The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c9.86

c9.86

The above table will show that the percentage of Satīs in the Hindu population of Bengal was much larger than what obtained in the presidencies of Bombay and Madras, or even in the division of Benares, which was the greatest stronghold of orthodoxy¹. There is therefore some force in the view that undue advantage was taken in Bengal of the helpless and grief-stricken condition of the widow in order to induce her to become a Satī by some coparceners, who stood to gain by her elimination as an heir. The Dāyabhāga law, which permitted even the childless widow to become an heir to her husband, was thus not an unmixed blessing to the weak-minded section of the women of Bengal. The cases of force or undue influence, however, could not have been many. The annual average of Satīs in the Calcutta Division was about 370. This Division was at that time probably having a population equal to the whole of the then Bombay presidency, and its statistics also were very probably compiled much more accurately. It would therefore appear that Satīs were only twice as common in Bengal as they were in Bombay or Madras. In the latter provinces usually one widow in a thousand became a Satī. In Bengal the ratio was probably double, but not higher. Most of the Satīs in Bengal and U. P. were from the Brahmana caste. It is clear that the lifting of the canonical ban on the Brahmana widows to become Satīs had greatest effect in the Gangetic plain.