Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.690

c7.690

The conclusion may be drawn from this that it was never a special Brahmanical institution. Even in the two great epics it occurs only rarely.¹ The Rām. contains a few occasional references to it but none of the widows who figure in the story burn themselves and it has been taken not improperly as a proof of the high antiquity of the Rām. In the Mah. the Satī is somewhat more popular; thus in 1,74,46 the Anugamana has been declared to be the duty of a true wife, and after the death of Pāṇḍu there is a row among his widows Mādri and Pṛthā (Kuntī) for the honour of being allowed to be burnt with him in which the former is at last victorious; yet the Satī is of rare occurrence in view of the enormous bulk of the Mah. and the frequent references to widowed princesses in it.¹