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High in the misty hills of Himachal Pradesh this summer, a wedding drew hundreds of villagers – not for its pomp, but for its rarity. Sunita Chauhan stood at the altar flanked by two grooms, brothers Pradeep and Kapil Negi, as she entered into a kind of a union that held families together in this Himalayan region for centuries.

In this part of northern India, polyandry – the practice of a woman marrying multiple men – is known variously as Jodidara or Pandav Pratha, invoking the legend from the Hindu epic Mahabharata of Draupadi, the daughter of the king of Panchala, marrying the five Pandava brothers.

Though polyandry isn’t uncommon, particularly in the north, the Negi wedding in the hamlet of Shillai made global headlines, a cultural curiosity in a country better known for arranged marriages and elaborate wedding rituals.

But, for the Hatti community, to which the bride and grooms belong, it is less about spectacle and more about survival. “If brothers marry the same woman, there is no question of splitting farmland. The family stays united, the land stays intact,” explains Raghuvir Tomar, who grew up with two fathers in Shillai.

For Sunita, the choice was personal. “I was aware of the tradition and made my decision without any pressure.”

One of her husbands, Kapil, says: “We’re ensuring support, stability and love for our wife as a united family.”

While the marriage fascinated outsiders, it was just one example of how societies in remote corners of Asia built family systems defying conventional norms.

Across the border, on the Himalayan fringes of south