History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c32.3

v2.c32.3

¹⁴⁶¹ 'Suttee' (1928), which gives an account of it from the most ancient times, of the efforts made to suppress it by Raja Rama Mohan Roy and the British Government. In an appendix the author gives extracts from the accounts reported by those who witnessed widow burning from 317 B C. to 1845 A. D. Vide also Max Muller's H. A. S. L. p. 48 for references to the custom of widow-burning among Greeks and Scythians; 'Die Frau' pp. 74-79 for accounts of travellers and eye witnesses; Colebrooke's Miscellaneous Essays vol. I (ed. of 1837) pp. 114-116 (for description of the rite), vol. II. chap. III. pp. 153-158; Annals of the Bhandarkar O. R. Institute vol. 14. p. 219. In the 'Travels of Peter Mundy' (1608-1669) published by the Hakluyt Society in 1914 vol. II. pp. 34-36, the author gives an account of the burning of a widow at Surat in 1630 with a sketch showing the widow having on her lap the head of her deceased husband. That writer also notes that the practice had in his time become rare, as under the Mogul rulers a special license from the Ruler or Governor was required. Similarly Barbosa (a Portuguese) describes the burning of a *satī* in the Vijayanagar kingdom (vide translation by M. L. Dames, vol. I. pp. 213-216). Section 1 of Regulation XVII of 1829 which declared the practice of *satī* illegal and a crime punishable in the courts (and passed by the Governor-General in Council on 4th December 1829) is: The practice of Suttee or of burning or burying alive the widows of Hindoos is revolting to the feelings of human nature; it is nowhere enjoined by the religion of the Hindoos as an imperative duty; on the contrary a life of (*Continued from last page*) purity and retirement on the part of the widow is more especially and preferably inculcated and by a vast majority of that people throughout India the practice is not kept up or observed; in some extensive districts it does not exist; in those in which it has been most frequent, it is notorious that, in many instances, acts of atrocity have been perpetrated, which have been shocking to the Hindoos themselves, and in their eyes unlawful and wicked.........Actuated by these considerations the Governor-General in Council, without intending to depart from one of the first and most important principles of the system of British Government in India that all classes of the people be secure in the observance of their religious usages, so long as that system can be adhered to without violation of the paramount dictates of justice and humanity, has deemed it right to establish the following rules &c.