SATI OR Suttee----Widows jumping into funeral pyre of the fallen husbands

[Guest guest]

SATI OR Suttee----Widows jumping into funeral pyre of the fallen

husbands

 

I am forced to write about this subject since the most popular

evangelist Pat Robertson and his 700 club are still harping on this

subject to put down Hindus and Hinduism through out the world. We

cannot ignore these matters. Unless we stand up and explain facts,

lies about Hinduism will treated as truth by millions.

 

One autumn morning in 1939 in Frankfurt, when a small pebble hit

one of the glass windows of a beautiful crystal synagogue, every Jew

thought it was just a childish prank. Little the Jews knew

then, that the broken glass was the beginning of the eradication

of 6 million Jews few months later. Dr Joseph Goebbels,

Hitler's Propaganda Minister said: "Repeat a lie a thousand

times and it becomes the truth ..." .

 

So, if lies are not answered, people will treat those lies as truth.

 

SATI or SUTTEE is the most horrendous act of widows killing

themselves jumping into the funeral pyre of their dead husbands,

sometimes willfully and sometimes forcefully by others. Sati is

described as a "Hindu custom in India " in which the widow

was burnt to ashes on her dead husband's pyre.

 

Suttee has nothing to do with Hinduism. To say "Suttee" is

part of Hinduism, is exactly like saying "Salem witch hunt"

and " Spanish killing of Mayans" and "bloody

inquisitions" have something to do with the teachings of Jesus

Christ.

 

The heart-rending sight of his sister-in- law's `Suttee'

made the great Hindu reformer Raja Ram Mohan Roy to search every

Hindu scripture to see whether there is any statement regarding

SUTTEE. He could not find one. That made him fight this injustice

to women in some parts of North India.

 

There is not even one scriptural statement concerning Suttee in four

Vedas or in 108 Upanishads, or in 18 major Puranas, or in Ramayana

or or in Mahabharata . On the contrary, according to the funeral

hymns in RIGVEDA, there is a ceremony of widow sleeping next to the

corpse of the dead husband and then being allowed to marry anyone

she pleases.

 

1 SUTTEE has nothing to do with the suicidal act of SATI,

the consort of Lord Siva. She did that because of her father King

Daksha [one of the 12 Prajapathi's---one of the 12 sons of Lord

Brahma--born out of the thumb of Lord Brahma ] did not invite her

and her husband Lord Siva for the YAGA [the ritualistic ceremony]

and when she went "uninvited" King Daksha refused to recognize

her. King Daksha had 100 daughters and SATI was the youngest

one. All other daughters married Rishis, whereas SATI married Lord

Siva against the wishes of king Daksha. So it was a "family

feud" that resulted in the untimely demise of SATI than the act

of

Suttee.

 

2 RAMAYANA----In the epic Ramayana, after Lord Rama's

father king Dasaratha died, none of his three wives [ Kausalya,

Sumitra and Kaikeyi ] practiced SUTTEE. In Ramayana, when the

monkey-king BALI died, his wife TARA married his brother SUGREEVA.

When the demon king RAVANA got killed, his wife MANDODHARI did not

kill herself....The act of SUTTEE is seen nowhere in the epic

Ramayana.

 

3 MAHABHARATA---There is not even one act of SUTTEE in the

whole epic poem of Mahabharata in which thousands of men got killed

in the great battle of Mahabharata. None of the 100 wives of the

Kaurava warriors committed Suttee. I challenge every one to show me

one incident of SUTTEE or SUTTEE in Hindu scriptures.

 

4 Queen Madri's death [ King Pandu's second wife in

Mahabharata epic] has nothing to do with Suttee. According to the

Mahabharata epic, King Pandu had two wives. The first was Kunti [

Pritha ] and second was Madri.

 

Once king Pandu was hunting in the forest along with MADRI and he

saw two antelopes mating. Pandu with an arrow shot the male

antelope. Little did Pandu know that those antelopes were actually

a saint and his wife. The dying male transformed himself to a saint

[ RISHI ] and cursed King Pandu for slaying him during making

love. Rishi cursed Pandu that he will die just like him , if he

ever make love to his wife. From that time onwards, King Pandu

lived in strict continence like a celibate [ BRAHMACHARI].

 

But one day, Pandu lost his mind and chased Madri , who fought him

from making love. But finally she gave in. During the intercourse,

King Pandu died. Madri felt she was the reason why Pandu lost

his life. Out of that guilt & remorse, Madri, jumped into the

funeral pyre of her fallen husband. So Madri's sucide has

nothing to do with SUTTEE, since Kunti did not follow Madri and

kill herself.

 

5 SUICIDE OF KRISHNA'S 16000 WIVES has nothing to with

SUTTEE. All of them were Devatas [ celestial beings ] who came for

the exclusive purpose of assisting Lord Krishna to get rid of

demons like KAMSA, SISUPALA, DURYODHANA, JARASANDHA etc. They left

their bodies as soon as Lord Krishna left his EARTHLY BODY. So too

Krishna's brother Balarama who was actually Ananthan - the 1000

headed Serpent bed of Lord Vishnu.

 

6 Queen Mandothiri, Ravana's wife did not kill herself when

Ravana was killed in the Ramayana epic. Queen Tara, wife of

monkey king BALI, did not kill herself when Bali was killed by

Lord Rama. Instead she married, Bali's brother monkey king

Sugreeva after the death of Bali.

 

7 From where did the practice of Suttee come from? Suttee has its

roots in Greece. Pyre services similar to Suttee were prevalent

among Germans, Slavs and other races besides Greeks. The practice of

SUTTEE came to India through KUSHANS in 1 A.D.

 

Columbia Encyclopedia states " This strange practice of killing

a favorite wife on her husband's grave has been found in many

parts of the world; it was followed by such peoples as the

Thracians, the Scythians, the ancient Egyptians, the Scandinavians,

the Chinese, and peoples of Oceania and Africa."

 

8 Who practiced Suttee in India ? It was RAJPUTS, a warrior tribe

who were descendants of KUSHANS and who were very fanatic Hindus and

who were extremely monogamous who practiced SUTTEE.

 

10 Why did they practice Suttee? Rajputs were in constant wars

within themselves and were also war with Moslems. So there were

thousands of young widows and they feared that it is dangerous to

have thousands of young, extremely beautiful widows running around

and they went were the extreme measure of eliminating them. MOSLEMS

had the same problem and they solved that by POLYGAMY, having four

wives.

 

11 What happened to the practice of Suttee? During 1829,

British government in India, outlawed SUTTEE as a criminal offense.

Suttee was never ever practiced in South India. Copycats appear now

and then, but believe me vast majority of people have nothing to do

with SUTTEEE.

 

12 Even though Rajputs are Aryans, they only represent a

small section of Aryans. Rajputs lived and still live in the

Northwestern parts of India. Rajputs was a very fanatical Hindu

tribes who practiced very strict monogamy and at the same time in

constant wars with Moslems. Rajputs lost many young men in wars and

they had a big population of very young widows.

 

13 Like Rajuputs, Moslems were also in the same plight and to

take care of the problem of young widows running around the country,

prophet Mohammad encouraged POLYGAMY, in fact FOUR MARRIAGES. That

code of allowing men to marry four wives is part of Koran.

Unluckily, Hindu codes did not address that issue. So, Rajputs took

an easy route of disposing very attractive very young widows.

 

14 According to Hindu theologians sacrifices similar to

Suttee was prevalent among some Greek tribes, Germans and Slavs.

Many believe that Suttee came to India, when Kushans, a central

Asian tribe attacked India in 1 A.D.

 

15 As far as I know, Suttee was never practiced in South India. You

may still hear occasional reports of Suttee, that are "copy-cats"

trying to bring up that ancient custom for their own personal

material needs.

 

Ed Viswanathan www.amiahindu.com