Note 59 — Chapter VI
Reading edition
6. As regards the plains, we know that the prevalence of polyandry was noticed by the Greeks in the Panjâb.59 Of the Gakkars Farishta60 tells us that “it was the custom as soon as a female child was born to carry her to the door of the house and there proclaim aloud, holding the child with one hand, that any person who wanted a wife might now take her, otherwise she was immediately put to death. By this means they had more men than women, which occasioned the custom of several husbands to one wife. When the wife was visited by one of her husbands she left a mark at the door, which, being observed by any of the other husbands, he withdrew till the signal was taken away.” Similar customs prevailed among the Khokars of the Panjâb,61 and the Panjâb Jâts.62