidden in the Shan States, though polygamy is sanctioned. (See Gazetteer of Upper Burma, pt. i. vol. i. p. 325.)