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The practice of sati (or suttee) is a Hindu funeral custom, now very rare, in which the dead man's widow immolates herself on her husband’s funeral pyre.

The term is derived from the original name of a goddess (see article on Dakshayani), who immolated herself, unable to bear the humiliation of her (living) husband. The term may also be used to refer to the widow herself. The term sati is now sometimes interpreted as 'chaste woman'.

Origin

Few reliable records exist of the practice before the time of the Gupta empire, approximately 400 AD. While a couple of instances of voluntary self immolation by women as well as men are mentioned in the Mahabharata and other works that may be considered at least partly historical accounts, it is known that large parts of these works are relatively late interpolations into an original story. Also, the immolation or desire of self immolation is not regarded as a custom in the Mahabharata and as such the word 'sati' as a custom never occurs in the epic as compared to other customs such as the Rajasuya yagna. Rather, the instances are viewed as an expression of extreme grief on the loss of a beloved one.

There is an early Greek account of an instance of voluntary co-cremation however. This describes an account of an Indian soldier in Persia, whose two wives vied to die on his funeral pyre, in 316 BC.

Voluntary death at funerals has been described in northern India before the Gupta empire. The original practices were called anumarana, and were not common. They were not necessarily practices that would be understood as sati at present, since it was not necessarily a widow who died. Those who died could be anyone, male or female with a personal loyalty to the dead person. They included other relatives of the dead person, servants, followers or friends. Sometimes these deaths were because of vows of loyalty taken in life. Compare with later Japanese seppuku.

Widow burning, the practice as understood today, started to become more extensive after about 500 AD, and the end of the Gupta empire. This is sometimes ascribed to the decline of Buddhism in India, the rise of caste based societies, and the idea that sati was used to reinforce caste status. There are also suggestions that the practice was introduced into India by the Huna invaders who contributed to the fall of the Gupta empire.

At about this time, instances of sati began to be marked by inscribed memorial stones. The earliest of these is in Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, though the largest collections are some centuries later, in Rajasthan. These stones, called devli, or sati-stones, became shrines where the dead woman became an object of reverence and worship. They are most common in western India.

By about the 10th century sati, as understood today, was known across much of the subcontinent. It continued to occur, usually at a low frequency and with regional variations, until the early 19th century.

The practice

The act of sati was supposed to take place voluntarily, and from the existing accounts, most of them were indeed voluntary. The act may have been expected of widows in some communities. The extent to which any social pressures or expectations should be considered as compulsion has been the matter of much debate in modern times. It is frequently stated that a widow could expect little of life after her husband's death, especially if she was childless. However, there were also instances where the wish of the widow to commit sati was not welcomed by others, and where efforts were made to prevent the death.

Traditionally, the funeral of any dead person would usually have taken place within a day of the death. Thus a decision by a widow to die at her husband's funeral would often have to be made quickly. In some cases, such as when the husband died elsewhere, it was still possible for the widow to die by immolation, but at a later date.

The connection with the original marriage between the widow and the deceased was emphasised. Unlike other mourners, the sati at the funeral was often dressed in marriage robes, or in other finery. Her death may have been seen as a culmination of the marriage. In the preliminaries of the related act of Jauhar, both the husbands and wives have been known to dress in their marriage clothes and re-enact their wedding ritual, before going to their separate deaths.

There are accounts of many different approaches of the widow to her death. The majority have the widow seated or lying down on the funeral pyre beside her dead husband. There are also many descriptions of widows who walked or jumped into the flames after the fire had been lit, and there are descriptions of widows who lit their own funeral pyres after seating themselves on it.

Some written prescriptions to the practice exist; a recent one has been quoted at a mailing list.

Compulsion

Sati was supposed to be voluntary, but it is argued that it has usually not been voluntary in practice. Leaving aside the matter of social pressures, it is common understanding that many widows were physically forced to their deaths.

Pictorial and narrative accounts often describe the woman seated on the unlit pyre, and tied or otherwise restrained to keep her from fleeing after the fire was lit. Some accounts say that the woman was drugged. There is one description of men with long poles preventing a widow from fleeing the flames.

Royal funerals

Royal funerals sometimes have included the deaths of many wives and concubines. A number of examples of these occur in the history of Rajasthan.

Symbolic sati

There have been accounts of symbolic sati in some Hindu 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.

Jauhar

The practice of jauhar, only known from Rajasthan, was the collective suicide of a community. It consisted of the mass immolation of women, and sometimes also of the children, the elderly and the sick, at the same time that their fighting men died in battle. It is detailed in a separate article.

Burials

In some Hindu communities, it is conventional to bury the dead. It has been known for similar widow deaths to occur in these communities, but with the widow being buried alive with the husband, in ceremonies that are otherwise largely as in the immolation.

Prevalence

Records exist of sati across most of the subcontinent. However, there seem to have been major differences historically, in different regions, and among different communities.

Numbers

There are no reliable figures for the numbers who died by sati across the country. A local indication of the numbers is given in the records kept by the Bengal Presidency of the British East India Company. The total figure of known occurrences for the period 1813 to 1828 is 8,135, thus giving an average of about 600 per year. Bentinck, in his 1829 report, states that 420 occurrences took place in one (unspecified) year in the 'Lower Provinces' of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, and 44 in the 'Upper Provinces' (the upper Gangetic plain). Given a population of over 50 million at the time for the Presidency, this suggests a maximum frequency of immolation among widows of well under 1%.

Communities

It is said by some authorities that the practice was more common among the higher castes, and among those who considered themselves to be rising in social status. It was little known or unknown in most of the population of India and the tribal groups. According to at least one source, it was very rare for anyone in the later Mughal empire except royal wives to be burnt.

However, it has been said elsewhere that it was unusual in higher caste women in the south (quoted from Kamat).

Regional variations

It was known in Rajasthan from the earliest (6th century) to the present. About half the known sati stones (about 150 in total) in India are in Rajasthan. However, the extent to which individual instances of deaths resulted in veneration (glorification) implies that was not very common.

It is known to have occurred in the south from the 9th century through the period of the Vijayanagara empire, up to the 17th century. Madhavacharya, who is probably the best known of those historical figures who justified the practice, was originally a minister of the court of this empire. The practice continued to occur after the collapse of the empire, though apparently at a fairly low frequency. A record exists of a minister of the kingdom of Mysore giving permission for a widow to commit sati in 1805.

In the Upper Gangetic plain, while it occurred, there is no indication that it was especially widespread. The earliest known attempt by a government to stop the practice took place here, that of Muhammad Tughlaq, in the Sultanate of Delhi in the 14th century.

In the Lower Gangetic plain, the practice may have reached a high level fairly late in history. it appears possible, based on available evidence and the existing reports of the occurrences of it, that the greatest incidence of sati in any region and period, in terms of total numbers, occurred in Bengal and Bihar in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This was during the earlier period of British rule, and before the abolition. The Bengal Presidency kept records from 1813 to 1829. The frequency increased in periods of hardship and famine. Ram Mohan Roy suggested that it was more prevalent in Bengal than in the rest of the subcontinent. An unusually large number of the surviving reports for this period are from Bengal, also suggesting that it was most common there.

In modern times, it has been largely confined to Rajasthan, mostly in or near Shekhawati, with a few instances in the Gangetic plain.

Recent incidence

Sati still occurs occasionally, mostly in rural areas. About 40 cases have occurred in India since independence in 1947, the majority in the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan. The last clearly documented case was that of Roop Kanwar. However there are claims that other more recent deaths have also been cases of Sati.

Roop Kanwar, a childless 18-year old widow, committed sati on 4 September 1987, some allege forcibly, dressed in her red wedding dress, in Rajasthan's Deorala village. Several thousand people were said to have been at the event. After her death, she was hailed as a 'sati mata', meaning pure mother. The event quickly produced a public outcry in urban centres, pitting a modern Indian ideology against a traditional one. A much-publicised investigation led to the arrest of a large number of people from Deorala, said to have been present in the ceremony, or participants in it. Eventually, 11 people were charged. On January 31, 2004, a special court in Jaipur acquitted all of the 11 accused in the case, observing that the prosecution had failed to prove charges that they glorified Sati.

On 18th 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 in the State of Uttar Pradesh.

Justifications and criticisms

Brahmin scholars of the second millennium justified the practice, and gave reasonings as to how the scriptures could be said to justify them. Among them were Vijnanesvara, of the Chalukya court, and later Madhavacharya, theologian and minister of the court of the Vijayanagara empire, according to Shastri, who quotes their reasoning. It was lauded by them as exemplary conduct in pious women, and it was explained that this was considered not to be suicide (suicide was otherwise variously banned or discouraged in the scriptures). It was deemed an act of peerless piety, and was said to purge the couple of all accumulated sin, guarantee their salvation and ensure their reunion in the afterlife.

Law books

These are relatively late works. Justifications for the practice are given in the Vishnu Smriti.

Now the duties of a woman (are) ... After the death of her husband, to preserve her chastity, or to ascend the pile after him. (Vishnu Smriti, 25-14).

There is justification also in the later work of the Brihaspati Smriti (25-11). Both this and the Vishnu Smriti date from the first millennium AD.

The Manu Smriti is often regarded as the culmination of classical Hindu law, and hence its position is important. It does not mention or sanction sati though it does prescribe life-long asceticism for most widows.

Scriptures

Although the myth of the goddess Sati 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.

The Puranas have examples of women who commit sati and there are suggestions in them that this was considered desirable or praiseworthy: A wife who dies in the company of her husband shall remain in heaven as many years as there are hairs on his person. (Garuda Purana 1.107.29) According to 2.4.93 she stays with her husband in heaven during the rule of 14 Indras, i.e. a kalpa.

It is notable that in the Ramayana, Tara, in her grief at the death of husband Vali, wished to commit sati. Hanuman, Rama, and the dying Vali dissuade her and she finally does not immolate herself. Examples of the act in the puranas include the following.

In the Mahabharata, Madri, the second wife of Pandu, immolates herself. She holds herself responsible for the death of her husband, who had been cursed with death if he ever had intercourse. He died while performing the forbidden act with Madri, who blamed herself for not having rejected his advances, although she was well aware of the curse.

Argument that the Rig Veda sanctions sati
It is often claimed that this most ancient text sanctions or prescribes sati. This is based on verse 10.18.7, part of the verses to be used at funerals. Whether they even describe sati or something else entirely, is disputed, The hymn is about funeral by burial, and not by cremation. There are differing translations of the passage. The translation below is one of those said to prescribe it.

इमा नारीरविधवाः सुपत्नीराञ्जनेन सर्पिषा संविशन्तु |
अनश्रवो.अनमीवाः सुरत्ना आ रोहन्तु जनयोयोनिमग्रे || (RV 10.18.7)

Let these women, whose husbands are worthy and are living, enter the house with ghee (applied) as collyrium (to their eyes). Let these wives first step into the pyre, tearless without any affliction and well adorned.

The text does not mention widowhood, and other translations differ in their translation of the word here rendered as 'pyre' (yoni, literally "seat, abode"; Griffith has "first let the dames go up to where he lieth"). In addition, the following verse, which is unambiguously about widows, then contradicts any suggestion of the woman's death; it explicitly states that the widow should return to her house.

उदीर्ष्व नार्यभि जीवलोकं गतासुमेतमुप शेष एहि |
हस्तग्राभस्य दिधिषोस्तवेदं पत्युर्जनित्वमभि सम्बभूथ || (RV 10.18.8)

Rise, come unto the world of life, O woman — come, he is lifeless by whose side thou liest. Wifehood with this thy husband was thy portion, who took thy hand and wooed thee as a lover.

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, yonim agre "formost to the yoni", was deliberately changed by those who wished claim scriptural justification, to a word that meant fire, yomiagne.

Argument that sati was an act of self defense
Hindu scholars such as Prabhat Varun have argued * that Sati was not part of Hindu doctrine at all, but a practice of voluntary immolation by Hindu women as a means to avoid the humiliation and stigma associated with rape. The argument is that the practice came into effect during the Islamic invasion of India, to over come the fear of muslims to commit mass rapes on the women of cities or towns that they could capture successfully (one is reminded, however, that acts such as this were relatively common during the middle ages in other parts of the world as well). It is argued that the prevalence of Sati has been exaggerated by European Colonialists and muslim radicals as a canard against Hinduism itself.

Counter-arguments within Hinduism

No early criticisms of the practice within Hinduism, (or in the other native religions of Buddhism or Jainism), are known before the Gupta period. This is possibly because the practice was little known at that time.

Explicit criticisms in the first millennium AD, included that of Medhatithi, a commentator on various theological works. He considered it suicide, which was forbidden by the Vedas

One shall not die before the span of one's life is run out,

Another critic was Bana, who wrote during the reign of Harsha. Bana condemned it both as suicide, and as a pointless and futile act. There does not seem to be any thought or suggestion among any of these critics that the act would not be voluntary.

Reform and bhakti movements within Hinduism tended to be anti-caste, favoured egalitarian societies, and in line with the tenor of these beliefs, they generally condemned the practice, sometimes explicitly. The Alvars condemned sati, in the 8th century. The Virashaiva movement in the 12th and 13th centuries, also condemned it.

In the early 19th century, Ram Mohan Roy wrote and disseminated arguments that the practice was not part of Hinduism, as part of his campaign to ban the practice.

Non-Hindu views and criticisms

The Sikh religion explicitly proscribed the practice, by about 1500 AD .

The principal foreign early visitors to the subcontinent whose have left records of the practice, are from Western Asia, mostly Muslim, and later on, Europeans. Both groups were fascinated by the practice, and sometimes described it as horrific, but often also as an incomparable act of devotion . Ibn Battuta described an instance, but said that he collapsed or fainted and had to be carried away from the scene. European artists in the eighteenth century produced many images for their own native markets, showing the widows as heroic women, and moral exemplars.

As Islam established itself in the subcontinent, their opinion of sati changed to regarding it as a barbaric practice. The earliest known governmental effort to halt the practice were by Muslim rulers, including Muhammad Tughlaq.

Europeans also showed a change in their attitude to local customs as they became dominant local powers. The earliest Europeans to establish themselves were the Portuguese in Goa. They tried early on to override local customs and practices, including sati, as they attempted to Christianise territories in their control. The British entered India as a trading body, and in the earlier periods of their rule, they were largely indifferent to local practices. A campaign against sati was however set up by the evangelical movement in Britain, particularly by William Wilberforce, as part of a campaign to increase missionary activity in India. The practice of sati, and its later legal abolition by the British (along with the suppression of thuggee) went on to become one of the standard justifications for British rule. British attitudes in their later history in India are usually given in the following much repeated quote, usually ascribed to General Napier -

You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.

Noted political scientist Barrington Moore mentions the practice of sati in his book Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. Moore says of sati that "Such a custom might indeed test the beliefs of even the most firm present-day believer in the equal worth of all cultures". Moore goes on to state that the British suppression of sati and other religious and cultural activities was a factor in the Mutiny of 1857.

Suppression

The first known instance of official attempts to stop the practice were those of the Sultanate of Delhi, under Muhammad Tughlaq. They required formal permits to be issued before the act could take place, from about 1325.

Mughal period

Humayun issued a royal fiat against sati, which he later withdrew.

Akbar required that permission be granted by his officials, and these officials were instructed to delay the woman's decision for as long as possible. The reasoning was that she was less likely to chose to die once the emotions of the moment had passed. In the reign of Shah Jahan, widows with children were not allowed in any circumstances to burn. In other cases governors did not readily give permission, but could be bribed to do so. Later on in the Mughal period, pensions, gifts and rehabilitative help were offered to the potential sati to wean her away from committing the act. Children were strictly forbidden from the practice. The later Moghuls continued to put obstacles in the way but the practice carried on in the areas outside their capitals.

The strongest attempts to control it were made by Aurangzeb. In 1663, he "issued an order that in all lands under Mughal control, never again should the officials allow a woman to be burnt". In spite of such attempts however, the practice continued, especially in conditions of war and upheaval.

British and other European territories

By the end of the 18th century, the practice had been banned in territories held by some European powers. The Portuguese banned the practice in Goa by about 1515, though it is not believed to have been especially prevalent there. The Dutch and the French had also banned it in Chinsurah and Pondicherry. The British who by then ruled much of the subcontinent, and the Danes, who held the small territory of Shrirampur, permitted it into the 19th century. Attempts to limit or ban the practice had been made by individual British officers in the 18th century, but without the backing of the British East India Company. The first formal British ban was in 1798, in the city of Calcutta only. The practice continued in surrounding regions. Toward the end of the 18th century, the evangelical church in Britain, and its members in India, started campaigns against sati. Leaders of these included William Carey and William Wilberforce, and both appeared to be motivated partly by a desire to convert Indians to Christianity. These movements put pressure on the company to ban the act, and the Bengal Presidency started collecting figures on the practice in 1813.

From about 1812, the Bengali reformer Ram Mohan Roy started his own campaign against the practice. He was motivated by the experience of seeing his own sister-in-law commit sati. Among his actions, he visited Calcutta cremation grounds to persuade widows not to so die, formed watch groups to do the same, and wrote and disseminated articles to show that it was not required by scripture.

On 4 December, 1829, the practice was formally banned in the Bengal Presidency lands, by the then governor, Lord William Bentinck. It was mainly due to the efforts of Raja Ram Mohan Roy. The ban was challenged in the courts, and the matter went to the Privy Council in London, but was upheld in 1832. Other company territories also banned it shortly after. Although the original ban in Bengal was fairly uncompromising, later in the century British laws include provisions that provided mitigation for murder when "the person whose death is caused, being above the age of 18 years, suffers death or takes the risk of death with his own consent".

Sati remained legal in some princely states for a time after it had been abolished in lands under British control. The last such state to permit it, Jaipur, banned the practice in 1846.

Modern times

In modern India, following outcries after each instance, there have been various fresh measures passed against the practice, which now effectively make it illegal to be a bystander at an event of sati. The law now makes no distinction between passive observers to the act, and active promoters of the event; all are supposed to be held equally culpable. Other measures include efforts to stop the 'glorification' of the dead women. Glorification includes the erection of shrines to the dead, the encouragement of pilgrimages to the site of the pyre, and the derivation of any income from such sites and pilgrims.

Enforcement of these measures is not always consistent however. The enforcement of some measures, such as the possible stopping of worship at ancient shrines, is a matter of modern controversy.

Influences on art and culture

A famous fictional depiction of sati is found in Around the World in Eighty Days (1872). The English gentleman Phileas Fogg and his servant Passepartout are travelling India when they find a sati. They risk their lives battling the Indians and rescue the drugged princess Aouda from death.

In Tom Robbins' 1984 novel Jitterbug Perfume, the main character Alobar witnesses and attempts to intervene in an act of sati, although it is written "suttee".

See also

References

Notes

  1. The spelling suttee is a phonetic spelling using the 19th century English orthography. However the sati transliteration is correct using the more modern IAST (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration) which is the academic standard for writing the Sanskrit language with the Latin alphabet system.

  1. Refs; many, including Yuganta, by Irawati Karve
  2. Sati Was Started For Preserving Caste
  3. . Shastri, See References
  4. Shastri, See References

  1. Letter, Panduranga Joshi Kulkarni is a description by a man who stopped his daughter in law's suicide. This might have been for monetary reasons. Women in World History A project of the Center for History and New Media, George Mason University.
  2. See Kamat for two examples
  3. Primary Sources: Letter, Francois Bernier Women in World History A project of the Center for History and New Media, George Mason University.

  1. The Representation of Sati: Four Eighteenth Century Etchings by Baltazard Solvyns by Robert L. Hardgrave, Jr. - This says 'likely'

  1. Women In The Sacred Laws by Shakuntala Rao Shastri The later law - Books: Page 24 Some of these included servants. These should probably all be seen as being in the original tradition of anumarana, perhaps a separate article.

  1. Defying blessings of the goddess and the community: Disputes over sati (widow burning) in contemporary India by Masakazu Tanaka. An example in Tamil Sri Lanka.

  1. The Representation of Sati: Four Eighteenth Century Etchings by Baltazard Solvyns by Robert L. Hardgrave, Jr.

  1. Hindu Bengali Widows Through the Centuries from the Datamation Foundation a non-profit, apolitical, non-partisan registered Charitable Trust (Trust Deed # 3258 dated March 8, 2001) with its head office at Delhi.
  2. Modern History Sourcebook: On Ritual Murder in India 1829] by William Bentinck
  3. It was little known or unknown in the lowest castes and the tribal groups and eslewhere

  • John Ovington, A 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 very rare, except it be some Rajah's wives, that the Indian women burn at all."

    1. The Tradition of Sati Through the Centuries Kamat's potpourri: The Sati System
    2. The Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987 (No.3 of 1988) on the web site of the Harvard School of Public Health

    1. http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe07/sbe07027.htm
    2. quoted from Shastri

    1. 3.1 Women in Indo-Aryan Societies:Sati this translation is ascribed to Kane References Pages 199-200
    2. http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10018.htm compare alternative translation by Griffith:
      Let these unwidowed dames with noble husbands adorn themselves with fragrant balm and unguent.
      Decked with fair jewels, tearless, free from sorrow, first let the dames go up to where he lieth.
    3. http://www.hindu-religion.net/showflat/cat/hinduism/67586/0/collapsed/5/o/1 hindu-religion.net] copy of The Rigveda: Widows don’t have to burn by O. P. Gupta Publication: The Asian Age Date: October 23, 2002

    1. quoted directly from Shastri's book, translation source not given
    2. see Shastri, quoted elsewhere
    3. The little-known Srivaisnava sect in Tamil Nadu is among the few religious traditions in India that treats women on par with men by Yoginder Sikand, in Communalism Combat February 1999.
    4. http://www.lingayat.com/alingayat/alingayat.asp about Lingayat] on lingayat.com

    1. Women in Sikhism Sandeep Singh Brar
    2. AN INCOMPARABLE PROPHET:Guru Amar Dass (1479-1574) by Sirdar Kapur Singh (National Professor of Sikhism) on the "Gateway to Sikhism".
    3. The Representation of Sati: Four Eighteenth Century Etchings by Baltazard Solvyns by Robert L. Hardgrave, Jr. Bengal Past and Present, 117 (1998): 57-80.
    4. Charles James Napier
    5. Defending Religious Freedom in Poland: Polish Catholics Persecute Krishna Worshippers by Ella Serwin and Magdalena Mola on the Poland (VNN). The Vaishnava News Network (VNN) is an independent network of collaborating Vaishnavas worldwide providing the world Vaishnava community with news and forums of communication.
    6. Women and Hinduism in U.S. Textbooks by: David Freedholm on Feb 5 2003 on his blog site. backup site

    1. Central Sati Act - An analysis by Maja Daruwala is an advocate practising in the Delhi High Court. Courtsy: The Lawyers January 1988. The web site is called "People's Union for Civil Liberties"
    2. XVII. Economic and Social Developments under the Mughals from Muslim Civilization in India by S. M. Ikram edited by Ainslie T. Embree New York: Columbia University Press, 1964. This page maintained by Prof. Frances Pritchett, Columbia University

    1. Portuguese
    2. Central Sati Act - An analysis by Maja Daruwala is an advocate practising in the Delhi High Court. Courtsy: The Lawyers January 1988. The web site is called "People's Union for Civil Liberties"
    3. pp351, Moore, Barrington. Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. Boston: Beacon Press, 1967.
    * Posting at the Yahoo Indology mailing list, quoting the Yallabhatta, a relatively recent work in Telugu.

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