History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c32.2

v2.c32.2

The word is often written as 'suttee' in English works and papers. This subject is now of academic interest in India, since for over a hundred years (i. e. from 1829) self-immolation of widows has been prohibited by law in British India and has been declared to be a crime. A portion of sec. 1 of the Regulation XVII of 1829 passed by the Governor-General Lord William Bentinck is set out below. We are now in a position to take a dispassionate view of the practice, to trace its origin and follow its working down to the date of its being declared illegal. It is not possible in the space available here to go into all details. Those interested may read the latest book on the subject by Mr. Edward Thomson.¹⁴⁶¹ The burning of widows was not peculiar to Brahmanism, as many are prone to believe, but the custom owes its origin to the oldest religious views and superstitious practices of mankind in general. The practice of widow burning obtained among ancient Greeks, Germans, Slavs and other races (*vide* 'Die Frau' pp. 56, 82-83 and Schrader's 'Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan People,' English Translation of 1890, p. 391 and Westermarck's 'Origin and Development of Moral Ideas', 1906, vol. I, pp. 472-476 ), but was generally confined to the great ones, the princes and nobles.