History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c9.13

v1.c9.13

The custom of Sati was of course prevalent. And Harsha's mother is discribed by Bāṇa to have burnt herself even before her husband was actually dead. The practice of burning oneself in fire, was resorted to even by men who did so often to express their intense affection for a deceased master, or for the mere sake of merit or to avoid misery and pain. Bāṇa describes Rājyaśrī as about to burn herself in her destitution and also the friends of Prabhākaravardhana like his physician Rāsāyana and some of his favouite ministers and servants burning themselves before or after his death much in the manner of the Japanese minister who shot himself after the death of the last Mikado. These discriptions of Bāṇa might have been treated as mere poetical hyperbole had it not been for corroborating epigraphic evidence. In the Aphsad inscription (Crop. Ins. Vol. III P. 225) we find king Kumāra Gupta burning himself in fire at Prayāga. Why he did so does not appear, but from the fact that he burnt himself at Prayāga, he may be believed to have done so merely for the merit of it. “शौर्य-सत्यव्रतधरो यः प्रयागतोऽधने । अम्भीवकारिष्याग्नौ मग्नः सः पुष्पपूजितः” The contempt of death exhibited in these acts of self-sacrifice is indeed remarkable. Then there were other modes of putting an end to one's life, such as falling from a precipice or swallowing dire poison and so on. These are described even in the Mahābhārata and the custom of putting an end to one's life for various allowable reasons seems to be very ancient.*