Sati (practice)

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Sati (Devanagari: सती, the feminine of sat "true"; also called suttee) refers to a funeral practice within some Indian communities in which a recently widowed woman immolates herself, typically on her husband’s funeral pyre.

Etymology and usage

The term is derived from the name of the goddess Sati, also known as Dakshayani, who self-immolated because she was unable to bear her father Daksha's humiliation of her husband Shiva.

The term sati was originally interpreted as "chaste woman". Sati appears in both Hindi and Sanskrit texts, where it is synonymous with "good wife",^[1] the term suttee was commonly used by Anglo-Indian English writers.^[2] Sati designates therefore originally the woman, rather than the rite; the rite itself having technical names such as sahagamana ("going with") or sahamarana ("dying with")^[3] Satipratha is also, on occasion, used as a term signifying the custom of burning widows alive.^[4] Two other terms closely connected to sati are sativrata and satimata. Sativrata denotes the woman who, after her husband's death, has made the formal vow, vrat, to burn herself on his pyre. After her death on the pyre, she achieves the venerated status as a satimata^[5]

The Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987 Part I, Section 2(c) defines Sati as the act or rite itself.^[6]

History

Origins and comparisons

Earliest records of sati

Few reliable records exist of the practice before the time of the Gupta empire, approximately 400 CE. After about this time, instances of sati began to be marked by inscribed memorial stones. According to Axel Michaels, the first clear proofs of the practice is from Nepal in 464 CE, and in India from 510 CE.^[7] In India, the earliest of these memorial stones are found in Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, though the largest collections date from several centuries later, and are found in Rajasthan. These stones, called devli, or sati-stones, became shrines to the dead woman, who was treated as an object of reverence and worship. They are most common in western India.^[8] Aristobulus of Cassandreia, a Greek historian who travelled to India with the expedition of Alexander the Great, recorded the practice of sati at the city of Taxila. A later instance of voluntary co-cremation appears in an account of an Indian soldier in the army of Eumenes of Cardia, whose two wives jumped on his funeral pyre, in 316 BC.^[9] A description of sati appears in a Greek account of the Punjab written in the first century BCE by historian Diodorus Siculus.^[2][10] In the 1886 published Hobson-Jobson^[11], Henry Yule and Arthur Coke Burnell compiled a few dozen excerpts of descriptions of sati ranging from 4th century BCE into the 1870s CE.^[12]

Practice of Sati in Hindu-influenced cultures outside Indian subcontinent

The early 14th century traveller Odoric of Pordenone mentions that in the Hindu Kingdom of Champa, in nowadays south/central Vietnam, burning widows alive was observed.^[13] Anant Altekar mentions that sati spread with Hindu migrants to Southeast Asian islands as well, such as to Java, Sumatra and Bali^[14] Other Hindu-influenced cultures where reports of sati has come are from Cambodia^[15] and Mergui in presnt day Burma (Myanmar).^[16]A Chinese pilgrim from the 15th century seems to attest the practice on islands called Ma-i-tung and Ma-i (possibly Belitung (outside Sumatra) and Northern Phillipines, respectively)^[17]

Burning alive of widows are apparently attested from some parts of China, but one scholar thinks it was imported from India, and was anyhow very rare.^[18]

Comparable rituals in other cultures

The sacrifice of widow(s) or a great man's retainers at his death is attested for a number of cultures outside of India. As an example where the widows vied for the honour to die with their common husband, the 5th century BCE historian Herodotus mentions the Krestones tribe among the old Thracians. The woman found to have been held highest in the husband's favour while he lived had her throat slit on his grave, the surviving wives reputedly regarding it is a great shame to have to live on.^[19] Citing 6th century CE Procopius from his "Gothic Wars", Edward Gibbon notes that among the Germanic tribe of the Heruli, a widow typically hanged herself upon her husband's tomb.^[20] The strangling of widows after their husbands' deaths are attested from as disparate cultures as the Natchez people in present day US state Louisiana, to a number of Pacific Islander cultures.^[21]

Cases of burning at funerals elsewhere, history and legends

A well known case is that of the 10th century CE ship burial of the Rus' described by Ibn Fadlan. Here, when a female slave had said she would be willing to die, her body was subsequently burned with her master on the pyre^[22]

Such rituals as widow sacrifice/ widow burning have, presumably, prehistoric roots, and early 20th century pioneering anthropologist James G. Frazer, for example, thought that the legendary Greek story of Capaneus, whose wife Evadne threw herself on his funeral pyre, might be a relic of an earlier custom of live widow-burning.^[23]

Models for the spread of sati

Altekar's chronology on spread of sati

The earlier historian Anant Sadashiv Altekar, in his (1938) The Position of Women in Hindu Civilization From Prehistoric Times to the Present Day held the position that the Vedic Age saw an active discontinuation of pre-historic burning of widows, on basis that a 1000 BCE funerary custom describes that of symbolic sati, where the widow lies down by her deceased husband, but is then bidden to rise again, to enjoy the bliss of children and wealth remaining for her^[24] In the following, a brief sketch on the chronology on the spread of sati, as proposed by Altekar is given.

According to Altekar, there is no mention of actual sati in the period of Brahmana literature (ca. 1500-700 BCE), and although the later Grhyusutras, roughly composed 600-300 BCE on a number of rituals, but sati is not described. In fact, what is written about funeral customs, is that the widow is brought back from the funeral pyre, typically by a trusted servant. Altekar also thinks it significant that Gautama Buddha, who castigated customs of animal sacrifice, and other customs where pain was inflicted, is entirely silent about burning women alive. Altekar takes these elements as proofs that burning widows alive had long ago died out as a practice. Nor do the authors of the Dharmasutras (ca.400 BCE-100 CE) or Yajnavalkya (ca. 100 CE-300 CE) say anything about it being commendable to burn a widow alive on her husband's funeral pyre. Although we have late fourth century BCE evidence from Greek authors and the Mahabarata for the existence of the custom of sati, Altekar thinks it did not really begin to grow in popularity prior to 400 CE, by the manner of which it is infrequently mentioned in the Puranas of that time. A very early attested case from 510 CE is that of the wife of Goparaja, who immolated herself, another similar case attested from 606 CE. As the custom grew in popularity, Altekar highlights as determined opponents of this aristocratic custom in particular 7th century poet Bāṇabhaṭṭa, but also 9th century theologian Medhātithi and 12th century Devana Bhatta. In Altekar's view, their crusades against the custom were largely unsuccessful.

According to Altekar, it is the period ca. 700-1100 CE that sees sati becoming really widespread in India, in particular in Kashmir As the centuries wore on, Altekar provides a few statistics on the spread of the custom. In Rajputana, a later stronghold for sati there are two, possibly three reliably attested cases prior to 1000 CE; for the period from 1200-1600 CE, there are at least 20 such cases. For the Carnatic, we have about 11 inscriptions relative to sati from 1000-1400 CE, for 1400-1600 CE, we have 41.

Thus, a main view that Altekar espoused is that the spread of sati increased over time (with local variations, for example reductions in territories governed by zealous Muslims hostile to the practice), and probably was close to a maximum when the British began to intervene in the first decades of the nineteenth century.^[25]

Modern causative models on the spread of sati

How, when, where and why, the practice of sati spread are complex issues as borne out by the extended discussion of Anand Yang, in addition to the above discussion by Altekar.^[26] The practice of sati is not mentioned in any of the earliest religious texts, and our first literary reference is from the fourth century BCE, some 800 years before the evidence by memorial stones begins to appear.

The Vedic Age (1700-500 BCE), is often regarded as a Golden Age in terms of rights and the status of women. It is only in times after 500 BCE that a decline in the status of women can be discerned. Although Anand Yang does not give whole-hearted support to the characterization of the Vedic Age as a Golden Age, Yang underlines, and points to general scholarly consensus that a decline in women's status occurred in the times after the Vedic Age relative to it. One view on the increase in practice of sati says that this is merely a consequence of this decline in the status of women. However, Yang says it would be to overstate the equation to say the increase of sati depended solely on this declined status of women (or only reflected it), nor can it explain the uneven geographical spread of this practice. Citing Romila Thapar, Yang notes as additional explanatory factors, "the practice may have originated among societies in flux and become customary among those holding property..Once it was established as a custom associated with the Kshatriyas (i.e, ruling military elite), it would continue to be so among those claiming Kshatriya status as well".

According to one model, as referred to by Yang, taking into account the association of sati with the warrior elite in particular, sati only became really widespread during the Muslim invasions of India, and the practice of sati now acquired an additional meaning as a means to preserve the honour of women whose men had been slain. As S.S.Sashi lays out the argument, "The argument is that the practice came into effect during the Islamic invasion of India, to protect their honor from Muslims who were known to commit mass rape on the women of cities that they could capture successfully."^[27]

However, the practice of sati, again according to Yang, with reference to the memorial stone evidence, was carried out in appreciable numbers in both western and southern parts of India, and in some areas, it seems to have reached peak level of incidence in pre-Islamic times. Although, therefore, some local patterns directly contradict the theory that Muslim invasions was the uniformly principal factor behind the increase of the practice, it is certainly true that within the period of Muslim-Hindu conflict, Rajputs performed a distinct form of sati known as jauhar as a direct response to the onslaught they experienced.^[28]

Military conflicts between Hindu states seems to have propelled the practice of sati into wider use as well, not just wars between Muslim forces and Hindu states; a period of increase possibly due to such internal infighting roughly datable to end of first millennium/beginning second millennium.^[29]

Yang also points to two other processes behind the increase of sati. Firstly, that of "Sanskritinization" of the lower class aspirants to higher status, where emulation of the valorized practices of the warrior meant that sati became adopted among these aspirants. The second process for spreading sati is regarded by Yang to have been crucial, namely that the priestly class, the brahmins began adopting the practice. As Yang puts it, "Surely, with the practice rooted in both the kingly and Brahminical traditions, its constituency must have grown rapidly across spatial and social boundaries".^[30]

Practice

Anumarana

The term anumarana was used for a very similar type of widow burning to sati, namely that when a woman learnt of her husband's death and cremation, she let herself be burned alive with his ashes or sandals.^[31] The practice of anumarana was generally banned by British authorities already in 1826, three years prior to the general ban on sati.^[32]

Anumarana was also used, particularly in the 11th century CE in north/northwestern India as a term for a practice where servants and followers, not just widows, immolated themselves at the death of their lord.^[8]

Jauhar

The Rajput practice of Jauhar, known from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, was the collective suicide of a community facing certain defeat in a battle against Muslims. It consisted of the mass immolation of women, children, the elderly and the sick, at the same time that their fighting men died in battle. Chittor is famous for jauhar of Rani Padmini, Rani Karnavati and the wives of Maharana Udai Singh.^{[citation needed]} Arvind Sharma believes that these particular conditions must lead to a distinction between jauhar and sati, and regards jauhar as principally as the result a desire to avoid being captured alive by the invading Muslims, rather than being regarded as the meritorious self-sacrifice of the devoted widow.^[33]

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.^[34]

Maharani Raj Rajeshwari Devi of Nepal became regent in 1799 in the name of her son, Girvan Yuddha Bikram Shah Deva, after the abdication of her husband, Rana Bahadur Shah, who became a sanyasi. Her husband returned and took power again in 1804. In 1806 he was assassinated by his brother, and ten days later on 5 May 1806, his widow was forced to commit sati.^[35][36]

Sati practice within non-Hindu communities

Despite clear condemnations of the practice of sati by 3rd Guru Guru Amar Das (1479-1554) and the other religious leaders within Sikhism, popularity of the custom spread within Sikh aristocracy. Thus, for example, when the founder of the Sikh Empire Ranjit Singh died in 1839, 4 of his proper wives and 7 of his concubines committed themselves to sati When Raja Suchet Singh^[37] died in 1844, 310 of his wives and concubines committed sati^[38]

Within Jain theology, the practice of sati is clearly condemned as suicide, but even so, in the Epigrahia Carnatica, two of the 41 cases of sati in the time period 1400-1600 CE are those of Jain women. The very low numbers of Jains known to have committed sati does, however, suggest the practice was largely unacceptable within this particular community.^[39]

In certain areas, even Muslim widows are asserted to have committed sati In his Shahabad report in the early 19th century, for example, Francis Buchanan-Hamilton wrote, relative to the numbers of sati cases in the Patna district in Bihar:

The annual number of victims may be about 25. The contagion of example has even extended to the Muhammadans.^[40]

Standard procedures of traditional sati

The act of sati is said to exist voluntarily; from the existing accounts, many of these acts did indeed occur voluntarily. The act may have been expected of widows in some communities, and the extent to which social pressures or expectations constitute compulsion has been much debated in modern times. 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.^[41]

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,^[42] and some describe women seating themselves on the funeral pyre and then lighting it themselves.^[43]

Variations in procedure

Although sati is typically thought of as consisting of the procedure that the widow is being placed, or enters, or jumps, upon the funeral pyre of her husband, slight variations in funeral practice have been reported here as well, for different regions. For example, the mid-17th century traveller Tavernier claims 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.^[44] In mid-nineteenth century Lombok, an island in today's Indonesia, the local Balinese aristocracy practiced widow sacrifice on occasion; but only royal widows could burn themselves alive (others were stabbed to death by a kris knife 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.^[45]

Live burials

In some Hindu communities, it is conventional to bury the dead, rather than cremating them.^{[citation needed]} Self-sacrifice of widows have been known to have occurred in the past in such communities as well, with the widow being buried alive beside her husband, in ceremonies with many of the elements similar to those found within rituals of immolation.^[46] As an example of how European travellers have reported upon this particular practice of a widow's self-sacrifice by means of live burial, the 17th century French traveller and gem merchant Jean Baptiste Tavernier gave the following account:

In most places upon the Coast of Coromandel, the Women are not burnt with their deceas'd Husbands, but they are buried alive with them in holes which the Bramins make a foot deeper than the tallness of the man and woman. Usually they chuse a Sandy place; so that when the man and woman both let down together, all the Company with Baskets of Sand fill up the hole about half a foot higher than the surface of the ground, after which they jump and dance upon it, till they believe the woman to be stiff'd^[47]

The 18th century painter Balthazar Solvyns is another witness of the ritual of being buried alive beside the deceased husband, although he specifies this as limited as a caste distinction within the territories such as Orissa, rather than being a general distinctive feature within a particular geographical region that Tavernier recounts. Solvyns gives expression to an inescapable sense of admiration of the woman who chooses to be buried alive, though he regards the whole rite as "barbarous":

We can not refuse our pity to the poor Hindoo women who are sacrificed to this ancient and barbarous custom; but their courage, firmness, and resignation, entitles them to some share of admiration. While their husband lives they are slaves, when he dies they must be ready to resign in the most cruel manner a life of which they never tasted the enjoyments. In no part of the universe are women born to so dismal a prospect.^[48]

The Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987 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.^[6]

Compulsion

Sati is often described as voluntary, although in some cases it may have been forced. In one narrative account, the widow appears to have been drugged either with bhang or opium and was tied to the pyre to keep her from fleeing after the fire was lit.^[49]

In their eagerness British local press of the time proffered several accounts of alleged forcing of the woman. As an example of this, Calcutta Review published accounts as the following one:

In 1822, the Salt Agent at Barripore, 16 miles south of Calcutta, went ont 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 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.^[50]

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 you've jumped in, than descending from a pyre you have entered on. He mentions the custom of the fiery pit as particularly prevalent in the Deccan and Western India. From Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, where the widow typically were 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.^[51]

A Danish missionary, in a letter published in the Monthly Magazine in 1751, writes the following of the harrowing fate of 47 widows leaping into the flame pit the year before outside the walls of the Danish colony Tranquebar:

However intrepid most of those unhappy victims appeared before jumping into the pit, the note was vastly altered when in the midst of the flames: there they shrieked hideously, tumbled one over another, striving to reach the edge of the pit and get out of it; but they were kept in by throwing heaps of billets and faggots upon them, as well to knock them on the head as to increase the fire.^[52]

However, although cases are certainly attested where direct force was used to burn women alive against their will, or that preventive steps were taken in order to make the escape of the widow practically impossible once the fires were lit, many accounts exist that show the decision to commit sati was a resolution taken by the women themselves, even refusing to active attempts to dissuade her from the act. The respected historian Anant Sadashiv Altekar points, for example, to his own sister, who committed sati 17 January 1946. She had often, and for a long time said she would refuse to survive her husband; not even having a "suckling child" prevented her from carrying out the act, nor the pressing insistence from her relations to abstain from the act. According to Altekar, his sister remained convinced that committing sati was her duty as prativrata, i.e., as dutiful and protective wife, even into death. Referring to this highly personal experience, Altekar says he is not disinclined to believe in some of the reports regarding the act of committing sati as a voluntary act on the woman's part.^[53]

Symbolic sati

Funeral custom

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. An example in Tamil Sri Lanka is attested from modern times^[54] 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 Atharvaveda, one of the four Vedas, 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 descend, to enjoy the blessings from the children and wealth left to her.^[24]

Jivit tradition

In recent years in India, a tradition has developed of venerating jivit, or living saints. These are, supposedly, women who had formed the vow to be burned, but sacrificed her own wish to die, due to the illegality of the ritual. According to the followers and believers in these women, the jivit needs neither nourishment or sleep, subsisting on her virtue, sat, alone.^[55] Two famous jivit were Bala Satimata, and Umca Satimata, both living until the early 1990s.^[56]

Prevalence

Records of sati exist across the subcontinent. However, there seems to have been major differences historically, in different regions, and among different communities. Furthermore, no reliable figures exist for the numbers who have died by sati, in general.

Numbers

A local indication of the numbers is given in the records kept by the Bengal Presidency of the British East India Company, the only authority within the Indian subcontinent provably known for having sought to keep statistics of the phenomenon of sati. An 1829 reported statistics for the period 1815-1824 yields a total of 5997 instances of sati for the Bengal presidency in that period, i.e., in average 600 per year. In the same statistics, it is said that the numbers for the same time period in the Madras and Bombay presidencies totalled 635 instances of sati.^[57] Raja Ram Mohan Roy estimated that there were ten times as many cases of Sati in Bengal compared to the rest of the country.^[58][59] 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).^[60]

Social composition and age distribution of sati

Anand Yang, speaking of the early nineteenth century CE, says that contrary to conventional wisdom, sati was not, in general, confined to being an upper class phenomenon, but spread through the classes/castes. In the 575 reported cases from 1823, for example, 41 percent were Brahmins, some 6 percent were Kshatriyas, whereas 2 percent were Vaishiyas, and 51 percent Sudras. In Banaras, though, in the 1815-1828 British records, the upper castes were only for two years represented with less than 70% of the total ; in 1821, all sati were from the upper castes there.

Yang also notes that many studies seem to emphasize the young age of the widows who committed sati. However, by study of the British figures from 1815-1828, Yang states the overwhelming majority were ageing women, the statistics from 1825-1826 about two thirds were above the age of 40 when committing sati^[61]

Regional variations of incidence

Anand Yang summarizes the regional variation in incidence of sati as follows:

..the practice was never generalized..but was confined to certain areas: in the north,..the Gangetic Valley, Punjab and Rajasthan; in the west, to the southern Konkan region; and in the south, to Madurai and Vijayanagar^[62]

Rajasthan

It was known in Rajasthan from the earliest (6th century) to the present. About half the known sati stones in India are in Rajasthan. However, the extent to which individual instances of deaths resulted in veneration (glorification) implies that was not very common.^{[citation needed]}

Konkan/Maharashtra

Narayan H. Kulkarnee believes that sati became to be practiced in medieval days Maharashtra initially by the Maratha nobility claiming Rajput descent. Then, according to Kulkarnee, the practice of sati 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 type of prevalence as seen in Rajasthan or Bengal, and social customs of actively dissuading a widow from committing sati are well established. Apparently not a single instance of sati are attested for the 17th and 18th centuries CE.^[63]

Vijayanagara empire

The sati stone evidence from the time of the empire is regarded as relatively rare; only about 50 are clearly identified as 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.^[64]

Madurai

In Southern India in general, there are hardly any inscriptions attesting to sati prior to 900 CE. The Madurai Nayak dynasty, reigning from 1529-1736 CE seems to have adopted the custom in larger measure; one Jesuit priest observing in 1609 Madurai the burning of 400 women at the death of Nayak Muttu Krishnappa.^[65]

Princely State of Mysore

Established in 1799, a few records exist from the Princely State of Mysore that say permission to commit sati could be granted. Dewan (prime minister) Purnaiah is said to have allowed it for a Brahmin widow in 1805,^[66] whereas an 1827 eye-witness to the burning of a widow in Bangalore in 1827 says it was rather uncommon there.^[67]

Gangetic plain

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.^[68]

In the Lower Gangetic plain, the practice may have reached a high level fairly late in history. According to available evidence and the existing reports of the occurrences of it, 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.^[69] This was during the earlier period of British rule, and before its formal abolition.. The frequency increased in periods of hardship and famine.^{[citation needed]}

Attitudes of Muslim rulers

Under the Delhi Sultanate, permission had to be sought from the widow prior to any practice of sati as a check against compulsion. However, this later became more of a formality.^[70] Mughals interfered little with local customs, but they seemed intent on stopping sati.^[71] Mughal emperor Humayun (1508-1556) was the first to try a royal fiat against sati.^[70] Akbar (1542–1605) was next to issue official general orders prohibiting sati and insisted that no woman could commit sati without the specific permission of his Chief police officers.^[70][71] The Chief police officers were instructed by him to delay the woman's decision for as long as possible.^[70] Pensions, gifts and rehabilitative help were offered to the potential sati to persuade her from committing the act.^[70] Tavernier, writing in the reign of Shah Jahan, observed that widows with children were not allowed in any circumstances to burn and that in other cases, governors did not readily give permission, but could be bribed to do so.^[71][72]

The emperor Aurangzeb (r.1658-1707 CE) was the strongest opponent of sati among the Mughals. 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".^[71] Although the possibility of an evasion of government orders through payment of bribes existed, later European travelers record that by the end of Aurangzeb’s reign, sati was much abated and very rare, except by some Rajahs' wives.^[71]

British and other European colonial powers

Non-British colonial powers in India

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.^[73] The Dutch and the French banned it in Chinsurah and Pondichéry, their respective colonies.^[74] The Danes, who held the small territories of Tranquebar and Serampore, permitted it until the 19th century.^[75]

British India

Early British policy

The British, following the example of the early Mughals, for a while tried to regulate it by requiring that it be carried out in the presence of their officials and strictly according to custom.^[70] 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 imposed 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 campaigns included William Carey and William Wilberforce, and both appeared to be motivated by their love for the Indian people and their desire to introduce Indians to Christianity. These movements put pressure on the company to ban the act. The Bengal Presidency started collecting figures on the practice in 1813.

Principal Hindu reformers and 1829 ban

Sahajanand Swami, the founder of the Swaminarayan sect, preached against the practice of sati in his area of sphere, that is Gujarat. He argued that the practice had no Vedic 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. Sir John Malcolm, the Governor of Bombay supported Sahajanand Swami in this endeavor.^[76]

However, it was largely due to efforts of the Bengali reformer and founder of Brahmo Samaj, Raja Rammohan Roy, who beginning in 1812 started championing the cause of banning Sati practice and began a large-scale campaign against the practice. He was motivated by the experience of seeing his own sister-in-law being forced to commit sati.^[77] Among his actions, he visited Calcutta cremation grounds to persuade widows against immolation, formed watch groups to do the same, tried to gain support from other elite class of Bengal and wrote and disseminated articles to show that it was not required by scripture.^[77] He was at loggerhead with certain section, who wanted that Government should not interfere in religious practices and filed a counter-petition for making a law banning Sati practice.^[78] He appealed to William Bentick, the Governor of Bengal, to pass a law banning Sati practice in British India and his persuasion^[78] bore fruit and practice was banned by a law passed in 1829 in Bengal Presidency, which was later extended in 1830 to Madras and Bombay Presidency.^[79]

The ban was challenged in the courts, and the matter went to the Privy Council in London, but was upheld in 1832.

Later British attitudes

Although the original 1829 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".^[70]

General Sir Charles James Napier, the Commander-in-Chief in India from 1859 to 1861 is often noted for a story involving Hindu priests complaining to him about the prohibition of sati by British authorities.

"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 according to national customs." ^[80]

Princely states

Sati remained legal in some princely states for a time after it had been abolished in lands under British control. Baroda and other princely states of Kathiawar Agency banned the practice in 1840.^[81], whereas Kolhapur followed them in 1841.^[82] Jaipur banned the practice in 1846,^[83] while Hyderabad and Gwalior did the same in 1847.^[84] The 1846 abolition in Jaipur was regarded by many British as a catalyst for abolition cause within the Rajputana; within 4 months after Jaipur's 1846 ban, 11 of the 18 independent states there had followed Jaipur's example.^[85] It was not before 1861 sati was legally banned in all princely states of India, Mewar resisting for a long time prior to that time. The last case within princely states was, indeed, from 1861 Udaipur the capital of Mewar, but as Anant S. Altekar shows, local opinion had then shifted strongly against the practice. All the widows of Maharanna Sarup Singh flatly refused to become sati when asked, and the one who was burnt with him was a slave girl who was induced to be burnt with her master's remains.^[86] Later the same year, the general ban on sati was issued by a proclamation from Queen Victoria.^[87]

Nepal and Bali

Nepal continued to practice sati well into the 20th century, being formally banned throughout the country by a law passed 28 June 1920.^[88]

On the Indonesian island of Bali, sati (known as masatya) was practised by the aristocracy as late as 1903, until the Dutch colonial masters pushed for its termination, forcing the local Balinese princes to sign treaties containing the prohibition of sati as one of the clauses.^[89] Early Dutch observers of the particular Balinese custom in the 17th century said that only widows, themselves of royal blood, were to be burned alive, concubines or others of inferior blood lines consenting to die with their princely husband could choose to be stabbed to death prior to burning.^[90]

Modern times

Legislative status of sati in present day India

Following the outcry after the sati of Roop Kanwar,^[91] the Indian Government enacted the Rajasthan Sati Prevention Ordinance, 1987 on October 1, 1987^[92] and later passed the Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987.^[6]

The Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987 Part I, Section 2(c) defines Sati as:

The burning or burying alive of –

(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

(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^[6]

The Prevention of Sati Act makes it illegal to support, glorify or attempt to commit Sati. Support of Sati, including coercing or forcing someone to commit Sati, can be punished by death sentence or life imprisonment, while glorifying Sati is punishable with 1–7 years in prison.

Enforcement of these measures is not always consistent.^[93] The National Council for Women (NCW) has suggested amendments to the law to remove some of these flaws.^[94] Prohibitions of certain practices, such as worship at ancient shrines, is a matter of controversy.

Current incidence

Sati still occurs in the rural areas of India, reports extending into the 21st century. Some 30 cases of sati from 1943-1987 in the Rajput/Shekavati region are documented according to a referred statistics, the official number being 28.^[95] A well documented case from 1987 was that of 18-year old Roop Kanwar.^[96][97] In response to this incident, additional recent legislation against the practice was passed, first within the state of Rajasthan, then generally, the central government of India.^[6][92]

In 2002, a 65-year-old woman by the name of Kuttu died after sitting on her husband's funeral pyre in the Indian Panna district.^[97] 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 in the State of Uttar Pradesh.^[98] 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.^[99] On 11 October 2008 a 75-year-old woman committed sati by jumping into her 80-year-old husband's funeral pyre at Checher in the Kasdol block of Chhattisgarh's Raipur district.^[100]

Justifications and criticisms

Brahmin scholars justified the practice, and gave reasonings as to how the scriptures could be said to justify them. Among them were Vijnanesvara, of the 12th-century Chalukya court, and the 13th century Madhvacharya.^[101] They lauded the practice as required conduct in righteous women, and said that it was not to be considered suicide, which was otherwise variously banned or discouraged in the scriptures. They deemed it an act of peerless piety, which was said to purge the couple of all accumulated sin, guarantee their salvation, and ensure their reunion in the afterlife.^[8]

Ancient law codes

Justifications for the practice are given in the Vishnu Smriti (dated from 700 to 1000CE):

Now the duties of a woman (are) ... After the death of her husband, to preserve her chastity, or to ascend the pile after him.^[102]

Justification for the practice is also found in the later work of the Brihaspati Smriti (25-11).^[8] Both this and the Vishnu Smriti date from the first millennium.

The Manu Smriti, often regarded as the culmination of classical Hindu law, does not mention or sanction sati. It does prescribe lifelong asceticism for most widows, no matter their age when widowed.

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; they suggest 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.

According to Ramashraya Sharma, there is no conclusive evidence of the sati practice in the Ramayana. For instance, Tara, Mandodari and the widows of Dasharatha, 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. The only instance of sati appears in the Uttara Kanda - believed to be a later addition to the original text — in which Kushadhwaja's wife performs sati.^[103] The Telugu adaptation of the Ramayana, the 14th-century Ranganatha Ramayana, tells that Sulochana, wife of Indrajit, became sati on his funeral pyre.^[104]

In the Mahabharata, Madri, the second wife of Pandu, 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.

Passages in the Atharva Veda, including 13.3.1, offer advice to the widow on mourning and her life after widowhood, including her remarriage.

Endorsement or prohibition of sati in the Rig Veda?

Some commentators claim that the Rig Veda sanctions sati, while others claim that it condemns sati. The argument for condoning is based on verse 10.18.7, part of the verses to be used at funerals. Whether they 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 house, tearless without any affliction and well adorned.^[105]

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, 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.^[106]

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 agree "foremost to the yoni", was deliberately changed by those who wished claim scriptural justification, to a word that meant fire, yomiagne.^[107]

Justifications for involuntary sati?

Julia Leslie points to an 18th-century CE text on the duties of the wife by Tryambakayajvan that contains statements she regards as evidence for a sub-tradition of justifying strongly encouraged, pressured, or even forced sati. Although the standard view of the sati within the justifying tradition is that of the woman who out of moral heroism chooses sati, rather than choosing to enter ascetic widowhood,^[108] Tryambaka is quite clear upon the automatic good effect of sati for the woman who was a bad wife:

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 sin^[109]

Thus, as Leslie puts it, becoming (or being pressured into the role of) a sati was, within Tryambaka's thinking, the only truly effective method of atonement for the bad wife.

Counter-arguments within Hinduism

No early descriptions or criticisms of the practice within Hinduism are known before the Gupta period, as the practice was little known at that time.

Explicit criticisms later in the first millennium, 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,^[8]

Reform and bhakti movements within Hinduism favoured egalitarian societies, and in line with the tenor of these beliefs, generally condemned the practice, sometimes explicitly. The 12th century Virashaiva movement condemned the practice.^[110]

In a petition to the British East India Company in 1818, Ram Mohan Roy wrote that;-

"All these instances are murders according to every shastra."^[111]

The powers of a sati

Once a woman committed herself to become sati, popular belief thought her to become endowed with many supernatural powers. Lourens P. Van Den Bosch enumerates some of them. The sati would gain the powers of prophecy and clairvoyance, as well as the ability to bless women with sons, who had not borne sons before. The gifts from a sati were venerated as valuable relics, and in her journey to the pyre, people would seek to touch her garments in order to benefit from her powers.^[112]

Non-Hindu views and criticisms

European artists in the eighteenth century produced many images for their own native markets, showing the widows as heroic women, and moral exemplars.^[113]

Europeans also showed a change in their attitudes regarding local customs as their home countries 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 spread Christianity throughout the 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.

In her article "Can the Subaltern Speak?" philosopher Gayatri Spivak discusses how sati takes the form of regulating women in pre-colonial India according to Hindu law, and how sati takes the form of imprisoning women in the double bind of self-expression attributed to mental illness and social rejection, or of self-incrimination according to British colonial law.^[114] The woman who commits sati takes the form of the subaltern in Spivak's work, a form much of postcolonial studies takes very seriously.

See also

• Ritual suicide
• Deorala

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.^[46][115]

References and comments

Further reading

• Mani, L. (1987). Contentious traditions: the debate on sati in colonial India. Cultural Critique, (7), 119-156.
• Mani, L. (1998). Contentious traditions: The debate on sati in colonial India. Univ of California Press.
• Sangari, K., & Vaid, S. (1981). Sati in Modern India: a report. Economic and Political Weekly, 1284-1288.
• Zechenter, E. M. (1997). In the name of culture: Cultural relativism and the abuse of the individual. Journal of Anthropological Research, 319-347.
• Garzilli, Enrica (August 1997). "First Greek and Latin Documents on Sahagamana and Some Connected Problems (Part 1)". Indo-Iranian Journal 40 (3). 
• Garzilli, Enrica (October 1997). "First Greek and Latin Documents on Sahagamana and Some Connected Problems (Part 2)". Indo-Iranian Journal 40 (4). 
• Hawley, John Stratton, ed. (1994). Sati, the blessing and the curse: the burning of wives in India. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-507774-2. 
• Kane, M. P. V. (1953). History of Dharmashastra IV. Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. 
• Nand, L. C. (1989). Women in Delhi Sultanate. Allahabad: Vohra Publishers and Distributors. 
• Shastri, Shakuntala Rao (1960). Women in the Sacred Laws. The later law books. 
• Singh, Nagendra Kr. (2000). Ambedkar on religion. New Delhi: Anmol Publications. ISBN 81-261-0503-8. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sati.

• Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987. Official text of the Act on Government of India's National Resource Centre for Women (NCRW)
• Maja Daruwala, A History of Sati Legislation in India, People's Union for Civil Liberties.

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