The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c17.s3.7

c17.s3.7

We have shown above that at *c.* 500 a.d. the custom of Satī was meeting with considerable opposition from the thinking sections of our society. That opposition continued unabated for another 500 years, and the majority of Smṛitis went on averring that the custom amounted to a suicide and could bring no spiritual salvation. Eventually, however, owing to the growing appreciation of the ascetic ideals and practices, the custom of the Satī came to be surrounded with a halo and began to make a wider appeal. First it was confined to the fighting classes. Smṛiti writers and their commentators down to about the 11th century declare that it would be sinful for a Brahmana widow to burn herself on the funeral pyre of her husband. Gradually, however, Brahmanas also began to follow the custom, as they did not like to be excelled by Kshatriyas in the pursuit of ascetic practices. Widows now had a dismal prospect before them. They could not remarry. Some of them who were very young must have felt it to be no easy task to walk straight on the narrow and difficult path of strict chastity. They therefore very often preferred the terrible ordeal of the Satī to the tiresome life of the widow. Most of the widows who ascended the funeral pyres of their husbands did so quite voluntarily. Occasionally, however, an unwilling widow was burnt by her fiendish relatives, who were either afraid that she might eventually misbehave and bring disgrace to the family, or who wanted to appropriate for themselves her share in the family property. The recognition of the right of inheritance was thus not an unmixed blessing to the poor widow.