Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c18.s3.t1: A. General Remarks
Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c18.s3.t1
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A. General Remarks
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We now come to a social institution of Vijayanagara which, both because of its inherent brutality and acquired notoriety, has been associated with all that is savage and uncompromising in Hindu life. This is the well known sati or *sahagamana* or the burning of Hindu widows on the funeral pyre of their husbands. We are concerned here primarily with its prevalence under Vijayanagara, and incidentally with its existence in southern India prior to the rise of the sons of Sangama. The little but definite information we have of the rite, both from the inscriptions and from foreign travellers, enables us to examine a few of the general notions of this vile custom which has been rightly condemned as a defect of the Hindu social system. It is generally stated that sati was a universal practice in India.¹ According to the evidence of a writer whose book has gained considerable popularity in some circles, the sati system originated in the caste to which the nobles belonged. "It was originally in the noble caste of Rajahs that the *suttee* originated."² The same critic has brought forward another feature of sati which has found favour with almost all writers on Indian history. "Although the ancient and barbarous custom which imposes the duty on widows of sacrificing themselves voluntarily on the funeral pyre of their husbands has not been expressly abolished, it is much more rare nowadays than formerly, especially in the southern parts of the peninsula."³ The above statement contains two divergent views which may be noted: that it was an ancient custom which imposed a *duty* on widows, and that the latter *voluntarily* sacrificed themselves on the funeral pyre.
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¹ Cf. Iswari Prasad, *Med. Ind.* p. 437—"The practice of Sati was common, and the Brahmans freely commended this sort of self-immolation".
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² Abbe Dubois, *Hindu Man. & Cust.* II., p. 361 (1897 ed.).
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³ *Ibid.*, II, p. 359. *See* Max Muller's Preface to the same (Vol. I, p. viii) where it is said that in 1817 sati was less common in the south than in Bengal where 706 cases were reported. The following may be read on sati: Wilkins, *Modern Hinduism*, pp. 374-8, 381, 388; Max Muller, *Vedic Religion*, p. 32; Colebrooke in *As. Res.*, IV. p. 41, seq.; Mandelslo, *Travels*, Lib. I, p. 32 (Davies, 1669); Peter Mundy, *Travels*, II, pp. 34-6 (Hakluyt); Tavernier, *Travels*, P. II, Bk. III., p. 171 (1678 ed.); Crooke, *Popular Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern India*, I, pp.
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Whatever may be the hideous turn which this rite took in the ages following the disappearance of the Empire of Vijayanagara, one could hardly be justified in viewing it as an institution of the mediaeval times from the reports of eyewitnesses and writers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It is necessary that we should record the evidence of foreign travellers and inscriptions to know the extent of its popularity under Vijayanagara.