When heated arguments result in the violence of setting a person ablaze, there are appropriate laws today for punishing the culprits. But in an age of no such penal laws, countless widows were burnt to death on their husbands’ funeral pyre. And the ones who threw the innocent widows on fire walked away scot-free, for their act was a mere religious custom, and never a crime those days.
When heated arguments result in the violence of setting a person ablaze, there are appropriate laws today for punishing the culprits. But in an age of no such penal laws, countless widows were burnt to death on their husbands’ funeral pyre. And the ones who threw the innocent widows on fire walked away scot-free, for their act was a mere religious custom, and never a crime those days.
Great social reformer Rajaram Mohan Roy strived hard to put an end to this barbaric religious act called sati and Lord William Bentinck, the Governor-General of India, passed the Bengal Sati Regulation Act, 1829, and made the practice illegal and subject to prosecution. Nevertheless, lessons in history textbooks hardly contain any firsthand account of the untold pains of a widow, which she experiences minutes before she was burnt alive on her husband’s funeral pyre.
The book A Description of the Character, Manners, and Customs of the people of India and of their institutions Religious and Civil authored by Abbe J A Dubois, a French Catholic missionary in India, is a firsthand account of the customs and ceremonies including the sati in South India as he had seen them in person.
While narrating one such incident in 1794 in a village called Podupettah in the then Tanjore, the Abbe writes in his book:
“A man of some note there, of the tribe of Komati or Merchants, having died, his wife then about thirty years of age, resolved to accompany him to the pile, to be consumed together. The news having quickly spread around, a large concourse of people collected from all quarters to witness the extraordinary spectacle”
The young widow, who has worn valuable ornaments, follows her dead husband on a palanquin. As the funeral procession moves, the surrounding multitude stretches out their hands towards the widow in token of their admiration. The women go near her to receive her blessing and the 'happy' widow wishes one of them that she would beget many beautiful children. The widow’s face was serene and cheerful, but only until the procession reaches the fatal pyre. Now, gazing at the pyre, she turns pensive, trembles with fear and her face grows pale. She seems ready to faint away.
Her nearest relations take her to a nearby pond and lead her to the pyre, on which, the body of her husband was already laid.
“The pyre was surrounded by the Brahmins, each with a lighted torch in one hand and a bowl of melted butter in the other, all ready, as soon as the innocent victim was placed on the pile to envelope her in fire“ describes the Abbe.
What would happen, if the unhappy victim retracts from the deadly ordeal or if any other person, out of compassion, attempts to rescue her at the critical point? The Abbe informs that in order to prevent such acts, the widow’s relatives stood near the pyre, armed with muskets, sabres and other weapons.
“When a Brahmin priest announced the auspicious moment for firing the pile, the young widow was instantly divested of her jewels and commanded to walk round the pyre three times.” Says the Abbe.
Though the widow accomplishes the first round with tottering steps, she faints away in the second round in the arms of her conductors, who were obliged to complete the ceremony by dragging her between them for the third round.
“Then, senseless and unconscious, the widow was cast upon the corpse of her husband. At that instant, the multitude making the air resound with acclamations and shouts of gladness, retired a short space. Now the Brahmins poured the butter on the dry wood and applied their torches. And instantly, the whole pile was in a blaze” the Abbe narrates in his book, which was published in 1879.
Great social reformer Rajaram Mohan Roy strived hard to put an end to this barbaric religious act called sati and Lord William Bentinck, the Governor-General of India, passed the Bengal Sati Regulation Act, 1829, and made the practice illegal and subject to prosecution. Nevertheless, lessons in history textbooks hardly contain any firsthand account of the untold pains of a widow, which she experiences minutes before she was burnt alive on her husband’s funeral pyre.
The book A Description of the Character, Manners, and Customs of the people of India and of their institutions Religious and Civil authored by Abbe J A Dubois, a French Catholic missionary in India, is a firsthand account of the customs and ceremonies including the sati in South India as he had seen them in person.
While narrating one such incident in 1794 in a village called Podupettah in the then Tanjore, the Abbe writes in his book:
“A man of some note there, of the tribe of Komati or Merchants, having died, his wife then about thirty years of age, resolved to accompany him to the pile, to be consumed together. The news having quickly spread around, a large concourse of people collected from all quarters to witness the extraordinary spectacle”
The young widow, who has worn valuable ornaments, follows her dead husband on a palanquin. As the funeral procession moves, the surrounding multitude stretches out their hands towards the widow in token of their admiration. The women go near her to receive her blessing and the 'happy' widow wishes one of them that she would beget many beautiful children. The widow’s face was serene and cheerful, but only until the procession reaches the fatal pyre. Now, gazing at the pyre, she turns pensive, trembles with fear and her face grows pale. She seems ready to faint away.
Her nearest relations take her to a nearby pond and lead her to the pyre, on which, the body of her husband was already laid.
“The pyre was surrounded by the Brahmins, each with a lighted torch in one hand and a bowl of melted butter in the other, all ready, as soon as the innocent victim was placed on the pile to envelope her in fire“ describes the Abbe.
What would happen, if the unhappy victim retracts from the deadly ordeal or if any other person, out of compassion, attempts to rescue her at the critical point? The Abbe informs that in order to prevent such acts, the widow’s relatives stood near the pyre, armed with muskets, sabres and other weapons.
“When a Brahmin priest announced the auspicious moment for firing the pile, the young widow was instantly divested of her jewels and commanded to walk round the pyre three times.” Says the Abbe.
Though the widow accomplishes the first round with tottering steps, she faints away in the second round in the arms of her conductors, who were obliged to complete the ceremony by dragging her between them for the third round.
“Then, senseless and unconscious, the widow was cast upon the corpse of her husband. At that instant, the multitude making the air resound with acclamations and shouts of gladness, retired a short space. Now the Brahmins poured the butter on the dry wood and applied their torches. And instantly, the whole pile was in a blaze” the Abbe narrates in his book, which was published in 1879.