How did Sati end?

How the brutal practice of a woman burning herself on the pyre of her dead husband came to a progressive halt.

Cover Image Caption

Once considered an act of sheer heroism, Sati, the practice that was abolished long ago, is still enough to send shivers down the spine. The ancient Hindu tradition of Sati was the act of a widowed wife throwing herself on the pyre of her dead husband and burning to death along with him. This act was considered courageous and heroic and even though was a voluntary choice made by the woman, slowly became a forced practice in the culture.

Understanding the implications of the act cannot be done without knowing what it means and where its inspiration lies. The word Sati is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘asti’ meaning ‘She is pure or true.’

However, the practice of Sati was an inspiration from the Goddess Sati herself. The wife of Lord Shiva, Goddess Sati was always in a bind as she struggled to find common ground between her husband and her father. Berating all his attempts to be a faithful husband, the father of Goddess Sati would relish in Lord Shiva’s public humiliation.

Tired of the hatred and contempt that her father festered for her husband, goddess Sati set herself on fire. As she burned, she prayed to be reborn as Lord Shiva’s wife. However, people drawing parallels between the practice and the act of self-sacrifice remain quite unrelated as Goddess Sati was a married woman and not a widow at the time of the incident.

source: wikipedia

It is hard to trace the actual trajectory of the ancient Hindu custom and drawing the line between the voluntary act of Sati to the forced ritual of Sati may be difficult. However, by the end of the 14th century, the act soon came to be considered the greatest form of devotion. Official records state that till the end of the 18th century, as many as 1000 widows were burned alive every year.

The earliest records of Sati appear during the Gupta Empire between 320 CE to 550 CCE. After the practice spread to Rajasthan, the voluntary act soon became a practice. If the widow did not have any children from the marriage, she was simply expected to burn herself on the pyre. Like all Hindu practices, the act of Sati was an act to set apart a caste. Originally limited to the royal families and Kshatriyas, the practice was later acclimated by lower castes.

Whilst the actual act differed from region to region, the practice remained closely barbaric. Some women would seat themselves on the husband’s funeral pure or lie down next to the dead body waiting to be burned. Others would jump into the pyre once it had been lit. in an act of gratitude, as perceived by some, widows would be allowed to take poison or drugs before putting themselves into the fire. Other women would allow themselves to be bitten by a snake, and slit their throats or wrists before entering the pyre, to make the experience bearable.

Popular culture gives us a glimpse of a similar practice called Jauhar in the movie Padvamat. The Rajput women of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh would commit collective suicide in order to protect themselves from the consequent capture, rape and disgrace that would commonly follow for kingdoms that fell.

The actual abolition of Sati came much later but outlawing and prohibiting the practice was done by several people. In 1f82, Akbar outlawed Sati, in 1663, Aurangzeb tried to end it again. After colonization struck, the Portuguese, the French and the British tried to put a stop to the practice.

However, it wasn’t until The Bengal Sati Regulation which banned the Sati practice in all British India jurisdictions that the practice actually stopped. With the help of reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, the act passed on December 4, 1829, by the then Governor General Lord William Bentick. Whilst the act put an end to the ritual, much can still be said about the place and respect women receive from society post their husband's death.