History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c32.4

v2.c32.4

There is no Vedic passage which can be cited as incontrovertibly referring to widow-burning as then current, nor is there any mantra which could be said to have been repeated in very ancient times¹⁴⁶² at such burning nor do the ancient gṛhyasūtras contain any direction prescribing the procedure of widow burning. It therefore appears probable that the practice arose in Brahmanical India a few centuries before Christ. Whether it was indigenous or was copied from some non-Aryan or non-Indian tribes cannot be demonstrated. None of the dharmasūtras except Viṣṇu contains any reference to *satī*. The Manusmṛti is entirely silent about it. It is stated in Strabo (XV. 1. 30 and 62) that the Greeks under Alexander found *satī* practised among the Cathaei in the Punjab and that that practice arose from the apprehension that wives would desert or poison their husbands (Hamilton and Falconer's Translation vol. III). The Viṣṇu-dharmasūtra¹⁴⁶³ says 'On her husband's death the widow should observe celibacy or should ascend the funeral pyre after him.' The Mahābhārata, though it is profuse in the descriptions of sanguinary fights, is very sparing in its references to widow burning. Mādrī, the favourite wife of Pāṇḍu, burnt herself with her husband's body.¹⁴⁶⁴ In the Virāṭa-parva Sairandhrī is ordered to be burnt with Kīcaka,¹⁴⁶⁵ just as in ancient times it is said there was a custom to bury a slave or slaves along with the deceased ruler. The Mausala parva (7. 18) says that four wives of Vasudeva, viz. Devakī, Bhadrā, Rohiṇī and Madirā burnt themselves with him and (chap. 7. 73-74) that Rukmiṇī, Gāndhārī, Śaibyā, Haimavatī, Jāmbavatī among the consorts of Kṛṣṇa burnt themselves along with his body and other queens like Satyabhāmā went to a forest for *tapas*. The Viṣṇupurāṇa also says that eight queens of Kṛṣṇa, Rukmiṇī and others, entered fire on the death of Kṛṣṇa.¹⁴⁶⁶ The Śāntiparva (chap. 148) describes how a *kapotī* (female pigeon) entered fire on the death of her husband the bird.¹⁴⁶⁷ In the Strīparva (chap. 26) the Great Epic describes the death ceremonies performed for the fallen Kauravas, but no mention is made of any widow immolating herself on the funeral pyre though the chariots, clothes and weapons of the warriors are said to have been consigned to fire. From the above it appears that the practice was originally confined to royal families and great warriors even in India and that cases of widow burning were rare. Several texts are cited by Aparārka from Paiṭhīnasi, Aṅgiras, Vyāghrapād which apparently forbid self-immolation to brāhmaṇa widows.¹⁴⁶⁸ The authors of digests explain away these passages by saying that they only prohibit self-immolation by a brāhmaṇa widow on a funeral pyre different from that of the husband i. e. a brāhmaṇa widow can burn herself only on the funeral pyre of her husband and if his body is cremated elsewhere in a foreign land, his widow cannot, on hearing of his death, burn herself later. They rely on the text of Uśanas that a brāhmaṇa widow should not follow her husband on a separate funeral pyre. The Veda-Vyāsa-smṛti (II. 53) says that a brāhmaṇa wife should enter fire, clasping the dead body of her husband; if she lives (after her husband) she should give up adorning her hair and emaciate her body by austerities.¹⁴⁶⁹ In the Rāmāyaṇa,¹⁴⁷⁰ (Uttarakāṇḍa 17. 15) there is a reference to the self-immolation of a brāhmaṇa woman (the wife of a *brahmarṣi* and mother of Vedavatī, who when molested by Rāvaṇa burnt herself in fire). The Mahābhārata (Strī-parva 23. 34 ff.) on the other hand describes how Kṛpī, the wife of Droṇa, the brāhmaṇa commander-in-chief of the Kauravas, appeared with dishevelled hair on the battle-field on the death of her husband, but does not say that she burnt herself.¹⁴⁷¹ It appears therefore that the burning of brāhmaṇa widows began much later than that of kṣatriya widows.