Sati (practice)

**Sati**, or **suttee**, was an old practice where a Hindu woman, after her husband died, would burn herself alive along with her husband’s dead body. Sometimes she did it willingly, but sometimes she was forced. People argue about whether it is written in early Hindu books, but it has been connected to other customs in India that have taken away women’s rights, like owning property. A different kind of sati is when widows are ignored or treated badly, which has happened for a very long time. In the early 1800s, when the British East India Company was gaining power in India, they also tried to stop it. William Carey, a British Christian preacher, reported 438 cases near Calcutta in 1803, even though the practice was banned in the city. Between 1815 and 1818, the number of cases in Bengal doubled. People like Carey and a Hindu reformer, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, opposed sati. Because of their efforts, Lord William Bentinck, the British Governor-General, passed the Bengal Sati Regulation in 1829, making it a crime to burn or bury Hindu widows alive. More laws followed, including ones to allow widow-remarriage and stop other forms of violence against women.

In the late 1900s, some cases of sati still happened. In response, the Indian government made the Sati (Prevention) Act in 1987 to punish anyone helping or praising the sati practise. Even so, as of 2020, there were still about 250 sati temples in India. People pray there to honor a goddess who burned herself after her father insulted her husband and also to the idea of women sacrificing their lives by burning themselves on their husband’s funeral fire. She is said to have burned herself because she could not bear the shame her father Daksha brought on her and her husband Shiva. The word "sati" first meant "chaste woman." In Hindi and Sanskrit writings, "sati" means "good wife." English writers in India often used the word "suttee." Originally, "sati" was about the woman, not the burning act.

Some other related words are:

* *Sativrata* is a rare word for a woman who promises to protect her husband while alive and die with him when he dies.
* *Satimata* means a respected widow who performed sati.

Words for the act of burning are:

* *Sahagamana* means "going with," and *sahamarana* means "dying with."
* *Anvarohana* means "rising" or "climbing" onto the fire, and *satidaha* means the burning process.
* *Satipratha* refers to the custom of burning widows alive.

The Indian law called the *Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987*, Part I, Section 2(c), defines "sati" as the act or ritual itself.

The spelling "suttee" comes from old English writing, while "satī" is a modern way of writing the Sanskrit word using the Latin alphabet system.

## Origin and spread 
The beginning and spread of sati are complicated and have been discussed a lot, with no clear agreement. Some people think that the idea of burning or sacrificing widows might be very old, from prehistoric times. Archaeologist Elena Efimovna Kuzmina found similar burial customs between the Andronovo cultures (about 1800–1400 BCE) of Central Asia and the Vedic Age in India. She believes sati was mostly a symbolic act, like a double burial or double burning, in both cultures, but it was not strictly followed.

### Vedic symbolic practice 
In the Vedic times, Romila Thapar says that when clans changed to caste systems, wives had to take part in many rituals but had little power. One Vedic ritual allowed an important widow to do a "symbolic self-burning" when her husband died, and later she could marry his brother. Later, people used this ritual as a reason for real sati, where a widow was expected to burn with her husband.

Anand A. Yang says the Rig Veda talks about a "copying ritual" where a widow lay on her husband’s funeral fire but was taken off by a male family member before the fire was lit. He notes that the word *agre* meaning "to go forth" was wrongly changed to *agneh*, meaning "into the fire," in about the 16th century to make it seem like the Vedas approved of sati.

### Early medieval origins 
The start and spread of sati are complicated and debated, with no clear answers. People believe widow burning began before 500 CE, in the time before the Gupta period. Vidya Dehejia says Hindu customs forced it into society, becoming common after 500 CE. Ashis Nandy notes that it started from Vedic traditions, faded by the 17th century, and returned in Bengal during the 18th century because of British involvement. Roshen Dalal thinks it grew from the 5th to 7th century, becoming a custom around 1000 CE, mainly among upper classes like the Rajputs. The Mahabharata mentions Madri's suicide by sati, but this might have been added later as it does not match other verses.

Dehejia says sati began with Kshatriya (warrior) groups and stayed mostly with them. Thapar links it to new Kshatriyas who followed texts too literally, turning a symbolic act into a real burning of widows.

### Medieval spread 
Sati spread when people wanted to copy royal and warrior customs to gain status, known as Sanskritisation. Islamic invasions, widow suffering, and Brahmin involvement helped its spread, though Brahmins were originally forbidden from practicing it. It also became tied to preserving women's honor, similar to jauhar, where women chose death to avoid capture in war. Rajputs practiced jauhar, and Brahmins later copied them, turning the idea of a brave woman into the ideal of a "good woman." From there, sati spread to other castes.

David Brick from Yale says sati was rejected in Kashmir by Brahmins at first but spread later, as seen in the Vishnu Smriti (700–1000 CE), likely written in Kashmir. By the 12th century, Brahmins across India knew of sati. Daniel Grey says colonial views distorted the history of sati to promote "problem Hindu" ideas. Lata Mani writes that British debates on sati described a "golden age" of women before Muslim rule, framing British efforts as saving Hindus from Islamic rule. British missionaries studied Hindu texts and tried to show that sati was not required by Hinduism to persuade people against it.
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