Sati

Sati EMILY MCKENDRY-SMITH University of West Georgia, USA he term sati (or suttee) has three possible meanings. First, it can refer to the practice of a widow’s immolation on her husband’s funeral pyre. Second, sati can refer to the woman herself. In this sense, the term can be understood to be referring to a faithful and virtuous wife; her immolation along with her husband’s body is seen as a consequence of this devotion. Finally, sati can refer to the Hindu goddess Sati, who sacriices herself in response to a slight to her husband, Shiva. Sati’s story does not it perfectly with other uses of the term, as she dies before Shiva and not by immolation. It is diicult to say whether sati is a practice mandated by Hinduism as, unlike other world religions, there is no single religious textual authority in Hinduism. What is clear is that some see sati as part of the moral or religious duties of a married woman, as part of her responsibility for her husband’s well-being. It is believed that, if a wife is truly selless and devoted, the heat of her sat, or truth, will ignite the funeral pyre. From this point of view, when a widow is immolated with her husband, she releases religious merit and power that is available to her husband in the aterlife, to her surviving kin and community, and to her descendants, who may venerate her as a benevolent ancestor. In Rajasthan, it is believed that the “founding” sati of a family’s lineage will protect the family and its line, but that the lineage will need to be “nourished” with additional satis. hese individual satis become amalgamated together as one satimata, or Mother Sati. Women who have taken vows to die as satis can pronounce curses over their families, mandate certain practices, or prohibit the possession of certain objects. hese traditions require that families respect and remember the sacriices of satis. Public and scholarly debate on sati was renewed in 1987 with the sati of Roop Kanwar, an 18-year-old woman from Rajasthan. Roop had been married to her husband, 24year-old Mal Singh, for eight months and had resided with him for three weeks when his death was followed by her sati. Unlike other cases of sati that have been performed in modern times, Kanwar’s sati sparked a huge public outcry. Once news of Kanwar’s sati broke, crowds mobilized under both pro- and anti-sati auspices. Individuals involved with the sati were arrested, including Kanwar’s father-in-law, two brothers-in-law, other family members, and eventually a doctor who is alleged to have administered drugs to Roop Kanwar before her immolation. All those arrested were later released and subsequently acquitted of any crime, due to lack of evidence. Ultimately, on October 1, 1987, the Rajasthan Sati (Prevention) Ordinance was passed, irst for the state of Rajasthan but by the end of the year extended to the entire country. his law made abetting a sati punishable by the death penalty or life imprisonment and prescribed severe penalties for attempting to commit sati or for glorifying sati with ceremonies or memorials. Literature on sati tends to focus on two primary topics. Much of the literature on sati focuses on the practice as a contested tradition and social or political symbol. Some contend that sati is a symbol of what they refer to as “authentic Hindu culture” threatened by modernization and westernization. Sati is held up as an ideal of womanhood and then used as a basis for both political solidarity and he Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Family Studies, First Edition. Edited by Constance L. Shehan. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. DOI: 10.1002/9781119085621.wbefs268 2 SATI evaluating women as either “truly Indian” or overly westernized or feminist. Other scholars point out the extent to which both the practice of sati itself and discourse on it have been inluenced by British colonialism. hey suggest two possible reasons for sati’s increase under British rule of India. First, the British may have precipitated an increase in materialism, as Indians modeled their colonizers. his would have provided an additional incentive to eliminate widows and prevent them from becoming economic burdens on families. Additionally, the British may have motivated certain segments of Indian society, such as members of the Brahmin caste, to strengthen their association with “orthodox” customs. Under the colonial regime, Brahmins were incorporated into the colonial administration and exposed to western inluences. In order to demonstrate their continued adherence to tradition, these groups may have reairmed or reinforced sati, a practice associated with orthodox Hinduism. Ultimately, sati may have been seen by some as an act of Indian self-airmation or anticolonial resistance. In addition, before outlawing sati, British colonial oicials asked Hindu priests to consult scriptures on the basis of the practice, thus introducing religion into discourse on the topic. A second topic taken up by the literature is the economic motivations that may be behind the perpetration of sati. Sati by the widow may be in the husband’s family’s economic interest, as it rids the family of the obligation to inancially support the widow, removes her as a potential heir to her husband’s property, and allows her husband’s family to keep her dowry (which they would forfeit if she returned to live with her natal family). More broadly, the establishment of sati memorial shrines has the potential to enrich both the husband’s family and the larger community; visitors to shrines oten leave donations that may go to the shrine’s owner. Some scholars have mentioned satis that have occurred not on customary cremation grounds but on other plots of land owned by the family as evidence of inancial motivation. In the early twenty-irst century, there are relatively few cases of sati in Rajasthan. However, the tradition of sati veneration continues to be practiced. he sati temple in Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan, is a major center of sati veneration, although it does not commemorate a recent sati but instead a possibly mythical one occurring in the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries. Harlan (1991) also describes the practice of jivit satimata or devotion to “living sati-mothers,” women who made vows to become sati but were prevented and instead adopted a lifestyle of asceticism. While there are relatively few living sati-mothers, they hold the mystic qualities associated with sati and attract followers as their stories circulate. Academic writing on sati has tended to focus on India and not on other locations where sati has occurred, such as Bali, Java, and Nepal. While sati disappeared in Java as Hinduism was replaced by Islam, Dutch colonizers in Bali required that local rulers prohibit the practice. Ater the prohibition, sati ceremonies would be held with large straw dolls taking the places of women. In Nepal, researchers have suggested that the practice of sati was not mandatory in ancient times, as the queen was prevented from immolation in 464 CE, but may have been practiced later in Nepali history. Sati was regulated in Nepal by 1854 and abolished in 1920. SEE ALSO: Death and Families; Hinduism and Families; India, Families in; Religion and Gender; Suicide and Divorce; Widowhood REFERENCES Harlan, Lindsay. 1991. Religion and Rajput Women: he Ethic of Protection in Contemporary Narratives. Berkeley: University of California Press. SATI FURTHER READING Fisch, Joerg. 2006. Burning Women: A Global History of Widow Sacriice from Ancient Times to the Present. London: Seagull Books. Hawley, John Stratton, ed. 1994. Sati: he Blessing and the Curse. New York: Oxford University Press. 3 Sen, Mala. 2001. Death by Fire: Sati, Dowry Death, and Female Infanticide in Modern India. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Weinberger-homas, Catherine. 1999. Ashes of Immortality: Widow-Burning in India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.