Sati (practice)

Satī (Devanagari: सती, the feminine of sat "true") (also suttee) was a Hindu funeral custom, now abolished, in ancient India,

Symbolic sati

There have been accounts of symbolic sati in some Hindu communities. A widow lies down next to her dead husband, and certain parts of both the marriage ceremony and the funeral ceremonies are enacted, but without her death. ^[5]

Jauhar

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

Burials

In some Hindu communities, it is conventional to bury the dead. It has been known for similar widow deaths to occur in these communities, but with the widow being buried alive with the husband, in ceremonies that are otherwise largely as in the immolation.^[6]

Prevalence

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

Numbers

There are no reliable figures for the numbers who died by sati across the country. A local indication of the numbers is given in the records kept by the Bengal Presidency of the British East India Company. The total figure of known occurrences for the period 1813 to 1828 is 8,135^[7], thus giving an average of about 600 per year. Bentinck, in his 1829 report, states that 420 occurrences took place in one (unspecified) year in the 'Lower Provinces' of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, and 44 in the 'Upper Provinces' (the upper Gangetic plain)^[8]. Given a population of over 50 million at the time for the Presidency, this suggests a maximum frequency of immolation among widows of well under 1%.

Communities

It is said by some authorities that the practice was more common among the higher castes, and among those who considered themselves to be rising in social status. It was little known or unknown in most of the population of India and the tribal groups^[9]. According to at least one source, it was very rare for anyone in the later Mughal empire except royal wives to be burnt.^[10]

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

Regional variations

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

It is known to have occurred in the south from the 9th century through the period of the Vijayanagara empire. Madhavacharya, who is probably the best known of those historical figures who justified the practice, was originally a minister of the court of this empire. The practice continued to occur after the collapse of the empire, though apparently at a fairly low frequency. A record exists of a minister of the kingdom of Mysore giving permission for a widow to commit sati in 1805.^[11]

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

In the Lower Gangetic plain, the practice may have reached a high level fairly late in history. it appears possible, based on available evidence and the existing reports of the occurrences of it, that the greatest incidence of sati in any region and period, in terms of total numbers, occurred in Bengal and Bihar in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.^[12] This was during the earlier period of British rule, and before the abolition. The Bengal Presidency kept records from 1813 to 1829. The frequency increased in periods of hardship and famine. Ram Mohan Roy suggested that it was more prevalent in Bengal than in the rest of the subcontinent. An unusually large number of the surviving reports for this period are from Bengal, also suggesting that it was most common there.

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

Recent incidence

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

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

On 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.

Justifications and criticisms

Brahmin scholars of the second millennium justified the practice, and gave reasonings as to how the scriptures could be said to justify them. Among them were Vijnanesvara, of the Chalukya court, and later Madhavacharya, theologian and minister of the court of the Vijayanagara empire, according to Shastri, who quotes their reasoning. It was lauded by them as 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 piety, and was said to purge the couple of all accumulated sin, guarantee their salvation and ensure their reunion in the afterlife.

Law books

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

Now the duties of a woman (are) ... After the death of her husband, to preserve her chastity, or to ascend the pile after him. (Vishnu Smriti, 25-14).^[13]

There is justification also in the later work of the Brihaspati Smriti (25-11)^[14]. Both this and the Vishnu Smriti date from the first millennium.

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

Scriptures

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

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

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

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

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 (applied) as collyrium (to their eyes). Let these wives first step into the pyre, tearless without any affliction and well adorned.^[15]

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

उदीर्ष्व नार्यभि जीवलोकं गतासुमेतमुप शेष एहि |

हस्तग्राभस्य दिधिषोस्तवेदं पत्युर्जनित्वमभि सम्बभूथ || (RV 10.18.8)

Rise, come unto the world of life, O woman — come, he is lifeless by whose side thou liest. Wifehood with this thy husband was thy portion, who took thy hand and wooed thee as a lover.^[16]

A reason given for the discrepancy in translation and interpretation of verse 10.18.7, is that one consonant in a word that meant house, yonim agre "foremost to the yoni", was deliberately changed by those who wished claim scriptural justification, to a word that meant fire, yomiagne. ^[17]

Counter-arguments within Hinduism

No early descriptions or criticisms of the practice within Hinduism, (or in the other native religions of Buddhism or Jainism), 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,^[18]

Another critic was Bana, who wrote during the reign of Harsha. Bana condemned it both as suicide, and as a pointless and futile act. There does not seem to be any thought or suggestion among any of these critics that the act would not be voluntary.^[19]

Reform and bhakti movements within Hinduism tended to be anti-caste, favoured egalitarian societies, and in line with the tenor of these beliefs, they generally condemned the practice, sometimes explicitly. The Alvars condemned sati, in the 8th century^[20]. The Virashaiva movement in the 12th and 13th centuries, also condemned it^[21].

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

Non-Hindu views and criticisms

The Sikh religion explicitly proscribed the practice, by about 1500.^[22]

The principal foreign early visitors to the subcontinent whose have left records of the practice, are from Western Asia, mostly Muslim, and later on, Europeans. Both groups were fascinated by the practice, and sometimes described it as horrific, but often also as an incomparable act of devotion ^[23]. Ibn Battuta described an instance, but said that he collapsed or fainted and had to be carried away from the scene. European artists in the eighteenth century produced many images for their own native markets, showing the widows as heroic women, and moral exemplars.^[24]

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

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

You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.^[25]

In her article "Can the Subaltern Speak?", Gayatri Spivak, an English professor at Columbia University, discusses whether sati can be a form of self-expression by women who cannot demonstrate their independence in any other manner.

Argument that sati was an act of self defence

Hindu scholars such as Prabhat Varun have tried to show that Sati was not part of Hindu doctrine at all, but a practice of voluntary immolation by Hindu women as a means to avoid the humiliation and stigma associated with rape.

Suppression

Mughal period

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

Akbar required that permission be granted by his officials, and these officials were instructed to delay the woman's decision for as long as possible. The reasoning was that she was less likely to chose to die once the emotions of the moment had passed. In the reign of Shah Jahan, widows with children were not allowed in any circumstances to burn. In other cases governors did not readily give permission, but could be bribed to do so^[26]. Later on in the Mughal period, pensions, gifts and rehabilitative help were offered to the potential sati to wean her away from committing the act. Children were strictly forbidden from the practice. The later Moghuls continued to put obstacles in the way but the practice carried on in the areas outside their capitals.

The strongest attempts to control it were made by Aurangzeb. In 1663, he "issued an order that in all lands under Mughal control, never again should the officials allow a woman to be burnt"^[27]. In spite of such attempts however, the practice continued, especially in conditions of war and upheaval.

British and other European territories

By the end of the 18th century, the practice had been banned in territories held by some European powers. The Portuguese banned the practice in Goa by about 1515, though it is not believed to have been especially prevalent there^[28]. The Dutch and the French had also banned it in Chinsurah and Pondicherry. The British who by then ruled much of the subcontinent, and the Danes, who held the small territory of Shrirampur, permitted it into the 19th century.

Attempts to limit or ban the practice had been made by individual British officers in the 18th century, but without the backing of the British East India Company. The first formal British ban was in 1798, in the city of Calcutta only. The practice continued in surrounding regions. Toward the end of the 18th century, the evangelical church in Britain, and its members in India, started campaigns against sati. Leaders of these included William Carey and William Wilberforce, and both appeared to be motivated partly by a desire to convert Indians to Christianity. These movements put pressure on the company to ban the act, and the Bengal Presidency started collecting figures on the practice in 1813.

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

On 4 December, 1829, the practice was formally banned in the Bengal Presidency lands, by the then governor, Lord William Bentinck. The ban was challenged in the courts, and the matter went to the Privy Council in London, but was upheld in 1832. Other company territories also banned it shortly after. Although the original ban in Bengal was fairly uncompromising, later in the century British laws include provisions that provided mitigation for murder when "the person whose death is caused, being above the age of 18 years, suffers death or takes the risk of death with his own consent".^[29]

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

Modern times

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

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

Popular culture references

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

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

George MacDonald Fraser's character Flashman witnesses a mass sati by the wives and concubines of an Indian ruler, Jawaheer, in the Punjab in Flashman and the Mountain of Light, which is set during the First Sikh War. In Flashman in the Great Game, he questions the widowed ruler of Jhansi, Lakshmibai about why she, when her husband died, did not follow the custom; Lakshmibai's response is to ask whether Flashman thinks she is a fool. (While Fraser is normally a most meticulous researcher, whose books are quite accurate on matters of historical fact, the Sikh prohibition on sati mentioned above indicates that, in this case, he may have been in error—or that the Sikhs' prohibition did not apply at this time, or not to royalty.)

Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem entitled "The Last Suttee" in 1889. In this poem, the Boondi Queen escapes her British captors (who are seeking to prevent her carrying out sati, and keep her alive) and throws herself upon her husband's burial fire, to become his foremost queen in the afterlife—"To rule in Heaven his only bride, while the others howl in Hell."

See also

• Self-immolation
• Persecution of Hindus
• Women in Hinduism
• Hindu Goddess
• Forced suicide
• Ritual suicide

References

• Shastri, Shakuntala Rao. Women in the Sacred Laws. - The later law books. 1960.
• M.P.V.Kane History of Dharmasashtra, Vol. IV, Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. 1953
• L. C. Nand Women in Delhi Sultanate, Vohra Publishers and Distributors Allahabad 1989
• E. 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

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.
2. ^ Refs; many, including Yuganta, by Irawati Karve
3. ^ Strabo 15.1.30, 62; Diodorus Siculus 19.33; Sati Was Started For Preserving Caste
4. ^ . Shastri, See References
5. ^ Shastri, See References
6. ^ Letter, Panduranga Joshi Kulkarni is a description by a man who stopped his daughter in law's suicide. This might have been for monetary reasons. Women in World History A project of the Center for History and New Media, George Mason University.
7. ^ See Kamat for two examples
8. ^ Primary Sources: Letter, Francois Bernier Women in World History A project of the Center for History and New Media, George Mason University.
9. ^ The Representation of Sati: Four Eighteenth Century Etchings by Baltazard Solvyns by Robert L. Hardgrave, Jr. - This says 'likely'
10. ^ Women In The Sacred Laws by Shakuntala Rao Shastri The later law - Books: Page 24 Some of these included servants. These should probably all be seen as being in the original tradition of anumarana, perhaps a separate article.
11. ^ Defying blessings of the goddess and the community: Disputes over sati (widow burning) in contemporary India by Masakazu Tanaka. An example in Tamil Sri Lanka.
12. ^ The Representation of Sati: Four Eighteenth Century Etchings by Baltazard Solvyns by Robert L. Hardgrave, Jr.
13. ^ Hindu Bengali Widows Through the Centuries from the Datamation Foundation a non-profit, apolitical, non-partisan registered Charitable Trust (Trust Deed # 3258 dated March 8, 2001) with its head office at Delhi.
14. ^ Modern History Sourcebook: On Ritual Murder in India 1829] by William Bentinck
15. ^ It was little known or unknown in the lowest castes and the tribal groups and elsewhere
    • http://www.vivaaha.org/sati.htm Not available when footnotes constructed
    • The Representation of Sati: Four Eighteenth Century Etchings by Baltazard Solvyns by Robert L. Hardgrave, Jr.
16. ^ John Ovington, A Voyage to Surat "Since the Mahometans became Masters of the Indies, this execrable custom is much abated, and almost laid aside, by the orders which nabobs receive for suppressing and extinguishing it in all their provinces. And now it is very rare, except it be some Rajah's wives, that the Indian women burn at all."
17. ^ The Tradition of Sati Through the Centuries Kamat's potpourri: The Sati System
18. ^ The Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987 (No.3 of 1988) on the web site of the Harvard School of Public Health
19. ^ http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe07/sbe07027.htm
20. ^ quoted from Shastri
21. ^ 3.1 Women in Indo-Aryan Societies:Sati this translation is ascribed to Kane References Pages 199-200
22. ^ http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10018.htm compare alternative translation by Griffith:

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

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

23. ^ http://www.hindu-religion.net/showflat/cat/hinduism/67586/0/collapsed/5/o/1 Hindu-religion.net] copy of The Rigveda: Widows don’t have to burn by O. P. Gupta Publication: The Asian Age Date: October 23, 2002
24. ^ quoted directly from Shastri's book, translation source not given
25. ^ see Shastri, quoted elsewhere
26. ^ The little-known Srivaisnava sect in Tamil Nadu is among the few religious traditions in India that treats women on par with men by Yoginder Sikand, in Communalism Combat February 1999.
27. ^ http://www.lingayat.com/alingayat/alingayat.asp about Lingayat] on lingayat.com
28. ^ Women in Sikhism Sandeep Singh Brar
29. ^ AN INCOMPARABLE PROPHET:Guru Amar Dass (1479-1574) by Sirdar Kapur Singh (National Professor of Sikhism) on the "Gateway to Sikhism".
30. ^ The Representation of Sati: Four Eighteenth Century Etchings by Baltazard Solvyns by Robert L. Hardgrave, Jr. Bengal Past and Present, 117 (1998): 57-80.
31. ^ Charles James Napier
    • Adherents.com: Religious Groups in Literature Sterling, S. M. Island in the Sea of Time. New York: Penguin (1998); pg. 526.
    • Limp liberals fail to protect their most profound values by Polly Toynbee in The Guardian October 10, 2001
32. ^ Defending Religious Freedom in Poland: Polish Catholics Persecute Krishna Worshippers by Ella Serwin and Magdalena Mola on the Poland (VNN). The Vaishnava News Network (VNN) is an independent network of collaborating Vaishnavas worldwide providing the world Vaishnava community with news and forums of communication.
33. ^ Women and Hinduism in U.S. Textbooks by: David Freedholm on Feb 5 2003 on his blog site. backup site
34. ^ Central Sati Act - An analysis by Maja Daruwala is an advocate practising in the Delhi High Court. Courtsy: The Lawyers January 1988. The web site is called "People's Union for Civil Liberties"
35. ^ XVII. Economic and Social Developments under the Mughals from Muslim Civilization in India by S. M. Ikram edited by Ainslie T. Embree New York: Columbia University Press, 1964. This page maintained by Prof. Frances Pritchett, Columbia University
36. ^ Portuguese
    • The Portuguese: Goan History from: Inside Goa by Manohar Malgonkar.
    • To Cherish and to Share: The Goan Christian Heritage Paper presented at the 1991 Conference on Goa at the University of Toronto by: John Correia Afonso S.J. from: "South Asian Studies Papers", no 9; Goa: Goa Continuity and Change; Edited by Narendra K. Wagle and George Coelho; University of Toronto Centre for South Asian Studies 1995
37. ^ Central Sati Act - An analysis by Maja Daruwala is an advocate practising in the Delhi High Court. Courtsy: The Lawyers January 1988. The web site is called "People's Union for Civil Liberties"
38. ^ pp351, Moore, Barrington. Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. Boston: Beacon Press, 1967.
39. ^ Posting at the Yahoo Indology mailing list, quoting the Yallabhatta, a relatively recent work in Telugu.

External links

• Sati prevention act
• "What's up with those Indian widows who commit suttee?" from The Straight Dope