American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1876-02-05
The Burning of Widows in India.

THE following account of the now obsO-
lete custom of burning widows technical
ly called SAITH in India is taken from the
diary of an English traveller:
Though an immemOrial usage, Sati is
nowhere enjoined in the sacred books of
the Hindoos, and cannot claim a divine
sanction even from the Brahminical point
of view. According to the Canarese, it
derived its origin from the unpleasant
tendency of their married women to free
themselves from disagreeable husbands,
by administering poison to them in their
food. In self-defense, therefore, it was
decreed by the male lawmakers, that
widows should suffer themselves to be
burned alive with the bodies of their de-
ceased husbands, the only alternative be-
ing life of shame, misery and destitu-
ton. Reconciling themselves to the in
evitable. women soon came to regard it as
an honor, as well as a duty, to mingle
their ashes with those of the loved one, and
it is recorded that fifteen concubines Ofone
of the Chiefs of Kutch sought, and OBJ
tanned permission to offer themselves as a
sacrifice on his funeral pyre. AS Il rule,
however, it was only the principal wife
who enjoyed this fatal privilege, though
DIR. Cladius Buchanan mentions a case
which occurred only three miles from Cal
cutta, in the early part of the present
century, when three wives followed their
departed lord to the region of the shadows.
The man had been a Koolin Brahmin,
who had possessed twelve wives-a mode
rate number for a member of that sancti-
fled fraternity, with whom it was no I'M
common thing to have scores of wives
scattered over the country. Ofthese wives,
lone was a venerable lady having white
locks, who had long been known in the
neighborhood. Not being able to walk,
she was carried in palanquin to the
place of burning; and was then placed by
the funeral pile The two other ladies
were younger; one of them had very
pleasing and interesting cOuntenance. The
old lady was placed ON one side of the
dead husband, and the two other wives
laid themselves down on the other side;
and then an old Brahmin, the eldest son
of the deceased, applied his torch to the
pile with unaverted face. The pile sud
denly blaZed, for it was covered with COM
bustibles; and this human sacrifice was
completed amidst the din of drums and
cymbals, and the shouts of Brahmins.'
On the same authority we learn that
within circle of thirty miles from Cal
cutta, no fewer than 275 widows persisted
in this 1rightful manner in the year 1903,
while between the 10th of April and the
18th of August of the following year, at
least rs more followed their example
The Canarese, in the early part of the
last century, used to dig a shallow pit ten
feet by six, which they filled up with logs
of wood, placing erect at one end a pond
erous piece of timber, weighing 500 pounds
or Whereabouts, to which cord was at
tacled. When all was ready, oil and
clarified butter were poured upon the
wood, and the corpse, decently shrouded,
laid in the middle of tie pile. A torch
was then applied by the nearest male rel
alive of the deceased, and, as the flames
leaped up, the devoted widow took leave
of her friends and acquaintance, and,
with cheerful countenance, walked once
or twice around the blazing heap, scat
tering flowers and repeating a form of
prayer or Invocation. Suddenly she
would spring on to the burning logs,
amidst a tremendous din of discOrdant
music and the frantic shouts of the by
ISLANDERS. At the same instant a Brahmin
pulled the cord and the erect beam fell
heavily upon the living and the dead,
At times, of course, the hapless victim
appalled, by the fierceness of the flames;
but it was then all too late for second
thoughts. The surrounding Brahmins
would thrust her back with long poles,
while her agoniZing shrieks were drowned
in the uproar of drums, trumpets and
cymbals, heightened by the multitudinous
yells of the spectators. Such instances
of natural timidity were, however, of
comparatively rare occurrence, for when
there was reason to suspect Il premature
collapse of resolution, narcotics were pre-
viously administered, and the stupetied