The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c9.8

c9.8

The general prevalence of this custom among the primitive warlike tribes is not difficult to understand. Fighting races are very jealous of their women and often prefer to kill them, rather than take the risk of their going astray after their husbands’ death. There was also the general belief, already referred to, that the warrior will require in his next life all those things that were near and dear to him in this existence. It was therefore as reasonable to bury his clothes, bows, arrows and horses as to inter his wife. The wife is usually the dearest relation of a man, and the visitations of a chief’s ghost were popularly attributed to his desire to be united with his quondam queen. Why not lessen these dreaded visitations by burning or burying her along with his remains? This custom also made the life of the patriarch very safe; it practically eliminated all possibility of any one among his numerous mutually envious wives intriguing against his life. They all knew that even if successful, they had no chance of surviving him. They were therefore all care and attention to see that no preventible accident intervened to shorten the husband’s life.