Sati (the practice of burning widows)
Sati, ‘the virtuous’ in Sanskrit, refers to a custom whereby a widow is burned on the funeral pyre along with the body of her deceased husband.  The life of a widow was unimaginably hard and a sati conferred status and fame on her family. British colonisers banned the ritual in 1829. Made for a European client, this painting probably belonged to a set of illustrations of ‘Indian customs.’