Concept of Sati: A scholarly review.

[Guest guest]

See the following extract from

 

http://voi.org/indology/RomilaThapar-EarlyIndia.html

 

Following is an extract from a Schloarly work with appropriate

references.So I expect those who wish to counter these to come up with some

solid research.

 

----------------------

 

Sati

 

The earliest evidence for Sati,[124] claims our historian, occurs in

Eran[125] in AD 510, and as usual fails to provide any references. It is

imperative to discuss at length how far off the mark Thapar has been on this

subject matter. This practice was found across several cultures even from the

Mesolithic settlements. While discussing the Early Bronze Age cultures of Italy,

Mallory tells us[126] about the Tomb of the Widow that offers evidence for the

burial of the wife, when her warrior husband died. The same was noticed in the

Southeastern Europe as well.[127] Now, let us turn our focus to the historical

times.

 

Strabo[128] says that the Greeks under Alexander noticed this practice being

observed in Punjab. Yet, the most vivid recordings of this practice come from

the Sangam Tamil literature. Evidently, a woman either joined her husband in his

funeral pyre or burial urn, or led the austere life of a widow comparable to

that of an ascetic. Most cases of Sati are spoken of in the martial context.

 

It can be argued that when the king died not only his queen, but

also his attendants committed sati. A queen chastises the courtiers

for not [apparently] performing sati and tells them that she would

rather join her beloved husband in the pyre than lead the spartan

life of a widow. Not for her, says she, is the life of a widow who

eats one meal of rice mixed with gingili oil and neem leaves, and who sleeps on

the bare floor. May you not commit sati, the queen tells the courtiers, rather

sarcastically, but for me the cold water of the lake is not different from the

fire of the pyre.[129] And the very next song confirms that she did commit sati.

 

Another Tamil woman implores the potter to make her husband's

burial urn large enough to hold the widow as well.[130] Tolkappiyam[131] says

that the highest glory that a woman can aspire for is to join her husband's

funeral pyre. Those ethos were emulated not only by the common women, but even

Kambar, who appeared towards the end of the first millennium AD seems to have

regarded sati quite highly, for he lets Mandodhari die at the battlefield once

Ravana had fallen. N. Subramaniam has suggested[132] that even the great sage

Tiruvalluvar alludes to the glory of a woman who performs sati. Manimekhalai has

an interesting narrative[133] where the chaste Adhirai wrongly concludes that

her trader husband had died and attempts to commit sati, but the fire refuses to

engulf her. Then her husband returns and they live happily ever after! It is

reflective of the belief of the social milieu that a chaste wife is the one who

protects her husband.

 

 

A woman wasn't always allowed to commit sati. A Sangam song

says[134] that after her son's father departed, the widow's head was

tonsured and her bangles were removed. Then onwards, lily with rice became her

staple food. So, scholars have argued[135] that those women, who had children,

were rather expected to observe widowhood than commit sati. Interestingly,

Manusmriti[136] doesn't prescribe sati even for those widows who have no

offspring. It expects them to lead an ascetic life of honor. Its prescriptions,

barring the tonsuring of a widow, are very similar to the descriptions of a

widow's life that one finds in the Sangam poetry. It is evident that the wives

of the deceased themselves looked down upon the plight of a widow, who had to

tonsure her head, and rather thought of sati as a glorious option.[137] G. L.

Hart draws[138] our attention to the prescriptions of Skanda Purana, which

includes even the tonsuring of the widow; he points out that Skanda Purana's

injunctions regards the vows of a widow exactly match the social mores of

ancient Tamilnadu.

 

Why then, does Thapar falsely claim that sati is evidenced only in AD 510?

Ignorance? None would doubt that. Is it also because this

augments the usual Marxist rhetoric that the Gupta era supposedly led to the

ascendancy of the Hindu orthodoxy, and hence the marginalizing of the woman, an

ideal recipe that "could have" resulted in sati? In the same page, Thapar claims

that with sati in place, the emerging debate over widow remarriage "could've

been" nipped! Elsewhere,[139] she claims that cattle raids were very common in

Peninsular India, and alleges that the commemorative stones depicting sati were

meant to cultivate a heroic ethos in defense of the settlements not protected by

the royal army! She provides no evidence. In the Marxist scheme of things, any

Indian war has to be a "cattle raid" and practices like sati have to be reduced

to utter banality. If she were right, then what does one do with all those

instances of the women of royal households committing sati? Tonsuring of the

widows continued even till a few decades ago among the Brahmins of Tamilnadu.

The Brahmins are not known to have participated in the battlefield, until mid

medieval times. Was this tonsuring of the Brahmin widows too a practice aimed at

cultivating heroic ethos for defense against "cattle raids"?

 

 

Even during the Sangam times, sati was more an ideal than common

practice. In every instance where it occurred, the widow performed

sati willingly. The internal references in the poems regards the

spartan living of the widows is abundant proof that most widows took

to ascetic living. For all practical purposes, it was only the

royalty that took to sati. This was practiced on a large scale only

during the times of Islamic invasions. The Rajput women embraced the

funeral pyre of their husbands, to avoid being raped and ending up in the harem

of the Islamic aggressors. The Leftist historians, to

whitewash the Islamic culpability, have often tried to project sati

as a retrograde Hindu religious practice, which it wasn't. In

fact, Manusmrti,[140] even prescribes the duties of a widow, but has no word on

sati. No other Hindu law book either. Barring inevitable

exceptions, it is evident that the women, who performed sati, did so

joyfully. Friar Jordanus,[141] the Christian missionary, observes

succinctly sometime in the early 1300s AD: "In this India, on the

death of a noble, or of any people of substance, their bodies are

burned; and eke their wives follow them alive to the fire, and, for

the sake of worldly glory, and for the love of their husbands, and

for eternal life, burn along with them, with as much joy as if they

were going to be wedded; and those who do this have the higher repute for virtue

and perfection among the rest. Wonderful! I have sometimes seen, for one dead

man who was burnt, five living women take their places on the fire with him, and

die with their dead." Despite his contempt for the Hindus and his missionary

zeal, he was honest in his observation that sati wasn't forced.

 

----------------------------

[Guest guest]

Thanks for this info.

 

I have also seen quoted a passage from Rg Veda, X 18, 7, calling for

widows to "step into the pyre, without any affliction and

well-adorned." I don't have a copy of this book, so haven't been

able to check the full passage.

 

Max

--

Max Dashu

Suppressed Histories Archives

Global Women's History

http://www.suppressedhistories.net

 

 

[Guest guest]

For anybody interested in the subject of the situation of Woman in

India this Bibliography might be of interest:

 

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/Organizations/healthnet/SAsia/library/librar

yframe.html

[Guest guest]

Some of the situations in the following web-page are a direct product

of

opression by evil Muslims i.e Islamists who follow Quran.

 

A few of them were introduced, encouraged and popularised by the

British during the colonial period.

 

It was part of their long term strategy.

 

Most of the issues in the page were not present in India before the

arrival of the extremely demonic and barbaric Islamic armies.

 

Please keep in mind the above while going thru the page

 

Rgds

 

, "mahahradanatha"

<mahahradanatha> wrote:

> For anybody interested in the subject of the situation of Woman in

> India this Bibliography might be of interest:

>

>

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/Organizations/healthne

t/SAsia/library/librar

> yframe.html

[Guest guest]

Harvard!! I know at least one person who was refused extension because of non

acadamic reasons.

Also I know the type of schowlers they have there. Just because the title

"yavana" was there, despite all the intrininsic evidence a great HINDU

astrological text was dubbed "Greek" because the author, a King had the title

"yavana Raja". Which is akin to saying queen Victoria was "Empress of India" she

must be Indian. So do not attach much to the Harvard label.

 

satisharigela <satisharigela wrote:

Some of the situations in the following web-page are a direct product

of

opression by evil Muslims i.e Islamists who follow Quran.

 

A few of them were introduced, encouraged and popularised by the

British during the colonial period.

 

It was part of their long term strategy.

 

Most of the issues in the page were not present in India before the

arrival of the extremely demonic and barbaric Islamic armies.

 

Please keep in mind the above while going thru the page

 

Rgds

 

, "mahahradanatha"

<mahahradanatha> wrote:

> For anybody interested in the subject of the situation of Woman in

> India this Bibliography might be of interest:

>

>

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/Organizations/healthne

t/SAsia/library/librar

> yframe.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discover

Stay in touch with email, IM, photo sharing & more. Check it out!

 

 

[Guest guest]

These Informations and researches should help to describe current

problems and show ways to solve them no matter what or who has been

the cause.

If somebody wants to actively help one can contact the many

organizations that exist in India.

Some adresses are given in this webpage:

 

http://www.infochangeindia.org/WomenIbp.jsp

 

 

 

, "satisharigela"

<satisharigela> wrote:

> Some of the situations in the following web-page are a direct

product

> of

> opression by evil Muslims i.e Islamists who follow Quran.

>

> A few of them were introduced, encouraged and popularised by the

> British during the colonial period.

>

> It was part of their long term strategy.

>

> Most of the issues in the page were not present in India before the

> arrival of the extremely demonic and barbaric Islamic armies.

>

> Please keep in mind the above while going thru the page

>

> Rgds

>

> , "mahahradanatha"

> <mahahradanatha> wrote:

> > For anybody interested in the subject of the situation of Woman

in

> > India this Bibliography might be of interest:

> >

> >

> http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/Organizations/healthne

> t/SAsia/library/librar

> > yframe.html

[Guest guest]

Research Papers and Bibliographies prepared by SNDT Women's University,

Mumbai, India

 

 

> Harvard!!