[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Dark Ages](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages) › [Travellers (1500–1858)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel) › [Les six voyages de Jean-Baptiste Tavernier](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier) › [Travels in India (Ball)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball) › 124.4 # Travels in India (Tavernier) 124.4 Travels in India (Ball) 124.4 - **Language:** English ### [124.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.124.4) The Governor, seeing that all the remonstrances he makes to these women, who are urged to burn themselves even by their relatives and by the Brahmins, are ineffectual to turn them from the damnable resolution which they have taken to die in so cruel a fashion, when his secretary indicates by a sign that he has received a bribe, at length allows them to do what they wish, and in a rage tells all the idolaters who accompany them that they may “go to the devil.” Immediately on this permission being obtained, all the music commences to make itself heard, and with the sound of drums, flutes, and other instruments of that kind, all go to the house of the deceased, and from thence, as I have said, accompany the body to the margin of a river or tank, where it is to be burned. All the relatives and friends of the widow who desires to die after her husband, congratulate her beforehand on the good fortune which she is about to acquire in the other world, and on the glory which all the members of the caste derive from her noble resolution. She dresses herself as for her wedding-day, and is conducted in triumph to the place where she is to be burnt. A great noise is made with the instruments of music and the voices of the women who follow, singing hymns to the glory of the unhappy one who is about to die. - [Previous: 124.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.124.3) - [Next: 124.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.124.5) - [Up: 124](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.124) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.124.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.124.4) · Pramāṇa