Posted by: thugged out November 24, 2005
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The tribe I'm talking about is the Jaunsari tribe. Here's a little info:
"Remote and mysterious, virtually isolated from the outside world, the mountainous Jaunsar Bawar region in Northern Uttar Pradesh has, since time immemorial, nurtured a unique lifestyle. Their traditions, their customs, their unusual way of life are not to be found elsewhere in Uttar Pradesh, or indeed, in India.
In Jaunsar live the descendants-so they claim of the legendary Pandavas-heroes of the great Indian epic, the Mahabharata. That is why, the people of Jaunsar maintain, they follow the custom of sharing wives. The five Pandava brothers had one wife-Draupadi-more by a set of circumstances than by choice. However, the Jaunsaris are both polyandrous and polygamous, with several brothers sharing several wives and vice versa. Some anthropologists aver that the Jaunsaris are the last surviving ?pure? descendants of the Aryans. Often light eyed and fair skinned, the Jaunsaris, with their finely chiseled features are indeed noticeably different in appearance from, for instance, the Garhwalis who inhabit the mountains barely a stone?s throw across the fledgeling Yamuna river which demarcates Jaunsar from Garhwal. But polyandry and polygamy are not the only facets of the colourful lifestyle of the Jaunsaris. There are their dances, their festive sports, their ways of worship, their marriage costumes, their water mills, and indeed their day to day life?all so different from areas elsewhere"
http://www.indiaprofile.com/lifestyle/jaunsarbawar.htm
I read somewhere else that Jaunsari caste system has khasa brahmins on top. That's interesting...Nepali is also commonly called Khaskura from what I understand.