The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c9.76

c9.76

Was any force excercised to compel unwilling widows to mount the funeral pyre? A straight reply like 'yes' or 'no' cannot be given to this question. There can be no doubt that in some cases unwilling widows were forced to burn themselves. Kalhaṇa has recorded the cases of two Kashmir queens bribing their ministers in order to induce them to come to the cremation ground for dissuading them from their apparently voluntary resolution to accompany their departed husbands. Queen Diddā adopted this strategem and was saved by her minister Naravāhana (VI, 195). Garga, the wily minister of queen Jayamatī, had a fiendish heart; he took the bribe all right, but deliberately delayed going to the cremation ground. The poor queen had to allow herself to be burnt in pursuance of her so-called voluntary resolve (VIII, 363). Medieval travellers record many cases of force being excercised, and their accounts must be true at least in some cases. Manucci tells us that Kshatriya women were burnt even against their wishes (III, p. 65); he himself rescued one such woman, who was eventually married to a European friend of his. Nicoli Conti informs us that financial pressure was often excercised, the widow being informed that she would lose her right to Strīdhana, if she decided to survive (*J. A. S. B.*, 1935, p. 256). Bernier has narrated the pathetic case of a child widow of 12 being burnt against her will at Lahore (pp. 363-64). In the case of Jaimall, one of Akbar's officers, his son wanted to forcibly immolate his mother; she was eventually saved only by the intervention of Akbar (*Akbarānmā*, 28th year). Sometimes the unfortunate widows, who were forced to become Satīs, used to recoil and run away from the funeral pyre. They were then regarded as untouchables and were not accepted back by their castes and families. They had to throw themselves on the mercy of low caste men, who used to assemble at the funeral when they suspected that the widow was likely to recoil at the 11th hour. Sometimes they were rescued by European traders, who used to marry them. It is a pity that in spite of such instances society should not have realised the enormous inequity of the custom.