Draft:Pandava Vicharam

Pandava Vicharam was a traditional marriage ceremony practiced by the Ezhava, Channar, and Kammala communities of pre-modern Kerala. This ceremony involved the marriage of a woman to a group of multiple brothers who married her at the same time. .This practice was a form of fraternal polyandry that helped in the conservation of land as the property of the brothers would go to the common wife and common sons.

Marriage Ceremony
The Pandava Vicharam ceremony was held in a small open space where a pandal (A shade shelter) made out of palm leaves was set up. The marriage ceremony took place under the pandal, and the woman would marry multiple brothers at the same muhurtham (auspicious time). The wife would divide her nights of the month equally with every husband.

History
Pandava Vicharam had been theorized to have existed for the conservation of land and other property, within a single patrilineal familial line, so as to prevent any sort of division of property. In many foreign accounts it was been merely observed as fraternal polyandry. In traditional oral accounts of practicing communities, the practice was modelled after the legendary Pandava brothers and their marriage with Draupadi, who were believed to have visited the Chera regions during their 13-year Exile.

Fraternal polyandry had existed in the Ezhava community for centuries, with evidence suggesting that it existed as recently as two centuries ago. The former Chief Minister of Travancore-Cochin C. Keshavan testified to this fact, stating that his father was the eldest of four brothers and that the second of them was married to his mother. The second brother, Karnan, had two children, and the customs were not an obstacle to the practice of fraternal polyandry