Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c16.18

v2.c16.18

¹ A good example from Rājput history, which in many ways reminds us of the MBh., is given by Tod, *Rājasthan*, ii, 102 ff. The glory of the sati, the meritoriousness of the widow's death, and the way in which she shall burn herself are described, e.g. in Garuḍapurāṇasārod., x, 35-55. On the other hand the Mahānirvāṇatantra most emphatically curses this “wife's faithfulness”: every woman is a picture of the great goddess, and if a woman in her blindness climbs onto the dead lord's pyre, then she goes to hell (x, 79-80). Cp. herewith Zachariae, *Zschr. d. Ver. f. Volksk.*, Bd. 14, p. 204, n. 2. A most excellent essay on Indian widow-burning has been given by this scholar in this same periodical Bd. 14, p. 198 ff.; 302 ff.; 395 ff.; Bd. 15, p. 74 ff. A kind of tale, though probably quite a modern one, of the origin of the custom is given in *Anthropos*, ii, p. 277 ff. The roots of the custom probably lie not only in the idea that the departed one must not go into the other world as a wifeless wretch, but also in the superstitious fear of his vengeance, if this property of his is withheld from him, or even taken over by a successor in marriage. On this fear of ghosts, which send his possessions after the dead man, cp. e.g. Schurtz, *Urgesch. d. Kultur*, 155 ff.; 221, 567; Crooke, *Anthropos*, iv, p. 469 ff.; *Zschr. d. Ver. f. Volksk.*, Bd. 15, p. 232; Andree, *Ethnol. Parallel.*, i, 26-29; *Anthropos*, vii, 659; etc. Worthy of remark here is the explanation of the Mishmi in the border hills of Assam, that they give the dead man his things in the grave not because he needs them, but because they look on it as unseemly to enrich themselves with his property (*Zschr. f. Ethnol.*, v, p. 193).