Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c14.96

c14.96

*Suttee.* Suttee was seen by the Greeks. Onesicritus saw it among the Kathaioi or the Kaṭhas. Diodorus also states that among the Kathaians prevailed the custom that widows should be burnt along with their husbands [p. 279 in McCrindles' *Invasion of India by Alexander*]. Aristobulus relates that in 316 B.C. an Indian military leader who had gone to Iran to fight under Eumenes, accompanied by his two wives, was unfortunately killed in the battle, whereupon the two wives vied with each other to be the *Satī*. The elder being with child, the other one proceeded to the pyre and "lay down beside her husband. As the fire seized her, no sound of weeping escaped her lips."