Suttee

The practice of ''sati'' (or '''suttee''') is a South Asian 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.

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.

The custom of the immolation of a widow (or other close relatives and slaves) was also practiced by the ancient peoples of Scythia , Egypt , Scandinavia and China .

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 19-year old widow, committed Sati in 1988 , 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. The event quickly turned into a national case of outrage, 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''.

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.

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 legend 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 legend is quite unconnected with the justifications for the practice.

The s, 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.

The Tantras strictly condemn the practice.

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.

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Suttee