History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c32.39

v2.c32.39

It appears from all accounts of travellers and others that widow-burning prevailed more in Bengal during the centuries immediately preceding its abolition than anywhere else in India.¹⁴⁸⁷ If that was so, there were certain good reasons for that state of things. In the whole of India, except Bengal, the widows of members in a joint Hindu family are only entitled to maintenance and have no other rights over the property of the family. In Bengal, wherever the Dāyabhāga prevails, the widow of a sonless member even in a joint Hindu family is entitled to practically the same rights over joint family property which her deceased husband would have had. This must have frequently induced the surviving¹⁴⁸⁸ members to get rid of the widow by appealing at a most distressing hour to her devotion to and love for her husband. This rule of the widow's right was not for the first time propounded by Jīmūtavāhana; he makes it clear that he followed a predecessor called Jitendriya. The figures given above lend support to the view expressed here, since Benares, where the rights of widows were insignificant, was responsible for a small number of *satīs* only. It is impossible, however, to believe that the number of widows in ordinary stations of life burning themselves was very large at any time or that most of the widows that did so were coerced into doing it. There is a good deal of epigraphic and other evidence particularly in other parts of India that relatives tried to dissuade the widow from taking the step. Even in Bengal the number of *satīs* must never have been very large. Colebrooke, who had spent the best part of his life in Bengal and who was a profound Sanskrit scholar, observes in a paper written about 1795 A. D. 'Happily the martyrs of this superstition have never been numerous. It is certain that the instances of the widow's sacrifices are now rare'.¹⁴⁸⁹ The very fact that there was no disturbance of peace or ebullition of popular feeling or even any great verbal protest from the vast Hindu population (except a petition to the Privy Council) against Bentinck's sweeping measure indicates two things, viz. that the burning of widows was a rare occurrence and that people were not very keen on observing the practice nor had they any very deep-seated convictions about its absolute religious necessity.¹⁴⁹⁰