Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.684

c7.684

the husband and the wife are burnt on the same pile of wood (§3). According to the commentators at least the word Sahamaraṇa is a usual designation for widow-burning. Āp., Hār. and Gaut. are indeed quoted as authors of ślokas about satī, but these passages are not found in their Dharmaśūtras although particularly that of Hār. deals with the duties of women very exhaustively. It is of course mentioned in Vi. 25, 14 and 20, 39 but these two passages were probably interpolated at the time of the later revision. Even the widows of a king, are said to be maintained by his successor according to Vas. 19, 33, although from other sources it is known that widow-burning often took place in royal families. M., Y., Nār. too are reticent about the satī in their metrical Smṛtis although they fully discuss the other duties of the widow. Only later authors such as Dakṣa 4,18, Par. 4,30 f., Vyāsa 2,53, the Purāṇas and the fragments of Bṛh. (25,8,11), Aṅgiras, Uśanas, Āp. etc. offer us more or less particular references and descriptions of the Satī. Various Commentaries and digests of law from Mit. (on Y. 1, 86) up to Jagannātha’s Vivādabhaṅgārṇava (1,917 ff. of my Ms.=Colebrooke’s Dig. 4,2), contain collections of these passages, and on this material Colebrooke’s well-known essay “On the duties of a faithful Hindu widow” is based.¹