The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c9.13

c9.13

The reasons that led to the discontinuation of the Satī custom in the Vedic age can only be inferred. Probably the finer cultural outlook, that the Vedic Aryans had developed by this time, had convinced them that the custom was a barbarous one; probably they also found themselves in minority in India and felt the compelling necessity to increase their population in order to ensure their political domination. Instead of allowing widows to be burnt, they thought that it would be better to encourage them to live and increase the population by levirate or remarriage.