The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c26.175

v1.c26.175

Onesicritus spoke of it as specially a custom of the Kshatriyas (Cathaeans)¹. Aristobulus was told that the widow sometimes followed her husband to the pyre of her own desire, and that those who refused to do so lived under general contempt². In the year 316 b.c. the leader of an Indian contingent which had gone to fight under Eumenes in Irān was killed in battle. He had with him his two wives. There was immediately a competition between them as to which was to be the *satī*. The question was brought before the Macedonian and Greek generals, and they decided in favour of the younger, the elder being with child. At this, the elder woman