The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c9.56

c9.56

The Brāhmaṇa community, however, was accustomed to pride itself on following the most ascetic and self-denying code of life; eventually it began to feel that it should not allow itself to be outdistanced by the Kshatriyas in the custom of Satī. The custom therefore began to be followed by a few Brāhmaṇa families soon after 1000 A. D. We have seen already how there are express commands in earlier texts prohibiting a Brāhmaṇa widow from following the new fashion of suicide, but commentators of this period began to explain them away with their proverbial ingenuity. It was argued that when death by mounting the funeral pyre of the husband was apparently prohibited to a Brāhmaṇa widow, what was meant was that she should not take the step merely under a temporary sense of overwhelming grief. It should be the result of full and mature deliberation². Or, the intention may be to interdict death by mounting a separate funeral pyre; a Brāhmaṇa widow must be always burnt along with her husband's remains on the same pyre¹. These arguments are advanced by south Indian commentators of the 12th and 14th centuries; it is therefore clear that the custom had by this time spread to south India and penetrated into the Brāhmaṇa community as well.