The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c9.82

c9.82

As far as the general population is concerned, perhaps one widow in a thousand became a Satī, when the custom was in its greatest vogue. Public opinion and government had not begun to assert themselves against the custom in the first quarter of the 19th century; we may therefore well presume that the prevalence of the custom at this time was more or less the same as it was during the preceding four or five centuries. Government records of this period show that in the presidencies of Bombay and Madras, the average annual number of Satīs was well below 50. In the Poona dominion of the Peshwa the annual average was about 12 during the period 1800 to 1812. Tanjore district had the worst reputation for Satīs, but its record was of only 24 cases during the eighteen months preceding 1817. In Central India only 3 or 4 cases of Satīs used to take place annually¹. It is quite possible that these statistics may be incomplete. But even if we suppose that the actual number of Satīs was twice the number officially recorded, the conclusion becomes inevitable that only an infinitesimal number of widows in the general population were immolating themselves. It is clear that not more than one widow in a thousand used to mount the funeral pyre in the Deccan and Central India.