The two Hatti tribe brothers tied a knot to a woman in the village of Shillai in Himachal Pradesh, while hundreds of people witnessed marriages famous under the anachronistic tradition of polyanders.
The bride Sunita Chauhan and Grooms Pradeep and Kapil Negi said they decided without any pressure.
Local folk songs and dances added to the ceremony, which began on July 12 and lasted three days in the Trans-Gri area in the Sirmiaur district.
The wedding ceremony videos became a viral on the Internet.
Himachal Pradesh’s revenue laws recognize this tradition and named it “iodidara”. In the village of Badhan in Trans-Griri, five such marriages have taken place over the past six years.
Sunita, which comes from Kunhat, said she was aware of this tradition and made a decision without any pressure and added that she respects the bond they created.
Mr. Pradeep from the village of Shillai works at the government department, while his younger brother Mr. Kapil has a job abroad. “We watched tradition publicly when we are proud of it and it was a common decision,” said Mr. Pradeep.
Mr. Kapil said he could live abroad, but through this marriage “we provide support, stability and love for our wife as a united family”. “We have always believed in transparency,” he added.
Hatti is a closed community in the Himachal Pradesh-Pradekhand border and was declared a planned tribe three years ago. In this tribe, polyanders have been fashionable for centuries, but due to the growing literacy between women and economic confidence of communities in the region, polyanders have not been reported. Such marriages are ceremonial secretly and are accepted with society, but there are fewer cases, the elder in the village said.
According to experts, one of the main reflections on the tradition was to ensure that the soil of the ancestors is not divided, while the proportion of tribal women owned by ancestors is still the main problem.
There are almost three lakh people from the hatti community who live in about 450 villages in the Trans-Gri area in the Sirmiaur district and polyanders are still a practical tradition in some villages. It was also prevailing in Jauunsar Babar, tribal area Uttarakhand and Kinnaur, tribal district Himachal Pradesh.
Kundan Singh Shastri, Secretary General Kendriya Hatti Samiti, the main body of the hatti community, said that this tradition was invented thousands of years ago to save family agricultural land from further division.
Another reason is to support fraternity and mutual understanding in a common family by removing with two or more brothers of birth from various mothers with a single bride, PTI said.
The third reason is the sense of security “if you have a larger family, more men, you are safer in the tribal society,” he said, adding that this also helps to manage scattered agricultural land in distant hard hilly areas that require the family for a long time for care and cultivation.
“These requirements of tribal families have maintained polyanders for thousands of years, in practice, although these traditions are slowly dying,” added Mr. Shastri.
In this unique tribal tradition of marriage known as “jajda”, the bride comes to the village of the groom in the parade and the ritual known as “Seei” is performed in the residence of the groom.
Pandita singing mantras in a local language with sprinkling the Holy Water on the bride and groom, and eventually offers them jaggers, with a blessing that their nine can bring sweetness in marital life.
Published – 20 July 2025 17:59
