For a widow to remain single and lead an austere and joyless life was
held to confer great honour on her family; and this was enormously
enhanced when she decided to become _sati_ and die with her husband
on the funeral pyre. Though it is doubtful whether this practice is
advocated by the Vedas, subsequent Hindu scriptures insist strongly
on it. It was said that a widow who was burnt with her husband would
enjoy as many years in paradise as there are hairs on the human head,
that is to say, thirty-five million. Conversely, one who insisted
on surviving him would in her next birth go into the body of some
animal. By the act of _sati_ she purified all her husband's ancestors,
even from the guilt of killing a Brahman, and also those of her own
family. If a man died during an absence from home in another country
his wife was recommended to take his slippers or any other article
of dress and burn herself with them tied to her breast. [410]
Great honour was paid to a Sati, and a temple or memorial stone was
always erected to her at which her spirit was venerated, and this
encouraged many pious women not only to resign themselves to this
terrible death but ardently to desire it. The following account given
by Mr. Ward of the method of a _sati_ immolation in Bengal may be
reproduced: [411]
"When the husband's life is despaired of and he is carried to the
bank of the Ganges, the wife declares her resolution to be burnt
with him. In this case she is treated with great respect by her
neighbours, who bring her delicate food, and when her husband is dead
she again declares her resolve to be burnt with his body. Having
broken a small branch from a mango tree she takes it with her and
proceeds to the body, where she sits down. The barber then paints
the sides of her feet red, after which she bathes and puts on new
clothes. During these preparations the drum beats a certain sound by
which it is known that a widow is about to be burnt with the corpse
of her husband. A hole is dug in the ground round which posts are
driven into the earth, and thick green stakes laid across to form a
kind of bed; and upon these are laid in abundance dry faggots, hemp,
clarified butter and pitch. The officiating Brahman now causes the
widow to repeat the prayer that as long as fourteen Indras reign,
or as many years as there are hairs on her head, she may abide in
heaven with her husband; that during this time the heavenly dancers
may wait on her and her husband; and that by this act of merit all
the ancestors of her mother and husband may ascend to heaven. She
now presents her ornaments to her friends, ties some red cotton on
both wrists, puts two new combs in her hair, paints her forehead,
and takes into the end of the cloth that she wears some parched
rice and cowries. The dead body is bathed, anointed with butter,
and dressed in new clothes. The son takes a handful of boiled rice
and offers it in the name of his deceased father. Ropes and another
piece of cloth are spread on the wood, and the dead body is laid
upon the pile. The widow next walks round the pyre seven times,
as she did round the marriage-post at her wedding, strewing parched
rice and cowries as she goes, which the spectators catch and keep
under the belief that they will cure diseases. The widow then lies
down on the fatal pile by the side of the dead body. The bodies are
bound together with ropes and the faggots placed over them. The son,
averting his head, puts fire to the face of his father, and at the
same moment several persons light the pile at different sides, when
the women and mourners set up cries. More faggots are hastily brought
and thrown over the pile, and two bamboo levers are pressed over them
to hold down the bodies and the pile. Several persons are employed in
holding down these levers. More clarified butter, pitch and faggots
are thrown on to the pile till the bodies are consumed. This may
take about two hours, but I conceive the woman must be dead in a few
minutes after the fire has been kindled."
As showing the tenacity with which women sometimes adhered to their
resolve to be burned with their husbands, and thus, as they believed,
resume their conjugal life in heaven, the following account by Sir
William Sleeman, in his _Rambles and Recollections_, of a _sati_
at Jubbulpore may be given:
"At Gopalpur on the Nerbudda are some very pretty temples built
for the most part to the memory of women who have burned themselves
with the remains of their husbands, and on the very spot where the
cremation occurred. Among them was one recently raised over the ashes
of one of the most extraordinary old bodies I had ever seen, who
burned herself in my presence in 1829. In March 1828 I had issued a
proclamation prohibiting any one from aiding or assisting in _sati_,
and distinctly stating that to bring one ounce of wood for the
purpose would be considered as so doing. Subsequently, on Tuesday,
24th November, I had an application from the heads of the most
respectable and most extensive family of Brahmans in the District,
to suffer this old woman to burn herself with the remains of her
husband, Umeid Singh Upadhya, who had that morning died upon the
banks of the Nerbudda. I threatened to enforce my order and punish
severely any man who assisted; and placed a police guard for the
purpose of seeing that no one did so. The old woman remained by the
edge of the water without eating or drinking. Next day the body of her
husband was burned in the presence of several thousand spectators,
who had assembled to see the _sati_. The sons and grandsons of the
old woman remained with her, urging her to desist from her resolve,
while her other relatives surrounded my house urging me to allow her
to burn. All the day she remained sitting upon a bare rock in the bed
of the Nerbudda, refusing every kind of sustenance, and exposed to
the intense heat of the sun by day and the severe cold of the night,
with only a thin sheet thrown over her shoulders. On the next day,
Thursday, to cut off all hope of her being moved from her purpose,
she put on the _dhujja_ or coarse red turban and broke her bracelets
in pieces, by which she became dead in law and for ever excluded from
caste. Should she choose to live after this she could never return
to her family. On the morning of Saturday, the fourth day after the
death, I rode out ten miles to the spot, and found the poor old widow
sitting with the _dhujja_ round her head, a brass plate before her
with undressed rice and flowers, and a cocoanut in each hand. She
talked very collectedly, telling me that she had determined to mix her
ashes with those of her departed husband, and should patiently await
my permission to do so, assured that God would enable her to sustain
life till that was given, though she dared not eat or drink. Looking
at the sun, then rising before her over a long and beautiful reach of
the Nerbudda, she said calmly: 'My soul has been for five days with
my husband's near that sun; nothing but my earthly frame is left,
and this I know you will in time suffer to be mixed with the ashes
of his in yonder pit, because it is not in your nature wantonly
to prolong the miseries of a poor old woman.' I told her that my
object and duty was to save and preserve her; I was come to urge her
to live and keep her family from the disgrace of being thought her
murderers. I tried to work upon her pride and fears. I told her that
the rent-free lands on which her family had long subsisted might be
resumed by Government if her children permitted her to do this act;
and that no brick or stone should ever mark the place of her death;
but if she would live, a splendid habitation should be made for her
among the temples, and an allowance given her from the rent-free
lands. She smiled, but held out her arm and said, 'My pulse has long
ceased to beat, for my spirit has departed, and I have nothing left
but a little earth that I wish to mix with the ashes of my husband. I
shall suffer nothing in burning, and if you wish proof order some fire,
and you shall see this arm consumed without giving me any pain.' I
did not attempt to feel her pulse, but some of my people did, and
declared that it had ceased to be perceptible. At this time every
native present believed that she was incapable of suffering pain,
and her end confirmed them in their opinion. Satisfied myself that
it would be unavailing to attempt to save her life, I sent for all
the principal members of the family, and consented that she should be
suffered to burn herself if they would enter into engagements that no
other member of their family should ever do the same. This they all
agreed to, and the papers having been drawn out in due form about
midday, I sent down notice to the old lady, who seemed extremely
pleased and thankful. The ceremonies of bathing were gone through
before three, while the wood and other combustible materials for a
strong fire were collected and put into the pit. After bathing she
called for a _pan_ (betel-leaf) and ate it, then rose up, and with one
arm on the shoulder of her eldest son, and the other on that of her
nephew, approached the fire. As she rose up fire was set to the pile,
and it was instantly in a blaze. The distance was about one hundred
and fifty yards; she came on with a calm and cheerful countenance,
stopped once, and casting her eyes upwards said, 'Why have they kept
me five days from thee, my husband?' On coming to the sentries her
supports stopped, she walked round the pit, paused a moment; and while
muttering a prayer threw some flowers into the fire. She then walked
deliberately and steadily to the brink, stepped into the centre of
the flame, sat down, and leaning back in the midst as if reposing
upon a couch, was consumed without uttering a shriek or betraying
one sign of agony."
In cases, however, where women shrank from the flames they were
frequently forced into them, as it was a terrible disgrace to their
families that they should recoil on the scene of the sacrifice. Opium
and other drugs were also administered to stupefy the woman and prevent
her from feeling pain. Widows were sometimes buried alive with their
dead husbands. The practice of _sati_ was finally prohibited in 1829,
without exciting the least discontent.