http://yabaluri.org/TRIVENI/CDWEB/theleg...assati.htm
In this article on Sati by one SK Ahuja, there are some bits of interest. But the author has some obvious biases:
1. His *guess* (as he clearly refers to it) is that the "bigoted and gullible priesthood" were trying to steal the woman's possessions.
2. He constantly refers to christ as if the character existed (e.g. "in the centuries following the birth of Christ"), whereas he refers to "mythical values" and "mythical beliefs" in matters related to the indigenous context.
3. Both 1 and 2 (1. the belief that Sati is ultimately an unacceptable wrong - and must therefore be due to evil priests rather than the choice of the woman, 2. the belief in historicity of christ) explain the writer's deep love for Ram Mohan Roy/Brahmo Samaj ("The great apostle of abolition of this searning and blotchful custom, that enlightened giant from Bengal, Raja Ram Mohan Roy").
While in British-occupied Bengal the widow immolations were due to the British changing the laws of succession/inheritance so that these ended up being forced, in other parts of India there were actual cases of <i>Sati</i> (=voluntary self-immolations). Therefore, why make hard and fast rules for everyone?
The interesting bits:
1. More details on the Greek encounter of Sati (pre-Shaka invasions):
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Possibly, the Aryansâamong them principally the aristocracy Âmay have followed the rite for over a thousand years, yet <b>the earliest, recorded instance of Sati is provided in the account left to posterity by a Greek historian.</b> Diodorus Siculus, who may have be approximated to have lived in Julius Caeserâs time. The event described is the death and funeral of a Hindu General named Keteus serving under Eumenes, the Greek Commander of Alexanderâs army. While fighting Antigonos somewhere in 316 or 317 B.C., the Indian General was killed and an obstreperous controÂversy raged between his two wives who vied for the honour of concremation. The issue, in deference to the accepted convention then prevalent, was settled in favour of the younger spouse as the elder was big with a child. Bedecked as bride, she laid herself by the side of her husband on the pyre. A detachment of the army marched three times around the pyre platform. The violence of flames could not draw a cry of anguish from the voluntary participant; she is reported to have bid adieu with a smile, perhaps with a wave of arm even as the flames completely engulfed her.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
2. Sati in India in Hindu literature (pre-Shaka):
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Some authorities expound that Scynthians were the original race who gave birth to the idea, nurtured it and propagated the same in the lands where they settled. A conjecture is offered that the concept germinated in India with Scynthians. However, the rite is said to have formed not an unimportant part in the funeral ceremonies before Ramayana and Mahabharata or about 300 years B. C. In certain texts, eight centuries before Christ, traces of reference to Sati are found.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->The Indian author seems to find that 300 BCE = before Ramayana and Mahabharata, going by the above. Must have been reading the same encyclopaedias I have.
3. And the following seems to indicate that the earlier indigenous Sati custom local to India may have at one point in some parts of the country become combined with that of the suicide-rituals practised by the Iranian Shakas - although the following combined practices (the self-immolation of sisters and mothers upon their brother/son's death) don't seem to have been followed in India at large in the times after those mentioned - that is, such self-immolations don't seem to have been popular, in that one tends to only hear of the widow performing it in the Indian context:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The rite may be assumed to have figured in the Indian literature in the centuries following the birth of Christ. Banuâs Rajatarangini (dated to 12th century?) and Somadevaâs Brihatkathasaritsagara (dated to 11th century?) mention instances Sati: in particular, these two cardinal publications inform us of the variation that the principle of Sati came to adopt in course of time. This may well have been influenced by Scythian practice of similar nature. Bana quotes instances where concubines, sisters and even mothers concremated themselves the practice being known as <b>Sahamarana, or Sahagamana or Anvarohana</b>. Somadeva quoted the particular example of the Queen Mother committing Sati when her son Visujitamalla of Nepal was killed in Samvat 878.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
In this article on Sati by one SK Ahuja, there are some bits of interest. But the author has some obvious biases:
1. His *guess* (as he clearly refers to it) is that the "bigoted and gullible priesthood" were trying to steal the woman's possessions.
2. He constantly refers to christ as if the character existed (e.g. "in the centuries following the birth of Christ"), whereas he refers to "mythical values" and "mythical beliefs" in matters related to the indigenous context.
3. Both 1 and 2 (1. the belief that Sati is ultimately an unacceptable wrong - and must therefore be due to evil priests rather than the choice of the woman, 2. the belief in historicity of christ) explain the writer's deep love for Ram Mohan Roy/Brahmo Samaj ("The great apostle of abolition of this searning and blotchful custom, that enlightened giant from Bengal, Raja Ram Mohan Roy").
While in British-occupied Bengal the widow immolations were due to the British changing the laws of succession/inheritance so that these ended up being forced, in other parts of India there were actual cases of <i>Sati</i> (=voluntary self-immolations). Therefore, why make hard and fast rules for everyone?
The interesting bits:
1. More details on the Greek encounter of Sati (pre-Shaka invasions):
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Possibly, the Aryansâamong them principally the aristocracy Âmay have followed the rite for over a thousand years, yet <b>the earliest, recorded instance of Sati is provided in the account left to posterity by a Greek historian.</b> Diodorus Siculus, who may have be approximated to have lived in Julius Caeserâs time. The event described is the death and funeral of a Hindu General named Keteus serving under Eumenes, the Greek Commander of Alexanderâs army. While fighting Antigonos somewhere in 316 or 317 B.C., the Indian General was killed and an obstreperous controÂversy raged between his two wives who vied for the honour of concremation. The issue, in deference to the accepted convention then prevalent, was settled in favour of the younger spouse as the elder was big with a child. Bedecked as bride, she laid herself by the side of her husband on the pyre. A detachment of the army marched three times around the pyre platform. The violence of flames could not draw a cry of anguish from the voluntary participant; she is reported to have bid adieu with a smile, perhaps with a wave of arm even as the flames completely engulfed her.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
2. Sati in India in Hindu literature (pre-Shaka):
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Some authorities expound that Scynthians were the original race who gave birth to the idea, nurtured it and propagated the same in the lands where they settled. A conjecture is offered that the concept germinated in India with Scynthians. However, the rite is said to have formed not an unimportant part in the funeral ceremonies before Ramayana and Mahabharata or about 300 years B. C. In certain texts, eight centuries before Christ, traces of reference to Sati are found.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->The Indian author seems to find that 300 BCE = before Ramayana and Mahabharata, going by the above. Must have been reading the same encyclopaedias I have.
3. And the following seems to indicate that the earlier indigenous Sati custom local to India may have at one point in some parts of the country become combined with that of the suicide-rituals practised by the Iranian Shakas - although the following combined practices (the self-immolation of sisters and mothers upon their brother/son's death) don't seem to have been followed in India at large in the times after those mentioned - that is, such self-immolations don't seem to have been popular, in that one tends to only hear of the widow performing it in the Indian context:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The rite may be assumed to have figured in the Indian literature in the centuries following the birth of Christ. Banuâs Rajatarangini (dated to 12th century?) and Somadevaâs Brihatkathasaritsagara (dated to 11th century?) mention instances Sati: in particular, these two cardinal publications inform us of the variation that the principle of Sati came to adopt in course of time. This may well have been influenced by Scythian practice of similar nature. Bana quotes instances where concubines, sisters and even mothers concremated themselves the practice being known as <b>Sahamarana, or Sahagamana or Anvarohana</b>. Somadeva quoted the particular example of the Queen Mother committing Sati when her son Visujitamalla of Nepal was killed in Samvat 878.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->