Sati (practice) - Knowledge

1839: 2308:, believed to have been composed around 1000 BCE, describes a funerary ritual where the widow lies down by her deceased husband, but is then asked to ascend, to enjoy the blessings from the children and wealth left to her. Dehejia states that Vedic literature has no mention of any practice resembling sati. There is only one mention in the Vedas, of a widow lying down beside her dead husband who is asked to leave the grieving and return to the living, then prayer is offered for a happy life for her with children and wealth. Dehejia writes that this passage does not imply a pre-existing sati custom, nor of widow remarriage, nor that it is authentic verse; its solitary mention may also be explained as an insertion into the text at a latter date. Dehejia writes that no ancient or early medieval era Buddhist texts mention sati (since killing/self killing) would have been condemned by them. 1343: 1790:, the Governor's most prominent counselor expressed apprehension that the banning of sati might be "used by the disaffected and designing" as "an engine to produce insurrection". However these concerns did not deter him from upholding the Governor's decision "in the suppression of the horrible custom by which so many lives are cruelly sacrificed." Thus on Sunday morning of 4 December 1829 Lord Bentinck issued Regulation XVII declaring sati to be illegal and punishable in criminal courts. It was presented to William Carey for translation. His response is recorded as follows: "Springing to his feet and throwing off his black coat he cried, 'No church for me to-day... If I delay an hour to translate and publish this, many a widow's life may be sacrificed,' he said. By evening the task was finished." 1413: 1461:), who succeeded Akbar in the early 17th century, found sati prevalent among the Hindus of Rajaur. During this era, many Muslims and Hindus were ambivalent about the practice, with Muslim attitude leaning towards disapproval. According to Sharma, the evidence nevertheless suggests that sati was admired by Hindus, but both "Hindus and Muslims went in large numbers to witness a sati". According to Reza Pirbhai, the memoirs of Jahangir suggest sati continued in his regime, was practised by Hindus and Muslims, he was fascinated by the custom, and that those Kashmiri Muslim widows who practised sati either immolated themselves or buried themselves alive with their dead husbands. Jahangir prohibited such sati and other customary practices in Kashmir. 6436:

other Brahmanical authors also compose a number of smrtis that proscribe this practice specifically in the case of Brahmin widows. Moreover, Medhatithi – our earliest commentator to address the issue – strongly opposes the practice for all women. Taken together, this textual evidence suggests that sahagamana was still quite controversial at this time. In the following period, opposition to this custom starts to weaken, as none of the later commentators fully endorses Medhatithi's position on sahagamana. Indeed, after Vijnanesvara in the early twelfth century, the strongest position taken against sahagamana appears to be that it is an inferior option to brahmacarya (ascetic celibacy), since its result is only heaven rather than

1691: 1531: 6359: 1610: 6440:(liberation). Finally, in the third period, several commentators refute even this attenuated objection to sahagamana, for they cite a previously unquoted smrti passage that specifically lists liberation as a result of the rite's performance. They thereby claim that sahagamana is at least as beneficial an option for widows as brahmacarya and perhaps even more so, given the special praise it sometimes receives. These authors, however, consistently stop short of making it an obligatory act. Hence, the commentarial literature of the dharma tradition attests to a gradual shift from strict prohibition to complete endorsement in its attitude toward sahagamana. 2367:

which totals 5,369, followed by a statement that a total of 5,997 instances of women were burned or buried alive in the Bengal presidency over a 10-year period, i.e., average 600 per year. In the same report, it states that the Madras and Bombay presidencies totalled 635 instances of sati over the same ten-year period. The 1829 missionary report does not provide its sources and acknowledges that "no correct idea can be formed of the number of murders occasioned by suttees", then states that some of the statistics are based on "conjectures". According to Yang, these "numbers are fraught with problems".

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Kanwar had mental illness and culture likely played a role. However, Colucci and Lester state that none of the women reported by media to have committed sati had been given a psychiatric evaluation before their sati suicide and thus there is no objective data to ascertain if culture or mental illness was the primary driver behind their suicide. Inamdar, Oberfield and Darrell state that the women who commit sati are often "childless or old and face miserable impoverished lives" which combined with great stress from the loss of the only personal support may be the cause of a widow's suicide.

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day."/26/ This order, though not mentioned in the formal histories, is recorded in the official guidebooks of the reign./27/ Although the possibility of an evasion of government orders through payment of bribes existed, later European travelers record that sati was not much practiced by the end of Aurangzeb's reign. As Ovington says in his Voyage to Surat: "Since the Mahometans became Masters of the Indies, this execrable custom is much abated, and almost laid aside, by the orders which nabobs receive for suppressing and extinguishing it in all their provinces. And now it is

907:, when "mores of the clan gave way to the norms of caste", wives were obliged to join in quite a few rituals but without much authority. A ritual with support in a Vedic text was a "symbolic self-immolation" which it is believed a widow of status needed to perform at the death of her husband, the widow subsequently marrying her husband's brother. In later centuries, the text was cited as the origin of Sati, with a variant reading allowing the authorities to insist that the widow sacrifice herself in reality by joining her deceased husband on the funeral pyre. 1448:) was averse to the practice of Sati; however, he expressed his admiration for "widows who wished to be cremated with their deceased husbands". He was averse to abuse, and in 1582, Akbar issued an order to prevent any use of compulsion in sati. According to M. Reza Pirbhai, a professor of South Asian and World history, it is unclear if a prohibition on sati was issued by Akbar, and other than a claim of ban by Monserrate upon his insistence, no other primary sources mention an actual ban. Instances of sati continued during and after the era of Akbar. 931: 6424:, Vijñāneśvara argues Brahmin women are technically only forbidden from performing sati on pyres other than those of their deceased husbands. Quoting the Yājñavalkya Smṛti, Vijñāneśvara states, "a Brahmin woman ought not to depart by ascending a separate pyre." David Brick states that the Brahmin sati commentary suggests that the practice may have originated in the warrior and ruling class of medieval Indian society. In addition to providing arguments in support of sati, Vijñāneśvara offers arguments against the ritual. 2181: 6871:), Akbar attempted to prevent a sati by calling a widow before him and offering her wealth and protection. The poet reports hearing the story from Prince Dāniyāl, Akbar's third son. According to Arvind Sharma, a professor of Comparative Religion specializing on Hinduism, the widow "rejected all this persuasion as well as the counsel of the Brahmins, and would neither speak nor hear of anything but the Fire". According to Sharma, "in most accounts of sati of the pre-17th century period, in which the role of the 2545:) was practised by the aristocracy as late as 1903, until the Dutch colonial authorities pushed for its termination, forcing the local Balinese princes to sign treaties containing the prohibition of sati as one of the clauses. Early Dutch observers of the Balinese custom in the 17th century said that only widows of royal blood were allowed to be burned alive. Concubines or others of inferior blood lines who consented or wanted to die with their princely husband had to be stabbed to death before being burned. 993:(warrior) aristocracy and remained mostly limited to the warrior class among Hindus. According to Thapar, the introduction and growth of the practice of sati as a fire sacrifice is related to new Kshatriyas, who forged their own culture and took some rules "rather literally", with a variant reading of the Veda turning the symbolic practice into the practice of a widow burning herself with her husband. Thapar further points to the "subordination of women in patriarchal society", "changing 'systems of kinship 354: 29: 14363: 13872: 2332: 78: 1975: 1598: 6298:, immolates herself. She believes she is responsible for his death, as he had been cursed with death if he ever had intercourse. He died while performing the forbidden act with Madri; she blamed herself for not rejecting him, as she knew of the curse. Also, in the case of Madri the entire assembly of sages sought to dissuade her from the act, and no religious merit is attached to the fate she chooses against all advice. In contrast, 187: 1073:" of Indian women followed by a decline in concurrence to the Muslim conquests. This discourse also resulted in promotion of a view of British missionaries rescuing "Hindu India from Islamic tyranny". Several British missionaries who had studied classical Indian literature attempted to employ Hindu scriptural interpretations in their missionary work to convince their followers that Sati was not mandated by Hinduism. 5887: 2017: 2238: 1655:

renewal William Wilberforce, drawing on the statistics on sati collected by Carey and the other Serampore missionaries and mobilising public opinion against suttee, successfully ensured the passage of a Bill in Parliament legalising missionary activities in Indias, with a view to ending the practice through the religious transformation of Indian society. He stated in his address to the House of Commons:

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up again as if to escape, when a washerman gave her a push with a bamboo, which sent her back into the hottest part of the fire. This is said to be based on the set of official documents. Yet another such case appearing in official papers, transmitted into British journals, is case 41, page 411 here, where the woman was, apparently, thrown twice back in the fire by her relatives, in a case from 1821.

6797:, whose wife Evadne threw herself on his funeral pyre, might be a relic of an earlier custom of live widow-burning. In Book 10 of Quintus Smyrnaeus' Posthomerica (lines 467ff.), Oenone is said to have thrown herself on he burning pyre of her erstwhile husband Paris, or Alexander. The strangling of widows after their husbands' deaths are attested to from cultures as disparate as the 6141:

wealth. Dehejia writes that this passage does not imply a pre-existing sati custom, nor of widow remarriage, nor that it is authentic verse; its solitary mention may also be explained as an insertion into the text at a latter date. Dehejia writes that no ancient or early medieval era Buddhist texts mention sati (since killing/self killing) would have been condemned by them.

2574: 1924:; within 4 months after Jaipur's 1846 ban, 11 of the 18 independently governed states in Rajputana had followed Jaipur's example. One paper says that in the year 1846–1847 alone, 23 states in the whole of India (not just within Rajputana) had banned sati. It was not until 1861 that sati was legally banned in all the princely states of India, 1061:. Three factors may have contributed this revival: sati was believed to be supported by Hindu scriptures by the 19th century; sati was encouraged by unscrupulous neighbours as it was a means of property annexation from a widow who had the right to inherit her dead husband's property under Hindu law, and sati helped eliminate the inheritor; 2273:, where the widow typically was placed in a hut along with her husband, her leg was tied to one of the hut's pillars. Finally, from Bengal, where the tradition of the pyre held sway, the widow's feet could be tied to posts fixed to the ground, she was asked three times if she wished to ascend to heaven, before the flames were lit. 2452:, who committed sati after her husband's death. One controversial case was that of Chhatrapati Shahu's widow who was forced to commit sati due to political intrigues regarding succession at the Satara court following Shahu's death in 1749. The most "celebrated" case of sati was that of Ramabai, the widow of Brahmin Peshwa 2377:, 420 took place in Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, or what is termed the Lower Provinces, and of these latter 287 in the Calcutta Division alone". For the Upper Provinces, Bentinck added, "in these Provinces the satis amount to forty three only upon a population of nearly twenty millions", i.e., average one sati per 465,000. 2140:

that in some regions, the sati occurred by construction of a small hut, within which the widow and her husband were burnt, while in other regions, a pit was dug, in which the husband's corpse was placed along with flammable materials, into which the widow jumped after the fire had started. In mid-nineteenth-century

1136:. Hieronymus' explanation of the origin of sati appears to be his own composite, created from a variety of Indian traditions and practices to form a moral lesson upholding traditional Greek values. Modern scholarship has generally treated this instance as an isolated incident, not representative of general culture. 6171:, a body of texts devoted to ritual, composed at about the same time as the most recent Brahmana literature, sati is not mentioned either. What is mentioned concerning funeral rites, is that the widow is to be brought back from her husband's funeral pyre, either by his brother, or by a trusted servant. In the 6555:

Apararka acknowledges that Vedic scripture prohibits violence against living beings and "one should not kill", however, he argues that this rule prohibits violence against another person, but does not prohibit killing oneself. Thus sati is a woman's choice and it is not prohibited by Vedic tradition.

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that contains statements she regards as evidence for a sub-tradition that justifies strongly encouraged, pressured, or even forced sati; however the standard view of sati within the justifying tradition is that of the woman who out of moral heroism chooses sati, rather than choosing to enter ascetic

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To summarize, one can loosely arrange Dharmasastic writings on sahagamana into three historical periods. In the first of these, which roughly corresponds to the second half of the 1st millennium CE, smrti texts that prescribe sahagamana begin to appear. However, during approximately this same period,

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s power, associated with remonstrations on members of the family for how they have failed. One woman cursed her in-laws when they brought neither a horse nor a drummer to her pyre, saying that whenever they might need either in the future, (many religious rituals require the presence of such things),

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Anand Yang, speaking of the early nineteenth century, says that contrary to conventional wisdom, sati was not, in general, an upper class phenomenon, but spread through the classes/castes. In the 575 reported cases from 1823, for example, 41 percent were Brahmins, 6 percent were Kshatriyas, 2 percent

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In 1822, the Salt Agent at Barripore, 16 miles south of Calcutta, went out of his way to report a case which he had witnessed, in which the woman was forcibly held down by a great bamboo by two men, so as to preclude all chance of escape. In Cuttack, a woman dropt herself into a burning pit, and rose

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Hindu and Buddhist influences arrived in Cambodia by the mid 1st millennium, likely over both land trading routes and maritime Asian trade. Mahayana Buddhism likely arrived in the 5th or 6th century CE. Mahayana competed with Hinduism from the 8th century onwards, as Khmer kings switched their royal

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are carried out and festivals organized to glorify both the patron goddess, Sati, the benevolent avatar of the mother goddess who immolated herself in response to her father's insults to her husband, as does the practice of a wife's self-immolation following her husband's death. Today, India has at

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Opposition to sati was expressed by several exegesis scholars: the 9th or 10th-century Kashmir scholar Medatithi – who offers the earliest known explicit discussion of sati, the 12th to 17th-century scholars Vijnanesvara, Apararka and Devanadhatta, as well as the mystical Tantric tradition, with its

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An 1829 report by a Christian missionary organisation includes among other things, statistics on sati. It begins with a declaration that "the object of all missions to the heathen is to substitute for these systems the Gospel of Christ", thereafter lists sati for each year over the period 1815–1824,

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Although sati is typically thought of as consisting of the procedure in which the widow is placed, or enters, or jumps, upon the funeral pyre of her husband, slight variations in funeral practice have been reported here as well, by region. For example, the mid-17th-century traveller Tavernier claims

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The nation continues to witness a cultural divide in regards to their opinions of Sati, with a great deal of the glorification of this practice occurring within it. The Calcutta Marwari have been noted to follow the practice of Sati worship, yet the community alleges it to be a part of their culture

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The punishment for glorifying sati is a minimum one-year sentence that can be increased to seven years in prison and a minimum fine of 5,000 rupees that can be increased to 30,000 rupees. This Section of the Act has become heavily criticised by both sides of the Sati debate. Proponents of Sati argue

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Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act

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came to power as Governor of India. When he landed in Calcutta, he said that he felt "the dreadful responsibility hanging over his head in this world and the next, if... he was to consent to the continuance of this practice (sati) one moment longer." Bentinck decided to put an immediate end to sati.

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From 1815 to 1818 sati deaths doubled. Ram Mohan Roy launched an attack on sati that "aroused such anger that for awhile his life was in danger". In 1821 he published a tract opposing Sati, and in 1823 the Serampore missionaries led by Carey published a book containing their earlier essays, of which

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I saw a most beautiful young widow sacrificed, who could not, I think, have been more than twelve years of age. The poor little creature appeared more dead than alive when she approached the dreadful pit: the agony of her mind cannot be described; she trembled and wept bitterly; but three or four of

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claims widows prefer to die with their husband due to the dangerous negative power associated with them. However she notes that this glorification of sacrifice was not unique to women: just as the texts glorified "good" wives who sacrificed themselves for their husbands and families, "good" warriors

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or Rajput castes, not the Brahmins, were the most respected community in Rajasthan in north-west India, as they defended the land against invaders centuries before the coming of the Muslims. She proposes that Brahmins of the north-west copied Rajput practices, and transformed sati ideologically from

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Hindu and Buddhist influences arrived in Vietnam by early centuries of 1st millennium, likely from trade and the Cambodian Khmer influence. In the 10th century CE, Mahayana Buddhism became the officially sponsored religion. From the 11th century and thereafter, Buddhism in Vietnam incorporated many

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from about the same time, it is said that when leaving, the widow takes from her husband's side such objects as his bow, gold and jewels, and hope is expressed that the widow and her relatives lead a happy and prosperous life afterwards. According to Altekar, it is "clear" that the custom of actual

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There is no mention of sahagamana (sati) whatsoever in either Vedic literature or any of the early Dharmasutras or Dharmasastras. By “early Dharmasutras or Dharmasastras”, I refer specifically to both the early Dharmasutras of Apastamba, Hiranyakesin, Gautama, Baudhayana and Vasistha, and the later

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is devoted and subservient to her husband, and also protective of him. If he dies before her, some culpability is attached to her for his death, as not having been sufficiently protective of him. Making the vow to burn alive beside him removes her culpability, as well as enabling her to protect him

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Records of sati exist throughout many times periods and regions of the subcontinent. However, there seems to have been major differences in different regions, and among communities. No reliable figures exist for the numbers who have died by sati in general. According to Yang, the "pre-1815" data is

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Ram Mohan Roy observed that when women allow themselves to be consigned to the funeral pyre of a deceased husband it results not just "from religious prejudices only", but, "also from witnessing the distress in which widows of the same rank in life are involved, and the insults and slights to which

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Most Hindu communities, especially in North India, only bury the bodies of those under the age of two, such as baby girls. Those older than two are customarily cremated. A few European accounts provide rare descriptions of Indian sati that included the burial of the widow with her dead husband. One

2107:(iv) The creation of a trust, or the collection of funds, or the construction of a temple or other structure or the carrying on of any form of worship or the performance of any ceremony thereat, with a view to perpetuate the honour of, or to preserve the memory of, a person who has committed Sati." 1654:

Serampore was a Danish colony, rather than British, and the reason why Carey started his mission in Danish India, rather than in British territories, was because the East India Company did not accept Christian missionary activity within their domains. In 1813, when the Company's Charter came up for

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in 464 CE, and in India from 510 CE. The early evidence suggests that widow-burning practice was seldom carried out in the general population. Centuries later, instances of sati began to be marked by inscribed memorial stones called Sati stones. According to J.C. Harle, the medieval memorial stones

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Several sati stones have been found in Vijayanagar empire. These stones were erected as a mark of a heroic deed of sacrifice of the wife for her husband and towards the land. The sati stone evidence from the time of the empire is regarded as relatively rare; only about 50 are clearly identified as

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are not known with certainty, but posits that the priestly class throughout India was aware of the texts and the practice itself by the 12th century. According to Anand Yang, it was practised in Bengal as early as the 12th century, where it was originally practised by the Kshatriya caste and later

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Vijnanesvara presents both sides of the argument for and against sati. First, he argues that Vedas do not prohibit sacrifice aimed to stop an enemy, or in pursuit of heaven; thus sati for these reasons is not prohibited. Then he presents two arguments against sati, calling it "objectionable". The

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However, those who supported the ritual did put restrictions on sati. It was considered wrong for women who had young children to care for and those who were pregnant or menstruating. A woman who had doubts or did not wish to commit sati at the last moment could be removed from the pyre by a man,

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Dehejia states that Vedic literature has no mention of any practice resembling sati. There is only one mention in the Vedas, of a widow lying down beside her dead husband who is asked to leave the grieving and return to the living, then prayer is offered for a happy life for her with children and

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before ascending the funeral pyre. Once a woman had committed herself to becoming a sati, popular belief thought her to be endowed with many supernatural powers. Lourens P. Van Den Bosch enumerates some of them: prophecy and clairvoyance, and the ability to bless with sons women who had not borne

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descent. According to Kulkarnee, the practice may have increased across caste distinctions as an honour-saving custom in the face of Muslim advances into the territory. But the practice never gained the prevalence seen in Rajasthan or Bengal, and social customs of actively dissuading a widow from

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India is steeped in a heavily patriarchal system and their norms, making it difficult for even the most vigilant of authorities to enforce the 1987 Act. An instance of this can be seen in 2002 where two police officers were attacked by a mob of approximately 1000 people when attempting to stop an

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by widows are related to culture or are examples of mental illness and suicide. In the case of Roop Kanwar, Dinesh Bhugra states that there is a possibility that the suicides could be triggered by "a state of depersonalization as a result of severe bereavement", then adds that it is unlikely that

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In 1812, Ram Mohan Roy began to champion the cause of banning sati practice. He was motivated by the experience of seeing his own sister-in-law being forced to die by sati. He visited Kolkata's cremation grounds to persuade widows against immolation, formed watch groups to do the same, sought the

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is a practice in which widows commit suicide by burning themselves (or being burned) on their husband's funeral pyres. While this practice was never widespread, and is now obsolete, it was nonetheless at the center of discussions around Indian & Nepalese culture and tradition during the last

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through knowledge of the self through learning, reflecting and meditating. In Vedic tradition, moksha is of higher merit than heaven, because moksha leads to eternal, unsurpassed bliss while heaven is impermanent, thus a smaller happiness. Living gives a widow the option to discover a deeper and

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Accounts describe numerous variants in the sati ritual. The majority of accounts describe the woman seated or lying down on the funeral pyre beside her dead husband. Many other accounts describe women walking or jumping into the flames after the fire had been lit, and some describe women seating

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the capital of Mewar, but as Anant S. Altekar shows, local opinion had then shifted strongly against the practice. The widows of Maharanna Sarup Singh declined to become sati upon his death, and the only one to follow him in death was a concubine. Later the same year, the general ban on sati was

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Daniel Grey states that the understanding of origins and spread of sati were distorted in the colonial era because of a concerted effort to push "problem Hindu" theories in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Lata Mani wrote that all of the parties during the British colonial era that debated the

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Within the dharmashastric tradition espousing sati as a justified or even recommended option to ascetic widowhood, there remains a curious conception worth noting - the after-death status of a woman committing sati. Burning herself on the pyre would give her and her husband, automatic, but not

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Aurangzeb was most forthright in his efforts to stop sati. According to Manucci, on his return from Kashmir in December, 1663, he "issued an order that in all lands under Mughal control, never again should the officials allow a woman to be burnt." Manucci adds that "This order endures to this

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In the Lower Gangetic plain, sati practice may have reached a high level fairly late in history. According to available evidence and existing reports of occurrences, the greatest incidence of sati in any region and period occurred in Bengal and Bihar in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

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Yang notes that many studies seem to emphasise the young age of the widows who committed sati. By studying the British figures from 1815 to 1828, Yang states that the overwhelming majority were ageing women; statistics from 1825 to 1826 show that about two thirds were above the age of 40 when

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was originally a self-chosen death for noble women facing defeat in war, and practised especially among the warrior Rajputs. Oldenburg posits that the enslavement of women by Greek conquerors may have started this practice, On attested Rajput practice of jauhar during wars, and notes that the

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Quote: Sati is a particularly relevant social practice because it is often used as a means to prevent inheritance of property by widows. In parallel, widows are also sometimes branded as witches – and subjected to violent expulsion from their homes – as a means to prevent their

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Apart from accounts of direct compulsion, some evidence exists that precautions, at times, were taken so that the widow could not escape the flames once they were lit. Anant S. Altekar, for example, points out that it is much more difficult to escape a fiery pit that one has jumped in, than

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only. The practice continued in surrounding regions. In the beginning of the 19th century, the evangelical church in Britain, and its members in India, started campaigns against sati. This activism came about during a period when British missionaries in India began focusing on promoting and

1273:(sati stone), each to memorialise something different. Both of these are found in many regions of India, but "rarely if ever earlier in date than the 8th or 9th century". Numerous memorial sati stones appear 11th-century onwards, states Michaels, and the largest collections are found in 6547:

first is based on hymn 10.2.6.7 of Satapatha, Brahmana will forbids suicide. His second reason against sati is an appeal to the relative merit between two choices. Death may grant a woman's wish to enter heaven with her dead husband, but living offers her the possibility of reaching

6382:) after her husband has died, then when she dies, she obtains heaven, just like those who were celibate. Further, three and a half krores or however many hairs are on a human body – for that long a time (in years) a woman who follows her husband (in death) shall dwell in heaven. 2448:

committing sati are well established. Apparently not a single instance of forced sati is attested for the 17th and 18th centuries CE. Forced or not forced, there were several instances of women from the Bhosale family committing sati. One was Shivaji's eldest childless widow,

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written in the 2nd century CE. In this tale, Kannagi, the chaste wife of her wayward husband Kovalan, burns Madurai to the ground when her husband is executed unjustly, then climbs a cliff to join Kovalan in heaven. She became an object of worship as a chaste wife, called

6708:(2008) represents the practice of sati in Gazipur city in the state of Uttar Pradesh and reflects the feelings and experience of a young woman named 'Deeti' who escaped the sati that her family and relatives were trying to force her to do after her old husband died. 6340:

The Manusmriti, in fact, emphasized women as "pujarha grhadiptayah,"(worthy of respect), as they are the light that illuminates the household. Manu stated that a virtuous wife, who remains chaste even after her husband's death, reaches heaven, just like chaste men.

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Let us endeavour to strike our roots into the soil by the gradual introduction and establishment of our own principles and opinions; of our laws, institutions and manners; above all, as the source of every other improvement, of our religion and consequently of our

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Thus, in none of the principal religious texts believed to be composed before the Common Era is there any evidence for the sanctioning of the practice of sati; it is wholly unmentioned. However, the archaic Atharvaveda does contain hints of a funeral practice of

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conducted in 1803–04 a census on cases of sati for a region within a 30-mile radius of Calcutta, finding more than 300 such cases there. The missionaries also approached Hindu theologians, who opined that the practice was encouraged, rather than enjoined by the

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woman should not follow her husband in death, but for the other social classes, tradition holds this to be the supreme Law of Women... when a woman of Brahmin caste follows her husband in death, by killing herself she leaders neither herself nor her husband to

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mention that women who burnt themselves wore extravagant dresses. Bana tells about Yasomati who, after choosing to mount the pyre, bids farewell to her relatives and servants. She then decks herself in jewellery which she later distributes to others. Although

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Enforcement of these measures is not always consistent. The National Council for Women (NCW) has suggested amendments to the law to remove some of these flaws. Prohibitions of certain practices, such as worship at ancient shrines, is a matter of controversy.

1009:, but its spread was also related to the centuries of Islamic invasion and its expansion in South Asia, and to the hardship and marginalisation that widows endured. Crucial was the adoption of the practice by Brahmins, despite prohibitions for them to do so. 9844:

Treaties, Agreements, and Engagements, Between the Honorable East India Company and the Native Princes, Chiefs, and States, in Western India, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, &c: Also Between Her Britannic Majesty's Government, and Persia, Portugal, and

6407:(c. 1076–1127), an early Dharmaśāstric scholar, claims that many smriti call for the prohibition of sati among Brahmin widows, but not among other social castes. Vijñāneśvara, quoting scriptures from Paithinasi and Angiras to support his argument, states: 2075:

On 11 October 2008 a 75-year-old woman, Lalmati Verma, committed sati by jumping into her 80-year-old husband's funeral pyre at Checher in the Kasdol block of Chhattisgarh's Raipur district; Verma killed herself after mourners had left the cremation site.

1037:

According to David Brick of Yale University, sati, which was initially rejected by the Brahmins of Kashmir, spread among them in the later half of the first millennium. Brick's evidence for claiming this spread is the mention of sati-like practices in the

153:, declaring the practice of burning or burying alive of Hindu widows to be punishable by the criminal courts. Other legislation followed, countering what the British perceived to be interrelated issues involving violence against Hindu women, including the 2358:, whose story, though somewhat legendary, exemplifies the valorization of the practice. The 19th-century accounts of sati, such as those involving the wife of a prominent figure or ruler, often highlight the extreme and dramatic nature of the practice. 1518:

the Brahmens, assisted by an old woman who held her under the arm, forced the unwilling victim toward the fatal spot, seated her on the wood, tied her hands and feet, lest she should run away, and in that situation the innocent creature was burnt alive.

1114:. There are different views by authors on what Aristobulus hears as widows of one or more tribes in India performing self-sacrifice on the husband's pyre, one author also mentions that widows who declined to die were held in disgrace. In contrast, 1044:(700–1000 CE), which is believed to have been written in Kashmir. Brick argues that the author of the Vishnu Smriti may have been mentioning practices existing in his own community. Brick notes that the dates of other Dharmasastra texts mentioning 178:, were performed to glorify the avatar of a mother goddess who immolated herself after hearing her father insult her husband; prayers were also performed to the practice of a wife immolating herself alive on a deceased husband's funeral pyre. 1748:

support of other elite Bengali classes, and wrote and disseminated articles to show that it was not required by Hindu scripture. He was at loggerheads with Hindu groups which did not want the Government to interfere in religious practices.

871:

The origins and spread of the practice of sati are complex and much debated questions, without a general consensus. It has been speculated that rituals such as widow sacrifice or widow burning have prehistoric roots. The archaeologist

6543:). He argued that there is a general prohibition against violence of any form against living beings, especially killing, in the Vedic dharma tradition. Sati causes death, which is self-violence; thus sati is against Vedic teachings. 6068:. In the Hindu scriptures, states David Brick, Sati is a wholly voluntary endeavor; it is not portrayed as an obligatory practice, nor does the application of physical coercion serve as a motivating factor in its lawful execution. 2111:

against it, claiming the practice to be a part of Indian culture. Simultaneously, those against the practice of Sati also question the practicality of such a law, since it may be interpreted in a manner so as to punish the victim.

1960:

of sati over a period of ten or twelve years. That prohibition from the 18th century may never have been actively enforced, or may have been ignored, since in 1843, the government in Sawunt Waree issued a new prohibition of sati.

6051:

s intentions are always for the good of the family, she is not averse to letting children become sick, or the cows' udders to wither, if she thinks this is an appropriate lesson to the living wife who has neglected her duties as

7009:

Quote: Between 1943 and 1987, some thirty women in Rajasthan (twenty-eight, according to official statistics) immolated themselves on their husband's funeral pyre. This figure probably falls short of the actual number. (p.

2465:

such. Thus, Carla M. Sinopoli, citing Verghese, says that despite the attention European travellers paid the phenomenon, it should be regarded as having been fairly uncommon during the time of the Vijayanagara empire.

1486:, later European travellers record that sati was not much practised in Mughal empire, and that Sati was "very rare, except it be some Rajah's wives, that the Indian women burn at all" by the end of Aurangzeb's reign. 2530:, dating from the 5th century, where the king successfully persuades his mother not to commit sati after his father dies, suggesting that it was practised but was not compulsory. Nepal formally banned sati in 1920. 2119:

instance of Sati. In India, the powers of the police remain structurally limited by the political elite. Their limited powers are compounded by "patriarchal values, religious freedoms, and ideologies" within India.

913:

notes that the Rig Veda refers to a "mimetic ceremony" where a "widow lay on her husband's funeral pyre before it was lit but was raised from it by a male relative of her dead husband." According to Yang, the word

5934:

women, has constructed a model of how and why women who committed sati are still venerated today, and how the worshippers think about the process involved. Essentially, a woman becomes a sati in three stages:

1786:

Ram Mohan Roy warned Bentinck against abruptly ending sati. However, after observing that the judges in the courts were unanimously in favour of reform, Bentinck proceeded to lay the draft before his council.

1242:

similarly sacrificed themselves for their kings and lands. It is even possible that the sacrifice of the "good" wives originated from the warrior sacrifice tradition. Today, such women are still worshipped as

6260:, all live after their respective husband's deaths, though all of them announce their wish to die, while lamenting for their husbands. The first two remarry their brother-in-law. He also mentions that though 6477:

is that of a wife who dies by her own volition on a fire, this is not a case of the practice of sati. The goddess was not widowed, and the myth is quite unconnected with the justifications for the practice.

6003:

dictates the terms and obligations that the family, in showing reverence to her, must observe in order for her to be able to protect them once she has become satimata. These conditions are generally called

2071:

On 21 August 2006, Janakrani, a 40-year-old woman, burned to death on the funeral pyre of her husband Prem Narayan in Sagar district; Janakrani had not been forced or prompted by anybody to commit the act.

1805:

in London. Along with British supporters, Ram Mohan Roy presented counter-petitions to parliament in support of ending sati. The Privy Council rejected the petition in 1832, and the ban on sati was upheld.

12029: 2067:

of Madhya Pradesh. On 18 May 2006, Vidyawati, a 35-year-old woman allegedly committed sati by jumping into the blazing funeral pyre of her husband in Rari-Bujurg Village, Fatehpur district, Uttar Pradesh.

8797:

very rare, except it be some Rajah's wives, that the Indian women burn at all;/27/ Jadunath Sarkar, History of Aurangzib (Calcutta, 1916), III, 92./28/ John Ovington, A Voyage to Surat (London, 1929), p.

9141:

by: John Correia Afonso S.J. from: "South Asian Studies Papers", no 9; Goa: Goa Continuity and Change; Edited by Narendra K. Wagle and George Coelho; University of Toronto Centre for South Asian Studies

6884:

at its greatest extent in 19th-century, this Presidency included modern era states of Utar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, parts of Assam, Tripura in India and modern era

6501:

Women who, due to their wicked minds, have always despised their husbands whether they do this (i.e., sati), of their own free will, or out of anger, or even out of fear – all of them are purified from

1629:. This is because it followed a policy of non-interference in Hindu religious affairs and there was no legislation or ban against Sati. The first formal British ban was imposed in 1798, in the city of 2115:

and insist they be permitted to follow their practices. Additionally, the practice is still fervently revered in parts of rural India, with entire temples still dedicated to previous victims of Sati.

6241:, the Valmiki Ramayana, is tentatively dated for its composition by Robert P. Goldman to 750–500 BCE. Anant S. Altekar says that no instances of sati occur in this earliest part of the Ramayana. 1225:

in Tamil, and is still worshipped today. An inscription in an urn burial from the 1st century CE tells of a widow who told the potter to make the urn big enough for both her and her husband. The

6465:, argue that sati should not to be considered suicide, which was otherwise variously banned or discouraged in the scriptures. They offer a combination of reasons, both in for and against sati. 1049:

spread to other upper and lower castes including Brahmins. Julia Leslie writes that the practice increased among Bengal Brahmins between 1680 and 1830, after widows gained inheritance rights.

12442: 12421: 172:, criminalising the aiding or glorifying of sati. The modern laws have proved difficult to implement; as of 2020, at least 250 sati temples existed in India in which prayer ceremonies, or 1952:

if he should permit a sati to take place in 1818, but the regent urged him not to do so, since the custom of sati had never been acceptable in her domains. In another state, Sawunt Waree (

2300:

is attested from modern times. Although this form of symbolic sati has contemporary evidence, it should by no means be regarded as a modern invention. For example, the ancient and sacred

1482:, though mentioned in the formal histories, is recorded in the official records of Aurangzeb's time. Although Aurangzeb's orders could be evaded with payment of bribes to officials, adds 2056:

There were 30 reported cases of sati or attempted sati over a 44-year period (1943–1987) in India, the official number being 28. A well-documented case from 1987 was that of 18-year-old

2284:

states that some historical records suggest without doubt that instances of sati were forced, but overall the evidence suggests most instances were a voluntary act on the woman's part.

2011:(ii) any woman along with the body of any of her relatives, irrespective of whether such burning or burying is claimed to be voluntary on the part of the widow or the women or otherwise 2204:

provided the only known eyewitness account of an Indian sati involving a burial. Solvyns states that the custom included the woman shaving her head, music and the event was guarded by

10454: 2095:

The Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987 appears to be facing its greatest challenge on the aspect of the law which penalises the glorification of Sati in Section 2 of this Act:

2296:

communities. A widow lies down next to her dead husband, and certain parts of both the marriage ceremony and the funeral ceremonies are enacted, but without her death. An example in

13854: 891:. She considers sati to be a largely symbolic double burial or a double cremation, a feature she argues is to be found in both cultures, with neither culture observing it strictly. 6317:

Against these stray examples within the Mahabharata of sati, there are scores of instances in the same epic of widows who do not commit sati, and none are blamed for not doing so.

2156:

first). At Lombok, a high bamboo platform was erected in front of the fire and, when the flames were at their strongest, the widow climbed up the platform and dived into the fire.

6351:

Yajnavalkya asserts that sati is the sole path for a chaste widow. A widow who devoted her life to her husband's death spends as much time in heaven as the hairs on a human body.

2472:(1529–1736 CE) seems to have adopted the custom in larger measure, one Jesuit priest in 1609 in Madurai observed the burning of 400 women at the death of Nayak Muttu Krishnappa. 2060:. In response to this incident, additional legislation against sati practice was passed, first within the state of Rajasthan, then nationwide by the central government of India. 13849: 6264:, father of Rama, died soon after his departure from the city, his mothers survived and received him after the completion of his exile. The only instance of sati appears in the 2390:, in the 1815–1828 British records, the upper castes were only represented for 2 years - less than 70% of the total; whereas in 1821, all sati were from the upper castes there. 6167:

literature, one of the layers within the ancient Vedic texts, dated about 1000 BCE – 500 BCE is entirely silent about sati, according to the historian Altekar. Similarly, the

2354:"scanty" and "fraught with problems". However, Several notable instances of sati have been recorded. The most famous perhaps is the case of the Rajput queen, Rani Padmini of 2456:, who committed sati in 1772 on her husband's funeral pyre. This was considered unusual because unlike "kshatriya" widows, Brahmin widows very rarely followed the practice. 2092:

The passing of The Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987 was seen as an unprecedented move to many in India, and was hailed as a new era in the Women's rights movement.

1132:(317 BCE). The younger one is permitted to mount the pyre. Modern historians believe Diodorus's source for this episode was the eyewitness account of the now lost historian 962:, the practice became prevalent from the 7th century onward and declined to its elimination in the 17th century to gain resurgence in Bengal in the 18th century. Historian 2226:

Sati is often described as voluntary, although in some cases it may have been forced. In one narrative account in 1785, the widow appears to have been drugged either with

1874: 1118:

who visited India during 300 BCE does not mention any specific reference to the practice, which Dehejia takes as an indication that the practice was non-existent then.

1838: 5988:

sons before. Gifts from a sati were venerated as valuable relics, and in her journey to the pyre, people would seek to touch her garments to benefit from her powers.

2008:(i) any widow along with the body of her deceased husband or any other relative or with any article, object or thing associated with the husband or such relative; or 1369:, both the lords and the wives of a dead king voluntarily burnt themselves in the 15th and 16th centuries. According to European traveller accounts, in 15th century 11319: 970:

indicates that it slowly grew in prevalence from 5th–7th century and later became an accepted custom around 1000 CE among those of higher classes, especially the

13492: 1993:, the Indian Government enacted the Rajasthan Sati Prevention Ordinance, 1987 on 1 October 1987. and later passed the Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987. 1494:

The memoirs of European merchants and travellers, as well the colonial era Christian missionaries of British India described Sati practices under Mughal rulers.

1634:

establishing Christian educational systems as a distinctive contribution of theirs to the missionary enterprise as a whole. Leaders of these campaigns included

8979:

Carey's actual figures for the year 1803 was 275; for the months April–October 1804, the missionaries arrived at the figure 115. For 1803 and 1804 statistics

15430: 2502:

In the Upper Gangetic plain, while sati occurred, there is no indication that it was especially widespread. The earliest known attempt by a government - the

1478:, after returning from Kashmir, "in all lands under Mughal control, never again should the officials allow a woman to be burnt". The Aurangzeb order, states 6667:, deals with the plight of an oppressed young woman in India, under pressure to commit sati and the endeavours of a western spiritual aspirant to save her. 1400:, (...). There was thus less scope for the social reformer." However, although sati was non-existent in the colonial era, earlier Muslim travellers such as 10702:

Papers relative to East India Affairs, viz., Hindoo Widows and Voluntary Immolations. Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed. 1821–25, pp. 221–261,

9180:

from 8 November 1829, he states that the Danish government at Serampore has not forbidden the rite, in conformity to the example of the British government,

2036:

makes it illegal to support, glorify or attempt to die by sati. Support of sati, including coercing or forcing someone to die by sati, can be punished by

11656: 8984:

Two Discourses Preached Before the University of Cambridge ... July 1, 1810: And a Sermon Preached Before the Society for Missions to Africa and the East

1502:

When the husband died his wife is burned with him, if she be alive, if she will not, her head is shaven, and then is never any account made of her after.

6202:

prohibition became one of the several bases for arguments presented against sati by 11th- to 14th-century Hindu scholars such as Medhatithi of Kashmir,

15506: 14308: 14194: 733: 14199: 12784: 12708:

Zechenter, E. M. (1997). In the name of culture: Cultural relativism and the abuse of the individual. Journal of Anthropological Research, 319–347.

9033: 6449:

The earliest scholarly discussion of sati is found in Sanskrit literature dated to 10th- to 12th-century. The earliest known commentary on sati by

2152:

aristocracy practised widow suicide on occasion; but only widows of royal descent could burn themselves alive (others were stabbed to death with a

1377:, widow burning was practised. A Chinese pilgrim from the 15th century seems to attest the practice on islands called Ma-i-tung and Ma-i (possibly 738: 12454: 12433: 11462: 10222: 6584:

European artists in the eighteenth century produced many images for their own native markets, showing widows as heroic women and moral exemplars.

1801:. The ban was challenged by a petition signed by "several thousand... Hindoo inhabitants of Bihar, Bengal, Orissa etc" and the matter went to the 13205: 11689:

Brick, David. “The Dharmaśāstric Debate on Widow-Burning.” Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 130, no. 2, 2010, pp. 203–23. JSTOR,

9009: 1671:

reports an instance of Sati at Bangalore, which he did not personally witness. Another missionary, Mr. England, reports witnessing Sati in the

2479:

region of Tamil Nadu has the highest number of Veera Maha Sati (வீரமாசதி) or Veeramathy temples (வீரமாத்தி) from all the native Kongu castes.

325:(International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration), the academic standard for writing the Sanskrit language with the Latin alphabet system. 6064:

Although it is debated whether it received scriptural mention in early Hinduism, it has been linked to related Hindu practices in regions of

10464: 7483:

However, in this ritual described by Ibn Fadlan, the slave girl is described as being stabbed to death prior to being burned. See p. 19, at

6121:). A reason given for the discrepancy in translation and interpretation of verse 10.18.7, is that one consonant in a word that meant house, 1562:

to rescind the ban in 1555 in spite of protests from the local Christians and the Church authorities, but the ban was reinstated in 1560 by

6531:, a commentator on various theological works. He offered two arguments for his opposition. He considered sati a form of suicide, which was 2218:

Part I, Section 2(c) includes within its definition of sati not just the act of burning a widow alive, but also that of burying her alive.

1770:

standing and only God could take a life he had given. He also opined that widows could lead lives that would eventually lead to salvation.

10282: 881: 13485: 13371: 858: 10424: 6344:

Daksa Smriti narrates the story of a woman experiencing eternal bliss in heaven by dying alongside her husband on his funeral pyre. The

1728:

from England, first witnessed the burning of a widow on her husband's funeral pyre. Horrified by the practice, Carey and his coworkers

1396:

with a substantial Hindu minority population, reported "there were no glaring social evils associated with the indigenous religions-no

552: 7983: 946:, the best of the gods; and devoted, attached, beloved, and beauteous wife, clinging , entered into the mass of fire (funeral pyre)". 2622: 1741: 1416:

A painting by Mohammad Rizā showing Hindu princess committing Sati against the wishes but with the reluctant approval of the Emperor

7933:

Mani, L. (1998). Contentious traditions : the debate on Sati in colonial India. Berkeley: University of California Press.pg 193

6851:

starting to arrive. From the 15th century and thereafter, Theravada Buddhism replaced Mahayana, and became the predominant religion.

6627: 6535:: "One shall not die before the span of one's life is run out." Medhatithi offered a second reason against sati, calling it against 1740:, they published essays forcefully condemning the practice and presented an address against Sati to then Governor General of India, 1005:

The practice of sati was emulated by those seeking to achieve high status of the royalty and the warriors as part of the process of

15566: 15536: 14184: 9971:

A Journey Through the Kingdom of Oude in 1849–1850: With Private Correspondence Relative to the Annexation of Oude to British India

1342: 723: 15516: 15481: 10510:(1983), A suicide by self-immolation: psychological perspectives, International Journal of Social Psychiatry, Vol 29, pp. 130–133 8183:

Social and Religious Reform Movements in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Institute of Historical Studies, Siba Pada Sen,

1412: 1012:

Sati acquired an additional meaning as a means to preserve the honour of women whose men had been slain, akin to the practice of

158: 9826:

A Gazetteer of the Territories Under the Government of the East India Company and of the Native States on the Continent of India

9751: 9581: 4794: 3385: 14399: 14179: 13478: 12733: 12488: 2335:

The bride throws herself on her husband's funeral pyre. This miniature painting made in Iran originates from the period of the

2122:

Furthermore, enforcement of this law is easily circumnavigated by authorities by writing off cases of Sati as acts of suicide.

713: 8104: 13908: 13844: 12699: 12677: 12652: 12603: 12580: 12533: 12510: 12473: 12362: 12336: 12280: 12239: 12039: 12003: 11904: 11876: 11848: 11769: 11741: 11714: 11562: 11535: 11506: 11446: 11419: 11267: 11222: 11192: 11159: 11109: 11082: 10998: 10979: 10943: 10911: 10882: 10852: 10813: 10786: 10745: 10635: 10353: 10146: 10114: 9790: 9761: 9727: 9696: 9677: 9591: 9561: 9462: 9368: 9334: 9300: 9240: 9213: 9193: 9161: 9112: 9070: 8972: 8943: 8886: 8854: 8821: 8747: 8698: 8657: 8626: 8599: 8572: 8545: 8511: 8479: 8452: 8426: 8399: 8299: 8267: 8234: 8207: 8168: 8141: 8114: 8089: 8021: 7993: 7960: 7782: 7689: 7600: 7468: 7445: 7417: 7383: 7249: 7219: 7183: 7153: 7002: 6967: 6907: 6302:, the first wife of Pandu and the leading female character of Mahabharata, suffered several ordeals along with her sons, the 154: 12719: 11115: 7679: 7274: 6388:

Neither of these suggest that sati as mandatory, but the Parasara Smriti elaborates the benefits of sati in greater detail.

1566:

with additional serious criminal penalties (including loss of property and liberty) against those encouraging the practice.

168:

Isolated incidents of sati were recorded in India in the late-20th century, leading the Indian government to promulgate the

14951: 14189: 13402: 12969: 12777: 12571:

Oldenburg, Veena Talwar (1994), "Comment: The Continuing Invention of the Sati Tradition", in Hawley, John Stratton (ed.),

9200:

According to a couple of Danish historians, the general Danish ban on sati was issued conjointly with the British in 1829,

4673: 1787: 1139:

Two other independent sources that mention widows who voluntarily joined their husbands' pyres as a mark of their love are

728: 70:

make isolated mention of sati, but it likely developed into a real fire sacrifice in the medieval era within northwestern

15496: 11883:

An important strand in Goldman's argument for the dating concerns which cities are considered capitals, and which are not

9130: 6823:. When a female slave had said she would be willing to die, her body was subsequently burned with her master on the pyre. 6634:

discussed the history of sati during the colonial era and how the practise took the form of trapping women in India in a

1589:, a colony they held from 1620 to 1845 (whereas Serampore (Frederiksnagore) was Danish colony merely from 1755 to 1845). 11327: 11238: 2373:, in an 1829 report, without specifying the year or period, stated that "of the 463 satis occurring in the whole of the 15551: 12556: 11598: 11387: 11370: 11353: 10485: 9256: 7886: 6144:

Professor David Brick of the University of Michigan, in the paper ‘The Dharmasastric Debate on Widow Burning’, writes:

5917: 1898: 138:

doubled from 378 to 839. Opposition to the practice of sati by evangelists like Carey, and by Hindu reformers such as

8224: 7590: 5550: 1944:, the custom of sati never prevailed, although it was held in reverence by the common people. For example, the regent 1065:

was so extreme during the 19th century that sati was a means of escape for a woman with no means or hope of survival.

15450: 15425: 14149: 12622: 11946: 9421: 2173:, a 17th-century world traveller and trader of gems, wrote that women were buried with their dead husbands along the 1682:

The British authorities within the Bengal Presidency started systematically to collect data on the practice in 1815.

1625:. Attempts to limit or ban the practice had been made by individual British officers, but without the backing of the 1339:. According to Dutch colonial records, this was however a rare practice in Indonesia, one found in royal households. 704: 2261:

descending from a pyre one has entered on. He mentions the custom of the fiery pit as particularly prevalent in the

2098:"(i) The observance of any ceremony or the taking out of a procession in connection with the commission of Sati; or 1062: 12974: 11552: 9509: 1602: 12551:(2016). Sati: Evangelicals, Baptist Missionaries, and the Changing Colonial Discourse, Aryan Books International. 8197: 15501: 15142: 14638: 13876: 13565: 13560: 13177: 12893: 12770: 11323: 10084:

Index of official correspondences to some 20 princely states relative to the suppression of sati can be found in

8158: 7074:

Suttee, or sati, is the obsolete Hindu practice in which a widow burns herself upon her husband's funeral pyre...

6671: 6593: 4703: 3539: 2490:

is said to have allowed it for a Brahmin widow in 1805, whereas an 1827 eye witness to the burning of a widow in

1690: 851: 785: 6532: 2245:

The Anglo-Indian press of the period proffered several accounts of alleged forcing of the woman. As an example,

1928:

resisting for a long time before that time. The last legal case of sati within a princely state dates from 1861

1530: 15556: 13381: 13376: 12542:

Mani, L. (1987). Contentious traditions: the debate on sati in colonial India. Cultural Critique, (7), 119–156.

12149: 10761: 6646:, or of self-incrimination according to colonial legislation. The woman who commits sati takes the form of the 6497:

widowhood. Tryambaka is quite clear upon the automatic good effect of sati for the woman who was a 'bad' wife:

6363: 6272:'s wife performs sati. The Telugu adaptation of the Ramayana, the 14th-century Ranganatha Ramayana, tells that 2659: 1293:(11th century) both committed Sati upon their husband's death by ascending the pyre. The 510 CE inscription at 1244: 1034:

the 'brave woman' into the 'good woman'. From those Brahmins, the practice spread to other non-warrior castes.

12545:

Mani, L. (1998). Contentious traditions: The debate on sati in colonial India. University of California Press.

11653: 6306:, and lived to see the end of the Mahabharata war. In the Musala-parvan of the Mahabharata, the four wives of 15182: 14946: 14862: 14771: 14298: 14156: 13225: 12941: 12819: 12588:

Sangari, K., & Vaid, S. (1981). Sati in Modern India: a report. Economic and Political Weekly, 1284–1288.

11936: 11581:

These women here, non-widows with good husbands – let them, with fresh butter as ointment, approach together.

10244: 7899:

Grey, Daniel (2013). "Creating the 'Problem Hindu': Sati, Thuggee and Female Infanticide in India: 1800–60".

7040:

Gilmartin, Sophie (1997). "The Sati, the Bride, and the Widow: Sacrificial Woman in the Nineteenth Century".

4132: 2406:..the practice was never generalized..but was confined to certain areas: in the north,..the Gangetic Valley, 958:

states that sati was introduced late into Indian society, and became regular only after 500 CE. According to

598: 392: 10829:

Defying blessings of the goddess and the community: Disputes over sati (widow burning) in contemporary India

6922:

And thus, critically, sati regarded as an essentially voluntary act, the woman afterwards worthy of worship.

2319:

is a woman who once desired to commit sati, but lives after having sacrificed her desire to die. Two famous

1752:

the first three chapters opposed Sati. Another Christian missionary published a tract against Sati in 1927.

1522:

The Spanish missionary Domingo Navarrete wrote in 1670 of different styles of Sati during Aurangzeb's time.

15526: 15049: 14139: 13996: 13945: 13701: 13555: 13444: 13364: 13263: 12954: 6358: 4683: 4623: 2608: 1949: 1642:. These movements put pressure on the company to ban the act. William Carey, and the other missionaries at 1585:, permitted it until the 19th century. The Danish strictly forbade, apparently early the custom of sati at 650: 604: 397: 150: 7620: 3231: 15511: 14547: 14171: 13311: 13215: 13076: 12878: 12809: 10497:

D Bhugra and K Bhui (2007), Textbook of cultural psychiatry, Cambridge University Press, pages xvii–xviii

10316: 6647: 6431:

David Brick, summarizing the historical evolution of scholarly debate on sati in medieval India, states:

6396:), whereas only the wholly chaste widow living out her natural lifespan could hope for final liberation ( 6348:

discusses the ability of widows to self-restrain and immolate themselves, allowing them to enter heaven.

5853: 5744: 4354: 2234:

and was tied to the pyre which would have prevented her from escaping the fire, if she changed her mind.

2215: 1997: 1775: 983: 372: 299: 169: 9292:

The Company-State: Corporate Sovereignty and the Early Modern Foundations of the British Empire in India

14392: 14269: 13253: 13154: 13124: 13066: 12995: 12964: 12908: 12856: 12200: 11470: 10089:

A collection of treaties, engagements, and sunnuds, relating to India and neighbouring countries: Index

8992: 7881:

Uma Narayan (1997), Dislocating Cultures: Identities, Traditions, and Third World Feminism, Routledge,

6679: 6083:

The Vedic Verse 7 itself, unlike verse 8, does not mention widowhood, but the meaning of the syllables

6071:

In the following, a historical chronology is given of the debate within Hinduism on the topic of sati.

5872: 5543: 5447: 4394: 4068: 3753: 3065: 1920:

The 1846 abolition in Jaipur was regarded by many British as a catalyst for the abolition cause within

1714: 1635: 1609: 1555: 1096: 844: 811: 780: 543: 525: 120: 14047: 10583: 9232:

The Soul of the North: A Social, Architectural and Cultural History of the Nordic Countries, 1700–1940

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Sati: A Nineteenth Century Tale of Women, Violence and Protest in the book "At the Edge of Psychology"

6222:, it says that if a widow has made a vow of burning herself (anvahorana, "ascend the pyre"), but then 6180: 4389: 2063:

In 2002, a 65-year-old woman by the name of Kuttu died after sitting on her husband's funeral pyre in

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clans to which it initially remained limited, to become more widespread during the late medieval era.

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page 238, Rudyard Kipling's Verse. Definitive Version, Hodder and Stroughton Ltd London, January 1960

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Prakash Mishra, Om; Pradhan, S. (2001). "Sati memorials and cenotaphs of Madhya Pradesh - A survey".

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Proceedings – Indian History Congress – Volume 48 by Indian History Congress 1988 – p. 481, see also

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the hero Ash rescues his love interest princess Anjuli from sati after the death of her husband, the

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sati. Also, in the twelfth-century CE commentary of Apararka, claiming to quote the Dharmasutra text

6035:, a spiritual embodiment of goodness, her principal concern being a family protector. Typically, the 5849: 5495: 4613: 4349: 2642: 2627: 1733: 765: 433: 143: 134:, in 1803, despite its ban within Calcutta. Between 1815 and 1818 the number of incidents of sati in 104:

clans in western India, marking one of the points of divergence between Hindu Rajputs and the Muslim

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Although recorded cases of sati have diminished dramatically, sati temples, where prayers, known as

3295: 15546: 15541: 15122: 14931: 14899: 14711: 14633: 14499: 14483: 14144: 14052: 13679: 13659: 13273: 13258: 13197: 13134: 13081: 13005: 12372: 5405: 5398: 5377: 5086: 4976: 4948: 4678: 3573: 3360: 2486:, established in 1799, that say permission to commit sati could be granted. Dewan (prime minister) 2483: 1882: 1327:. Anant Altekar states that sati spread with Hindu migrants to Southeast Asian islands, such as to 950:

Sati as the burning of a widow with her deceased husband seems to have been introduced in the post-

580: 402: 162: 10480:

Erminia Colucci and David Lester (2012), Suicide and Culture: Understanding the Context, Hogrefe,

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Decked with fair jewels, tearless, free from sorrow, first let the dames go up to where he lieth.

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South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka

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can be identified, they appear in the role of persons dissuading the widow from committing sati."

5620: 4833: 4738: 4663: 3849: 3771: 2664: 2632: 2201: 2170: 1695: 11214: 10828: 10345: 7310: 6994: 6780:

least 250 sati temples and legal prohibitions are too vague to effectively prohibit pujas there.

6488: 3811: 1180:'s death is expected, Arvind Sharma suggests it is another form of sati. The same work mentions 15486: 15214: 14961: 14887: 14643: 14473: 14313: 14104: 14073: 13501: 13427: 12866: 12793: 12496: 10986: 10292: 10270: 9102: 7211: 5910: 5819: 5749: 5585: 5214: 4983: 4643: 3549: 3226: 2281: 1910: 1057:

Sati practice resumed during the colonial era, particularly in significant numbers in colonial

873: 12500: 11993: 11894: 11832: 11731: 11704: 11617:

Let these unwidowed dames with noble husbands adorn themselves with fragrant balm and unguent.

11523: 11494: 11436: 11409: 11284: 11257: 11180: 11149: 11070: 11015: 10933: 10899: 10872: 10842: 10803: 10735: 10716: 10685: 10625: 10602: 10205: 10182: 10162: 10104: 10087: 10041: 9997: 9978: 9969: 9883: 9861: 9842: 9778: 9450: 9358: 9324: 9230: 9203: 9183: 8982: 8962: 8933: 8876: 8846: 8811: 8739: 8711: 8686: 8616: 8589: 8519: 8501: 8469: 8442: 8389: 8289: 8131: 7952: 7458: 7407: 7373: 7173: 7143: 6897: 1420:. In the right foreground, attending the Sati on horseback, is the third son of Akbar, Prince 15380: 15224: 15172: 15127: 14648: 14628: 14468: 14463: 14385: 14224: 14026: 13955: 13722: 13449: 13439: 13341: 13326: 13268: 13164: 13139: 13051: 13000: 12990: 12949: 12903: 12898: 12834: 12687: 12521: 12290:

Cassels, Nancy G (1965). "Bentinck: Humanitarian and Imperialist – The Abolition of Suttee".

12172: 11866: 11825: 11759: 11040: 10776: 10421: 10262: 10238: 10136: 10063: 9942: 9930: 9824: 9553:

History of India from the earliest period to the close of the East India Company's government

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The earliest stone inscription in the Indian subcontinent relating to sati has been found in

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widow burning herself with the corpse of her husband, 1820s, by the London-based illustrator

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of Kashmir argues that it is a form of suicide, which is prohibited by the Vedic tradition.

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According to Ramashraya Sharma, there is no conclusive evidence of the sati practice in the

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about what they claimed was a meddlement in a sacred custom of their nation. Napier replied:

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Thus, as Leslie puts it, becoming (or being pressured into the role of) a sati was, within

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making, at her husband's death, a solemn vow to burn by his side, thus gaining status as a

5845: 5841: 5833: 5722: 5384: 4962: 4932: 4763: 4668: 4564: 4299: 4193: 2507: 1818: 1672: 1574: 1144: 1133: 530: 438: 12354: 10653:

Imagens do Oriente no século XVI: Reprodução do Códice português da Biblioteca Casanatense

10563: 10368: 7022:, Routledge, Ann M. Oberhauser, Jennifer L. Fluri, Risa Whitson, Sharlene Mollett. Quote: 6404: 6329:, it is said to be the “highest duty of the woman to immolate herself after her husband.” 6039:

manifests in the dreams of family members, for example, to teach the women how to be good

1725: 8: 15299: 15264: 15116: 15082: 14562: 14303: 13960: 13839: 13744: 13739: 13727: 13644: 13454: 13359: 13298: 13243: 13220: 12723: 7278: 6675: 6172: 6065: 5877: 5770: 5606: 5137: 4999: 4743: 4633: 4618: 4524: 4464: 4429: 3914: 3826: 3445: 3104: 2715: 2617: 2588: 2247: 2101:(ii) The supporting, justifying or propagating of the practice of Sati in any manner; or 1639: 1355: 1100: 775: 645: 557: 60: 12642: 9479: 9264:

The Wesleyan Juvenile Offering: A Miscellany of Missionary Information for Young Persons

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While some smriti passages allow sati as optional, others forbid the practice entirely.

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has listed several parallels between the burial practices of the ancient Asiatic steppe

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Dehejia, Vidya (1994), "Comment: A Broader Landscape", in Hawley, John Stratton (ed.),

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Women of the Kakawin World: Marriage and Sexuality in the Indic Courts of Java and Bali

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The Political Economy of Craft Production: Crafting Empire in South India, C. 1350–1650

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had 442 reported incidents of sati, the only figure in that statistics on the 400-level

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Women of the Kakawin World: Marriage and Sexuality in the Indic Courts of Java and Bali

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state. As a transitional figure on her path to becoming a powerful family protector as

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