The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c9.17

c9.17

The Buddhist literature also is unaware of the custom of Satī. If it had existed in the days of the Buddha, one feels certain that the great Sakyan sage would have started a vehement crusade against it. He who opposed sacrifices to gods, because dumb animals were immolated therein, would certainly have been exasperated by a custom which entailed the burning of human beings alive. So we may well conclude that even in Kshatriya circles the custom was not prevalent in *c.* 500 B. C. Megasthenes and Kauṭilya both do not mention the custom. The authors of the Dhārmasūtras (*c.* 400 B. C. to *c.* 100 A. D.) and the writers of the early Smṛitis like those of Manu and Yājñavalkya (*c.* 100 A. D. to *c.* 300 A. D.) have laid down detailed rules about the duties of women and widows. None of them, however, even hints that it would be commendable for a widow to burn herself alive with her dead husband at his funeral.