Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c18.s3.t5: E. Some Conclusions as regards Sati

Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c18.s3.t5

Language
English

E. Some Conclusions as regards Sati

v2.c18.s3.t5.1

The above instances of *sahagamana* help us to solve certain aspects of the question of sati. In most instances, if one may venture to say so, at least in the mediaeval history of southern India, the death of the husband in a fight, a siege, a cow-raid, a riot or for a cause which, according to the notions of the times, called forth their courage and endurance, their wives committed sati. More interesting than the occasion when they performed sati is the question of the classes amongst whom this custom was most popular. According to the inscriptions it was the Gauḍas, and in some instances, the Nāyakas, who were given to this rite. The Gauḍas included persons of rank as the name of *Gauḍa-arasa* and *Gauḍa-arasi* clearly indicate. Our assumption that sati was restricted to one or two classes is to some extent corroborated by the evidence of foreign travellers. But here again, as we shall relate in connection with orthodoxy in Vijayanagara, there seems to be some confusion among foreign witnesses as regards the name of the people who committed sati and similar rites. We shall revert to this subject later on.

v2.c18.s3.t5.2

We now come to the question whether sati was compulsory according to the Hindu lawgivers. On this point, we believe, there cannot be any difference of opinion: the classical canonists never sanctioned compulsory sahagamana. Thus Manu, whose well known dictum as regards the dependence of women we shall presently cite, says: "...Him to whom her father may give her, or her brother with the father's permission, she shall obey as long as he lives, and when he is dead, she must not insult (his memory)...At her pleasure let her emaciate her body by (living on) pure flowers, roots, and fruits; but she must never even mention the name of another man after her husband has died...A virtuous wife who after the death of her husband constantly remains chaste, reaches heaven, though she have no son, just like those chaste men."¹ Manu, therefore, makes provision for a pure and simple life of a widow but not for her death on the funeral pyre of her husband.

v2.c18.s3.t5.3

¹ Manu, V., I., 151, 157, 160, pp. 195-7.

v2.c18.s3.t5.4

Kauṭilya's regulations are more detailed in this connection. He lays down minute rules for the re-marriage of widows within their own gōtra. This applies to the wives of those who belong to the Śūdra, Vaiśya, Kshatriya, and Brahman castes.² There is, of course, consensus of opinion among the classical canonists on this subject.³

v2.c18.s3.t5.5

² Arthaśāstra, Bk. III, Ch. IV., 159, pp. 195-6.

v2.c18.s3.t5.6

³ Manu, IX, 75-6, pp. 340-1; Gautama; XVIII, 15-20, p. 272; Vasiṣṭha, XVII, 55-64, pp. 89-90, 74-80, pp. 92-3; Nārada, XII, 97-100, pp. 184-5.

v2.c18.s3.t5.7

According to the Hindu legists, sahagamana is optional. Thus says Viṣṇu: "After the death of her husband, to preserve her chastity or to ascend the pile after him...A good wife, who perseveres in a chaste life after the death of her husband, will go to heaven, like (perpetual) students, even though she has no son."⁴ Bṛihaspati says: "A wife is considered half the body (of her husband), equally sharing the result of his good or wicked deeds; whether she ascends the pile after him, or chooses to survive him leading a virtuous life, she promotes the welfare of her husband."¹ The freedom given to the widow in the mediaeval code of Śukra is thus stated: "When the husband is dead, the chaste women should accompany him or observe the vow, should not like to go to other's houses, and should always maintain *brahmacharyya* or control of passions, should give up the daily ornamentation of self."²

v2.c18.s3.t5.8

⁴ Viṣṇu, XXV, 14, 17, p. 111,

v2.c18.s3.t5.9

¹ Brihaspati, XXIV, 11, p. 369. Read Jolly's comment on ibid., n. See also ibid., XXIV, 8, p. 368.

v2.c18.s3.t5.10

² Sukraniti, IV, iv., 11., 57-9, p. 163.

v2.c18.s3.t5.11

One cannot determine how, in spite of a fair degree of freedom allowed by the lawgivers, *sahagamana* rose to the status of a social institution. That it was not always compulsory seems evident from the remarks of some of the foreign travellers whose evidence we have cited above. Even according to Barbosa the women, who wore a cheerful countenance on the awful occasion, made public the fact that, although they were "free to act", yet they burned themselves for the love they bore to their husbands. In pre-Vijayanagara times too, as Friar Jordanus, who visited India between A.D. 1321-3 tells us in the following passage, it may not have been compulsory. According to this eye-witness, who speaks of "Lesser India",—"In this India, on the death of a noble, or of any people of substance, their bodies are burned: and eke their wives follow them alive to the fire, and, for the sake of worldly glory, and for the love of their husbands, and for eternal life, burn along with them, with as much joy as if they were going to be wedded; and those who do this have the higher repute for virtue and perfection among the rest. Wonderful! I have sometimes seen, for one dead man who was burnt, five living women take their places on the fire with him, and die with their dead".³ If it is permissible to suppose that coercion may not have brought to bear on unfortunate women on all occasions, then, the concluding lines of the epigraph, dated A. D. 1445, already cited, recording the death of Bomma Gauḍa, may not be altogether incredible. His wife, the inscription relates, "with great desire (she) performed *sahagamana*".¹

v2.c18.s3.t5.12

³ Jordanus, Mirabilia Descripta, Preface, p.v., pp. 20-1. Cf. With the account of Ibn Batuta, Travels, p. 109 (Lee).

v2.c18.s3.t5.13

¹ E. C., VIII, Sb. 495, p. 83, op. cit. ² Sewell., *For, Emp.*, p.

v2.c18.s3.t5.14

We have yet to find out the probable causes which brought sati to the limelight of south Indian history. We admit that the following assumptions are merely suggestions. In the first place, we have to note a singular precedent set by the members of the royal families of Vijayanagara. It was the custom according to which queens committed sati. Nuniz relates the following: "Then he (Kṛṣṇa Dēva Rāya) took a ring from his finger and gave it to one of his pages, so that he might show it to his queens in token of his death, that they might burn themselves according to custom".² It is not difficult to imagine that on the failure of a campaign, the queens and women-folk should have performed *sahagamana* to escape dishonour at the hands of the Muhammadans. The king in mediaeval times stood as the embodiment of all that was great and virtuous; and the example of the queens was bound to have a profound effect on the minds of the women of Vijayanagara. This may account for the prevalence of the rite in the capital as well as in the provinces where, as related by Muhammad Sharif Hanafi in his *Majālis-u Salātin*, on the death of a ruler called "Kaner Rai" in A.D. 1628, his 700 wives performed *sahagamana*.³

v2.c18.s3.t5.15

Another cause which may have made sati popular was the idea of self-sacrifice which prompted men to lay down their lives for the sake of their rulers. We shall mention this subject in connection with patriotism. Barbosa also bears testimony to the remarkable spirit of loyalty which prevailed on those days. "So great is the haste of those who wish to burn themselves first, that it is something wonderful, and many men, confidants of the king, burn themselves with him".⁴

v2.c18.s3.t5.16

³³⁹ The Queens of Vijayanagara at least on one memorable occasion, accompanied the ruler on his campaigns. B. A. S. ³ Elliot, *Hist. of India*, VII, p. 139; Satyanatha, The *Nayaks*, p.

v2.c18.s3.t5.17

²⁵⁷ Does the name Kaner Rai stand for the Nāyaka of Madura? B.A.S. ⁴ *Barbosa*, Stanley, p. 93; I., Dames, pp. 216-17.

v2.c18.s3.t5.18

There may be another reason why sati was very common in Vijayanagara. The rite seems to have been popular in other lands as well. This we infer from the description of an island called "Sunda" given by Faria y Sousa. While relating the events of A.D. 1526-7, he says: "The Women (of Sunda which, according to Faria y Sousa was divided on the south from Java by a very narrow Channel) are beautiful, those of Quality chaste, contrary to what is usual in most of the other parts of the World. They have Convents into which they enter to preserve their Virginity as in Spain. The married women kill themselves when their Husbands die; a good Custom to show their Duty, and to prevent their killing them, were it not against the Law of Nature, and therefore, a brutal Error".¹ The custom may have spread from India to the southern islands.

v2.c18.s3.t5.19

¹ Faria y Sousa, Asia Port. I. p. 305.

v2.c18.s3.t5.20

There are some points about sahagamana or sati on which no light whatsoever can be thrown. We have, for example, no explanation to offer as to what the raised hand on a sati stone commemorates. Rice remarked thus on the topic: "The māstikal also consist of a stone slab, on which is represented in relief the figure of a post or pillar, with a human arm of the natural size, or larger, projecting from the middle of it: the hand is held up straight, with the fingers distended, and in the hollow between the thumb and the forefinger is often placed a lime. Below this striking symbol is in many cases a representation in miniature of a man and woman; sometimes seated side by side with the linga above them, sometimes with the man seated and the woman dancing round him, and other arrangements. These stones never have any inscription, so far as I have noticed".²

v2.c18.s3.t5.21

² Rice, My. Ins., Intr., p, xxvi.

v2.c18.s3.t5.22

This last statement, however, is not always borne out by facts. The mastikal of A. D. 1430, as related above, found at Arunavalli, Malavalli tāluka, states the name of the woman who committed sati, and of her son Bāsappa who set up the stone.¹ As regards the name given to the raised hand we have some details. The inscription of A.D., 1417 recording the *sahagamana* of the three wives of Buktihara, narrated above, informs us that they give (their) arm and hand (*ālana heṇḍati yaru ṭōḷu-kayi koṭ(ṭ)a kambha*).² Rice remarks thus: "What is symbolised by the pillar I regret that I am unable to explain . . . . The human arm I have heard called *Madanakai*, the hand or arm of Mada, that is, of Cupid, love or passion". "Those with one arm are called *woṇṭikai*; those with two, *yeraḍu kai māsti*³". An inscription dated Śaka 1327 (A.D. 1405-6) informs us that Gaṅgāsāni, the daughter of Bayiri Seṭṭi of Pāmiḍi, did *agnipravēśa* (i.e., entered into the fire) at Penugoṇḍa on the death of her husband Rāma Dēva Nāyaka. In praise of her Tippa Nāyaka set up a *virakai* (hero-hand) at Vānavōḷu.⁴

v2.c18.s3.t5.23

¹ My. Arch. Report for 1920, p. 42. op. cit. See Rice., ibid., No. 50 of A.D. 1206 (?) p. 113; My. Arch. Report for 1912-13, p. 31.

v2.c18.s3.t5.24

² E. C., III, Md. 103, p. 49, op. cit.

v2.c18.s3.t5.25

³ Rice, My. Ins., p. xxvi, and ibid, n. See also ibid., pp. xxvi-xxvii where a horrid picture of sati is given.

v2.c18.s3.t5.26

⁴ 809 of 1917; For the symbolism of the lemon, read Irvine, J. R. A. S. for 1905, p. 364, where reference is given to a valuable essay in German on the symbolism of the lemon by Prof. Theodor Zachariae. For sati stones in Gujerat, read Arch. Sur. West. Ind. for 1897, p. 90.

Linked texts (7)