For other uses, see Sati (disambiguation).
For other uses, see Sati (disambiguation).
Satī (
DevanagariDevanagari |deva]]" and "nāgarī" ), also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal...
: सती, the feminine of
sat "true"; also called
suttee) was a religious
funeralA funeral is a ceremony for celebrating, sanctifying, or remembering the life of a person who has died. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from interment itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honor...
practice among some
IndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n communities in which a recently
widowA widow is a woman whose spouse has died, while a widower is a man whose spouse has died. The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed widowhood or occasionally viduity. The adjective form is widowed...
ed woman either voluntarily or by use of force and coercion would have
immolated herselfSelf-immolation refers to setting oneself on fire, often as a form of protest or for the purposes of martyrdom or suicide. It has centuries-long traditions in some cultures, while in modern times it has become a type of radical political protest...
on her husband’s funeral
pyreA pyre , also known as a funeral pyre, is a structure, usually made of wood, for burning a body as part of a funeral rite...
. The practice is rare and has been outlawed in India since 1829.
The term is derived from the original name of the goddess Sati, also known as
DakshayaniDākshāyani or Satī is a Hindu Goddess of marital felicity and longevity. She is worshipped particularly by Hindu women to seek the long life of their husbands...
, who self-immolated because she was unable to bear her father
DakshaIn Hinduism, Daksha, "the skilled one", is an ancient creator god, one of the Prajapatis, the Rishis and the Adityas. Daksha is said to be the son of Aditi and Brahma...
's humiliation of her (living) husband
ShivaShiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...
. 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 empireThe Gupta Empire was an ancient Indian empire which existed approximately from 320 to 550 CE and covered much of the Indian Subcontinent. Founded by Maharaja Sri-Gupta, the dynasty was the model of a classical civilization. The peace and prosperity created under leadership of Guptas enabled the...
, approximately 400 AD. After about this time, instances of
sati began to be marked by inscribed memorial stones. The earliest of these are found in Sagar,
Madhya PradeshMadhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and Indore is the largest city....
, though the largest collections date from several centuries later, and are found in
RajasthanRājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
. 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.
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.
Widows did this because it was supposed to cast away any sins the husband had committed, making him able to have a happy afterlife. This was voluntary for the widow, but they were put under much pressure to do it and were looked upon as a bad person if they didn’t go through with it.
Some instances of voluntary
self-immolationSelf-immolation refers to setting oneself on fire, often as a form of protest or for the purposes of martyrdom or suicide. It has centuries-long traditions in some cultures, while in modern times it has become a type of radical political protest...
by both women and men that may be regarded as at least partly historical accounts are included in the
MahabharataThe Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....
and other works. However, large portions of these works are relatively late interpolations into an original story, rendering difficult their use for reliable dating. Also, neither immolation nor the desire for self-immolation are regarded as a custom in the Mahabharata. Use of the term 'sati' to describe the custom of self-immolation never occurs in the Mahabarata, unlike other customs such as the
RajasuyaRajasuya was a sacrifice, described in detail in the Mahabharata, performed by the ancient kings of India who considered themselves powerful enough to be an emperor...
yagna. Rather, the self-immolations are viewed as an expression of extreme grief at the loss of a beloved one.
The ritual has prehistoric roots, and many parallels from other cultures are known. Compare for example the
ship burialA ship burial or boat grave is a burial in which a ship or boat is used either as a container for the dead and the grave goods, or as a part of the grave goods itself. If the ship is very small, it is called a boat grave...
of the
Rus'The Rus' were a group of Varangians . According to the Primary Chronicle of Rus, compiled in about 1113 AD, the Rus had relocated from the Baltic region , first to Northeastern Europe, creating an early polity which finally came under the leadership of Rurik...
described by Ibn Fadlan, where a female slave is burned with her master.
Aristobulus of CassandreiaFor other use, see AristobulusAristobulus of Cassandreia , Greek historian, son of Aristobulus, probably a Phocian settled inCassandreia, accompanied Alexander the Great on his campaigns...
, a
GreekAncient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
historian who traveled to India with the expedition of
Alexander the Great, recorded the practice of
sati at the city of
TaxilaTaxila is a Tehsil in the Rawalpindi District of Punjab province of Pakistan. It is an important archaeological site.Taxila is situated about northwest of Islamabad Capital Territory and Rawalpindi in Panjab; just off the Grand Trunk Road...
. A later instance of voluntary co-cremation appears in an account of an Indian soldier in the army of
EumenesEumenes of Cardia was a Thracian general and scholar. He participated in the wars of the Diadochi as a supporter of the Macedonian Argead royal house.-Career:...
of Cardia, whose two wives vied to die on his funeral pyre, in 316 BC. The Greeks believed that the practice had been instituted to discourage wives from poisoning their old husbands.
Voluntary death at funerals has been described in northern India before the Gupta empire. The original practices were called
anumaranaVoluntary death at funerals has been described in northern India before the Gupta empire. The original practices were called anumarana, and were uncommon...
, and were uncommon. Anumarana was not comparable to later understandings of
sati, since the practices were not restricted to widows — rather, anyone, male or female, with personal loyalty to the deceased could commit suicide at a loved one's funeral. These included the deceased's relatives, servants, followers, or friends. Sometimes these deaths stemmed from vows of loyalty, and bear a slight resemblance to the later tradition of
seppukuis a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. Seppuku was originally reserved only for samurai. Part of the samurai bushido honor code, seppuku was either used voluntarily by samurai to die with honor rather than fall into the hands of their enemies , or as a form of capital punishment...
in Japan.
It is theorized that sati, enforced widowhood, and girl marriage were customs that were primarily intended to solve the problem of surplus women and surplus men in a caste and to maintain its
endogamyEndogamy is the practice of marrying within a specific ethnic group, class, or social group, rejecting others on such basis as being unsuitable for marriage or other close personal relationships. A Greek Orthodox Christian endogamist, for example, would require that a marriage be only with another...
.
Mughal period
During the Mughal rule, sati became more widely practised, especially in the north.
HumayunNasir ud-din Muhammad Humayun was the second Mughal Emperor who ruled present day Afghanistan, Pakistan, and parts of northern India from 1530–1540 and again from 1555–1556. Like his father, Babur, he lost his kingdom early, but with Persian aid, he eventually regained an even larger one...
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 choose to die once the emotions of the moment had passed. In the reign of
Shah Jahan Shah Jahan Shah Jahan (also spelled Shah Jehan, Shahjehan, , Persian: شاه جهان) (January 5, 1592 – January 22, 1666) Shah Jahan (also spelled Shah Jehan, Shahjehan, , Persian: شاه جهان) (January 5, 1592 – January 22, 1666) (Full title: His Imperial Majesty Al-Sultan al-'Azam wal Khaqan...
, widows with children were not allowed to burn under any circumstances . 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 following the practice. The later Moghul rulers continued to put obstacles in the way but the practice still persisted in areas outside their capitals.
Guru Nanak, the first Guru of the Sikhs spoke out against the practice of sati.
The strongest attempts under the Mughals to control it were made by
AurangzebAbul Muzaffar Muhy-ud-Din Muhammad Aurangzeb Alamgir , more commonly known as Aurangzeb or by his chosen imperial title Alamgir , was the sixth Mughal Emperor of India, whose reign lasted from 1658 until his death in 1707.Badshah Aurangzeb, having ruled most of the Indian subcontinent for nearly...
. In 1663, he "issued an order that in all lands under Mughal control, never again should the officials allow a woman to be burnt". Despite such attempts however, the practice continued, especially during periods 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
GoaGoa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...
by about 1515, though it is not believed to have been especially prevalent there. The Dutch and the French also banned it in Chinsurah and Pondicherry. The British who by then ruled much of the subcontinent, and the Danes, who held the small territories of
TranquebarTharangambadi is a panchayat town in Nagapattinam district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, 15 km north of Karaikal, near the mouth of a distributary of the Kaveri River. Its name means "place of the singing waves"...
and
SeramporeSerampore is a city and a municipality in Hooghly district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority. It is a pre-colonial town on the right bank of the Hoogli River...
, permitted it until 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 CompanyThe East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
. 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 WilberforceWilliam Wilberforce was a British politician, a philanthropist and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. A native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780, eventually becoming the independent Member of Parliament for Yorkshire...
, 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, and the Bengal Presidency started collecting figures on the practice in 1813.
The leader of the burgeoning Swaminarayan sect, Sahajanand Swami, was influential in the eventual eradication of sati. He argued that the practice had no Vedic standing and only God could take a life he had given. He also argued that widows could lead a life that would eventually lead to salvation. Governor Malcolm supported Sahajanand in this endeavor, whose domino effect led to other social reforms.
From about 1812, the Bengali reformer Raja Rammohan Roy started his own campaign against the practice. He was motivated by the experience of seeing his own sister-in-law being forced to 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 PresidencyThe Bengal Presidency originally comprising east and west Bengal, was a colonial region of the British Empire in South-Asia and beyond it. It comprised areas which are now within Bangladesh, and the present day Indian States of West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Meghalaya, Orissa and Tripura.Penang and...
lands, by the then governor,
Lord William BentinckLieutenant-General Lord William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck GCB, GCH, PC , known as Lord William Bentinck, was a British soldier and statesman...
. The ban was challenged in the courts, and the matter went to the
Privy CouncilA privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the monarch's closest advisors to give confidential advice on...
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.
JaipurJaipur , also popularly known as the Pink City, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. Founded on 18 November 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amber, the city today has a population of more than 3.1 million....
, banned the practice in 1846. Nepal continued to practice Sati well into the 20th century.
On the Indonesian island of
BaliBali is an Indonesian island located in the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east...
,
sati (known as
masatya) was practised by the aristocracy as late as 1905, until Dutch colonial rule pushed for its termination.
Modern times
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 guilty. 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.
Another instance of systematic Sati happened in 1973, when Savitri Soni sacrificed her life with her husband in Kotadi village of Sikar District in Rajasthan. Thousands of people saw this incident.
Following the outcry after the
Sati of
Roop KanwarRoop Kanwar was an 18-year old Rajput woman who committed sati on 4 September 1987 at Deorala village of Sikar district in Rajasthan, India. At the time of her death, she had been married for eight months to Maal Singh Shekhawat, who had died a day earlier at age 24, and had no children.Several...
, the Indian Government enacted the Rajasthan Sati Prevention Ordinance, 1987 on October 1, 1987 and later passed the Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987.
The
Prevention of Sati Act makes it illegal to abet, glorify or attempt to commit Sati. Abetment of Sati, including coercing or forcing someone to commit Sati can be punished by
death sentenceCapital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
or
life imprisonmentLife imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
, while glorifying Sati is punishable with 1–7 years in prison.
However, enforcement of these measures is not always consistent. The National Council for Women (NCW) has suggested amendments to the law to remove some of these flaws. Prohibitions of certain practices, such as worship at ancient shrines, is a matter of controversy.
Although many have tried to prevent the act of sati by banning it and reinforcing laws against it, it is still being practiced (on rare occasions) in India under coercion or by voluntary burning, as in the case of Charan Shah: a 55 year-old widow of Manshah burnt herself on the pyre of her husband in the village of Satpura in Utar Pradesh on 11th November 1999. Her death on the funeral pyre is surrounded by much controversy since questions of whether she willingly performed the Sati or not were being asked. Charan Shah did not profess strong feelings to becoming a Sati to any of her family members and no one saw her close to the burning body of her husband before she jumped into the fire. The villagers, including her sons, state that she became a Sati of her own accord and that she was not forced into it. They continue to pay their respects to the house of Charan Shah since it has become a shrine for them since they strongly believe that one who has become a sati is a deity and she is worshipped and endowed with gifts.
Practice
The Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act of 1987 Part I, Section 2(c) defines
Sati as:
The burning or burying alive of – 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 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 other-wise
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.
Traditionally, a person's funeral would have occurred within a day of the death, requiring decisions about
sati to be made by that time. When the husband died elsewhere, the widow might still die by immolation at a later date.
Sati often emphasized the marriage between the widow and her deceased husband. For instance, rather than mourning clothes, the to-be
sati was often dressed in marriage robes or other finery. In the preliminaries of the related act of
JauharJauhar and Saka refer to the ancient Indian tradition of honorary self immolation of women and subsequent march of men to the battle field to end their life with respect. It was followed by the Rajput clans in order to avoid capture and dishonour at the hands of their enemies...
(or Saka), 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.
Accounts describe numerous variants in the sati ritual. The majority of accounts describe the woman seated or lying down on the funeral pyre beside her dead husband. Many other accounts describe women walking or jumping into the flames after the fire had been lit, and some describe women seating themselves on the funeral pyre and then lighting it themselves.
Some written instructions for the ritual exist. For instance, the
Yallajeeyam provides detailed instructions about who may commit sati, cleansing for the sati, positioning, attire, and other ritual aspects.
Compulsion
Sati was supposed to be voluntary, but it is known that it has often been forced. Setting aside the issue of social pressures, many accounts exist of
women being physically forcedForced suicide is a method of execution where the victim is coerced into committing suicide to avoid facing an alternative option they perceive as much worse, such as suffering torture or having friends or family members imprisoned, tortured, or killed...
to their deaths.
Pictorial and narrative accounts often describe the widow being seated on the unlit pyre, and then tied or otherwise restrained to keep her from fleeing after the fire was lit. Some accounts state that the woman was drugged. One account describes men using long poles to prevent a woman 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
RajasthanRājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
.
Maharani Raj Rajeshwari DeviMaharani Raj Rajeshwari Devi , was a Queen consort and twice regent of Nepal. She was married to Rana Bahadur Shah and mother of Girvan Yuddha Bikram Shah Deva....
of
NepalNepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
became regent in 1799 in the name of her son,
Girvan Yuddha Bikram Shah DevaGirvan Yuddha Bikram Shah Deva, King of Nepal , also called Girvanyuddha Bikrama Shah, was the King of Nepal from 1799 to 1816....
, after the abdication of her husband,
Rana Bahadur ShahRana Bahadur Shah, King of Nepal was the third King of greater Nepal. He succeeded to the throne in 1777 on the death of his father, Pratap Singh Shah. He ruled under the regencies of his mother, Queen Rajendra Laxmi and then of his uncle, 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.
Symbolic sati
There have been accounts of symbolic
sati in some
HinduHindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
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
RajputA Rajput is a member of one of the patrilineal clans of western, central, northern India and in some parts of Pakistan. Rajputs are descendants of one of the major ruling warrior classes in the Indian subcontinent, particularly North India...
practice of
JauharJauhar and Saka refer to the ancient Indian tradition of honorary self immolation of women and subsequent march of men to the battle field to end their life with respect. It was followed by the Rajput clans in order to avoid capture and dishonour at the hands of their enemies...
, known from
RajasthanRājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
and
Madhya PradeshMadhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and Indore is the largest city....
was the collective suicide of a community facing certain defeat in a battle against Muslims. Unlike battles between Hindu kings, where non combatants, especially women, were not harmed, Muslims followed Sharia in considering women of the losing kingdom as property.
To prevent themselves from falling in Muslim marauders hands and to preserve their honour, many women self immolated themselves, after it was evident that the men folk had died and the battle had been lost.
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.
Burials
In some Hindu communities, it is conventional to bury the dead. Deaths of widows have been known to occur in these communities, with the widow being buried alive beside her husband, in ceremonies that are largely the same as those performed in an immolation.
Prevalence
Records of
sati exist 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 CompanyThe East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
. The total figure of known occurrences for the period 1813 to 1828 is 8,135; another source gives a comparable number of 7,941 from 1815 to 1828, thus giving an average of about 507 to 567 documented incidents per year in that period. Raja Ram Mohan Roy estimated that there were ten times as many cases of Sati in Bengal compared to the rest of the country. 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).
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, and little known or unknown in the lowest castes. 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 southern matrilineal societies of Kerala and the Tulu regions. In Karnataka and Tamil Nadu however, the cult of Veeramastis was common.
Regional variations
It was known in
RajasthanRājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
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.
It is known to have occurred in the south from the 9th century through the period of the
Vijayanagara empireThe Vijayanagara Empire , referred as the Kingdom of Bisnaga by the Portuguese, was an empire based in South Indian in the Deccan Plateau region. It was established in 1336 by Harihara I and his brother Bukka Raya I of the Yadava lineage. The empire rose to prominence as a culmination of attempts...
. 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. In one instance more than fifty women committed Sati in
VijayanagaraVijayanagara is in Bellary District, northern Karnataka. It is the name of the now-ruined capital city "which was regarded as the second Rome" that surrounds modern-day Hampi, of the historic Vijayanagara empire which extended over the southern part of India....
after the
Battle of TalikotaThe Battle of Talikota , a watershed battle fought between the Vijayanagara Empire and the Deccan sultanates, resulted in a rout of Vijayanagara, and ended the last great Hindu kingdom in South India...
. In North-western Karnataka about fifteen sati stones brought from Vijayanagara can be found. The actual immolation of widows might have taken place elsewhere. The relatives of Sati when they migrated took Sati stones along with them and resurrected at their new abodes. 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. 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. This was during the earlier period of British rule, and before its formal abolition. The Bengal Presidency kept records from 1813 to 1829. The frequency increased in periods of hardship and famine.
Ram Mohan RoyRaja Ram Mohan Roy was an Indian religious, social, and educational reformer who challenged traditional Hindu culture and indicated the lines of progress for Indian society under British rule. He is sometimes called the father of modern India...
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,
sati has been largely confined to
RajasthanRājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
, mostly in or near
ShekhawatiShekhawati is a semi-arid historical region located in the northeast part of Rajasthan, India got its name from Shekhawat Rajputs....
, with a few instances in the Gangetic plain.
Current incidence
Sati still occurs, albeit rarely, in the rural areas. A well documented case from 1987 was that of 18-year old
Roop KanwarRoop Kanwar was an 18-year old Rajput woman who committed sati on 4 September 1987 at Deorala village of Sikar district in Rajasthan, India. At the time of her death, she had been married for eight months to Maal Singh Shekhawat, who had died a day earlier at age 24, and had no children.Several...
. In response to this incident, some more recent legislation against the practice was passed, first by the state government of Rajasthan, then by the central government of India.
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. 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.
On 21 August 2006, Janakrani, a 40-year-old woman, burnt to death on the funeral pyre of her husband Prem Narayan in Sagar district. On October 11, 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.
Veeramasti/ Veeramathi cult
In Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, particularly in the
Kongu NaduKongu Nadu is a region comprising the western part of the Tamil Nadu India. The region is bounded on the west and north-west by the Karnataka state, on the west by the Kerala state, on the east by Tondai Nadu, on the south-east by Chola Nadu and on the south by Madurai regions of...
region, there are numerous temples for
Veeramasthis (Tamil: வீரமாஸ்தி, வீரமாத்தி, Kannada: ವೀರಮಾಸ್ತಿ) or literally the brave ones, who perish on the funeral pyre (Tamil: உடன்கட்டை) of their deceased husbands. Even Sangam literature contains many such references. All such incidences are purely voluntary and the women may choose to live as a widow. Thousands of such temples are scattered throughout this region. People show the highest degree of veneration to such temples.
Justifications and criticisms
BrahminBrahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...
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 empireThe Vijayanagara Empire , referred as the Kingdom of Bisnaga by the Portuguese, was an empire based in South Indian in the Deccan Plateau region. It was established in 1336 by Harihara I and his brother Bukka Raya I of the Yadava lineage. The empire rose to prominence as a culmination of attempts...
, according to Shastri, who quotes their reasoning. It was lauded by them as required conduct in righteous 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
pietyIn spiritual terminology, piety is a virtue that can mean religious devotion, spirituality, or a combination of both. A common element in most conceptions of piety is humility.- Etymology :...
, 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 also justification in the later work of the Brihaspati Smriti (25-11). Both this and the Vishnu Smriti date from the first millennium.
The
Manu Smriti' , also known as Mānava-Dharmaśāstra , is the most important and earliest metrical work of the Dharmaśāstra textual tradition of Hinduism...
is often regarded as the culmination of classical Hindu lawby whom?, 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
SatiDākshāyani or Satī is a Hindu Goddess of marital felicity and longevity. She is worshipped particularly by Hindu women to seek the long life of their husbands...
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
PuranasThe Puranas are a genre of important Hindu, Jain and Buddhist religious texts, notably consisting of narratives of the history of the universe from creation to destruction, genealogies of kings, heroes, sages, and demigods, and descriptions of Hindu cosmology, philosophy, and geography.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
Indra' or is the King of the demi-gods or Devas and Lord of Heaven or Svargaloka in Hindu mythology. He is also the God of War, Storms, and Rainfall.Indra is one of the chief deities in the Rigveda...
s, i.e. a
kalpaKalpa is a small town in the Sutlej river valley, above Recong Peo in the Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh, Northern India, in the Indian Himalaya. Inhabited by Kinnauri people and famous for its apple orchards. Apples are a major cash-crop for the region...
.
According to Ramashraya Sharma, there is no conclusive evidence of the sati practice in the
RamayanaThe Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon , considered to be itihāsa. The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India and Nepal, the other being the Mahabharata...
.
TaraIn the Hindu epic Ramayana, Tara is the Queen of Kishkindha and wife of the monkey King Vali. After being widowed, she becomes the Queen of Sugriva, Vali's brother. Tara's intelligence, presence of mind, courage, and devotion to her husband is praised...
,
MandodariMandodari is the Queen Consort of Ravana, the demon king of Lanka, according to the Hindu epic Ramayana. The Ramayana describes Mandodari as beautiful, pious, and righteous...
and the widows of Dasharatha, all live after their respective husband's death, though all of them announce their wish to die, while lamenting for their husband. In fact, the first two remarry their brother-in-law respectively. The only instance of sati appears in the
Uttara Kanda - believed to be a later addition to the original text - where
KushadhwajaKushadhwaja, was a younger brother of Janaka, the father of Sita, the heroine of Ramayan. He ruled the kingdom of Benares. He had two daughters, Mandavi and Shrutakeerti who were wedded to Bharata and Shratughna, the brothers of Lord Rama and sons of Dasaratha.Sudhanva, supposedly an evil king of...
's wife performs sati. The Telugu adaptation of the Ramayana, the 14th century Ranganatha Ramayana presents
SulochanaSulochana was the daughter of the King of the Serpents Shesha Naga, who is mentioned in the Indian epic Ramayana. She was married to Indrajit who was the son of demon king Ravana, who defeated Indra, hence received his title....
wife of
IndrajitIndrajit or Meghanatha , a warrior mentioned in the Indian epic Ramayana, was the son of the Lankan king Ravana. The word 'Indrajit' literally means the 'conqueror of Indra '....
became sati on his funeral pyre.
In the
MahabharataThe Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....
,
MadriIn the Mahābhārata epic, Madri was a princess of the Madra kingdom and the second wife of Pandu.On his way to Hastinapur, King Pandu encountered the army of Shalya, King of Madra. Very soon, Pandu and Shalya became friends and Shalya gave his only sister, Madri to Pandu, as a gift of their...
, the second wife of
PanduIn the Mahābhārata epic, King Pandu is the son of Ambalika and Rishi Ved Vyasa. He is more popularly known as the father of the Pandavas and ruled Hastinapur.-Birth:...
, 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. However, this may be a much later addition to the Mahabharata as the entire epic as it exists now was written and modified over millennia.
Passages in the Atharva Veda, including 13.3.1, offer advice to the widow on mourning and her life after widowhood, including her remarriage.
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
Ghee is a class of clarified butter that originated in South Asia and is commonly used in South Asian cuisine....
(applied) as collyriumIn eye care, a collyrium is a lotion or liquid wash used as a cleanser for the eyes, particularly in diseases of the eye. The word collyrium comes from the Greek , eye-salve....
(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' (
yoniYoni is the Sanskrit word for the vagina. Its counterpart is the lingam as interpreted by some, the phallus.It is also the divine passage, womb or sacred temple...
, 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 agree "foremost to the
yoni", was deliberately changed by those who wished claim scriptural justification, to a word that meant fire,
yomiagne.
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,
Another critic was Bana, who wrote during the reign of
HarshaHarsha or Harsha Vardhana or Harshvardhan was an Indian emperor who ruled northern India from 606 to 647 AD. He was the son of Prabhakara Vardhana and younger brother of Rajya Vardhana, a king of Thanesar, Haryana...
. Bana condemned it both as suicide, and as a pointless and futile act.
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
AlvarsThe alwar or azhwars were Tamil poet saints of south India who lived between the sixth and ninth centuries A.D. and espoused ‘emotional devotion’ or bhakti to Visnu-Krishna in their songs of longing, ecstasy and service. Sri Vaishnava orthodoxy posits the number of alvars as ten, though there are...
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 RoyRaja Ram Mohan Roy was an Indian religious, social, and educational reformer who challenged traditional Hindu culture and indicated the lines of progress for Indian society under British rule. He is sometimes called the father of modern India...
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
SikhA Sikh is a follower of Sikhism. It primarily originated in the 15th century in the Punjab region of South Asia. The term "Sikh" has its origin in Sanskrit term शिष्य , meaning "disciple, student" or शिक्ष , meaning "instruction"...
religion explicitly prohibited the practice since Sikhism's origin.
The principal early foreign visitors to the subcontinent who left records of the practice, were from Western Asia, Central Asian and later on, Europeans. Both groups were fascinated by the practice, and they sometimes described it as horrific, but they also often described it as an incomparable act of devotion.
Ibn BattutaAbu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta , or simply Ibn Battuta, also known as Shams ad–Din , was a Muslim Moroccan Berber explorer, known for his extensive travels published in the Rihla...
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, opinions about sati changed and it was increasingly regarded as a barbaric practice. The earliest known governmental efforts to halt the practice were undertaken by foreign Turkic rulers, including Muhammad Tughlaq.
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
PortuguesePortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
in
GoaGoa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...
. 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. The practice of
sati, and its later legal abolition by the British (along with the suppression of the
thuggeeThuggee is the term for a particular kind of murder and robbery of travellers in South Asia and particularly in India.They are sometimes called Phansigar i.e...
) 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
NapierGeneral Sir Charles James Napier, GCB , was a general of the British Empire and the British Army's Commander-in-Chief in India, notable for conquering the Sindh Province in what is now Pakistan.- His genealogy :...
-
- "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."
In her article "Can the Subaltern Speak?", Gayatri Spivak, then an English professor at
Columbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, discusses whether sati can be a form of self-expression by women who cannot demonstrate their independence in any other manner.
Cultural references
A sati attempt features in the novel
Sea of PoppiesSea of Poppies is a novel by Indian novelist Amitav Ghosh which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2008. It is the first volume of what will be the Ibis trilogy....
by
Amitav GhoshAmitav Ghosh , is a Bengali Indian author best known for his work in the English language.-Life:Ghosh was born in Calcutta on July 11, 1956, to Lieutenant Colonel Shailendra Chandra Ghosh, a retired officer of the pre-independence Indian Army, and was educated at The Doon School; St...
.
Dramatic events at a royal sati occur near the end of the novel and mini-series
The Far PavilionsThe Far Pavilions is an epic novel of British-Indian history by M. M. Kaye, first published in 1978, which tells the story of an English officer during the Great Game. The novel, rooted deeply in the romantic epics of the 19th century, has been hailed as a masterpiece of storytelling...
by M.M. Kaye
In
Around the World in Eighty DaysAround the World in Eighty Days is a classic adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, first published in 1873. In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employed French valet Passepartout attempt to circumnavigate the world in 80 days on a £20,000 wager set by his friends at the...
by
Jules VerneJules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
,
Phileas FoggPhileas Fogg is the main fictional character in the 1873 Jules Verne novel Around the World in Eighty Days.Fogg attempts to circumnavigate the late Victorian world in eighty days, or less, for a wager of £20,000 with members of London's Reform Club. He takes the wager and leaves with Passepartout,...
and his accomplice
PassepartoutJean Passepartout is a character in Jules Verne's novel, Around the World in Eighty Days. He is the French valet to the novel's English protagonist, Phileas Fogg...
successfully rescue a young
ParsiParsi or Parsee refers to a member of the larger of the two Zoroastrian communities in South Asia, the other being the Irani community....
woman,
AoudaAouda, a fictional character in Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne, is an Indian princess rescued by Phileas Fogg and Passepartout when she is about to be sacrificed by Hindu monks as a suttee at the funeral of her former Hindu husband, who is the erstwhile ruler of an Indian princely...
from an enforced sati ritual in India.
In an episode of Highlander: The Series, Duncan MacLeod (played by Adrian Paul) rescues a woman attempting Sati in a flashback to his time in British controlled India. He appeared horrified at the attempt despite his being a local guide and liaison between the Indians and their colonial rulers.
Rudyard KiplingJoseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
's poem The Last Suttee describes a royal widow sneaking from the palace in disguise after her husband's death. Upon reaching the pyre, she loses courage and asks her cousin (who does not know her through her disguise) to kill her so she may join her husband in death. He complies and her body is immolated on the fire.
See also
- Raja Ram Mohan Roy
- Aurangzeb
Abul Muzaffar Muhy-ud-Din Muhammad Aurangzeb Alamgir , more commonly known as Aurangzeb or by his chosen imperial title Alamgir , was the sixth Mughal Emperor of India, whose reign lasted from 1658 until his death in 1707.Badshah Aurangzeb, having ruled most of the Indian subcontinent for nearly...
- Self-immolation
Self-immolation refers to setting oneself on fire, often as a form of protest or for the purposes of martyrdom or suicide. It has centuries-long traditions in some cultures, while in modern times it has become a type of radical political protest...
- Women in Hinduism
The role of women in Hinduism is often disputed, and positions range from equal status with men to restrictive. Hinduism is based on numerous texts, some of which date back to 2000 BCE or earlier. They are varied in authority, authenticity, content and theme, with the most authoritative being the...
- Hindu Goddess
- Ritual suicide
- Deorala
Deorala is a village in the Sikar district of Rajasthan, India.Deorala is a village in Shekhawati region. It is located near Amarsar which was the capital of Maharao Shekhaji, ancientor of all Shekhawat rajputs....
Further reading
- Nagendra Kr. Singh(2000). Ambedkar on religion; New Delhi: Anmol Publications, ISBN 81-261-0503-8.
- Shastri, Shakuntala Rao. Women in the Sacred Laws. - The later law books. 1960.
- M.P.V.Kane History of Dharmashastra, Vol. IV, Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute
The Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute is located in Pune, Maharashtra, India. It was founded on July 6, 1917 to honor the life and work of Dr. Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar , long regarded as the founder of Indology in India...
. 1953
- L. C. Nand Women in Delhi Sultanate, Vohra Publishers and Distributors Allahabad 1989
- Enrica Garzilli, "First Greek and Latin Documents on Sahagamana and Some Connected Problems", part 1, in Indo-Iranian Journal, 40/3 August 1997, part 2 in Indo-Iranian Journal, 40/4 October 1997
External links
- Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987. Official text of the Act on Government of India
The Government of India, officially known as the Union Government, and also known as the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of the union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...
's National Resource Centre for Women (NCRW) Website.
- Maja Daruwala, A History of Sati Legislation in India, People's Union for Civil Liberties Website.
- About the Sati rite as described by Srila Prabhupada