What Is The Role Of Sati In The Vedas?

In ancient India, the apotheosis of traditional Hindu womanhood was the concept of pativrata, which called for total subordination of a woman in the service of the supreme deity in the form of her husband. There was no corresponding concept of conjugal loyalty spelt out for husbands as a man had the supreme power in society. Subjected to unprecedented subordination, women were not only deprived of the right to formal education, but also denied the right to property and were treated as mere items of property.1 In the backdrop of this patriarchal society, the practice of Sati gained popularity, especially among the upper classes2. The word Sati refers to the burning of a widow on the funeral pyre of her husband, often seen as a manifestation

As The Buddhist, Brahmana , Grihyasutra and Smriti literature fails to comment upon this, the first referential proof is traced back to 316 B.C , where the Greek accounts recorded the sati of the younger of the two wives of a Hindu general, Keteus on his death. While the Greeks were in admiration of the heroic element of the act, they also condemned the practice for its savage element.6 Such accounts by the Greek and Latin travellers provide insight into the practice of sati and the various beliefs that can explain its existence. In prehistoric times, it was believed that the needs of people in life and in the next world after death are more or less similar. In accordance with such beliefs, it was felt that a dead person’s usual paraphernalia should be sent with them. Since this paraphernalia included the dead person’s wife as well, such a belief gave rise to the custom of burning the wife along with the dead husband.7 References to the practice were also found in the Vishnudharmasutra, the Angiras, Sukra, the Bhagvata Purana and other smriti literature. However, there also existed important works writtien during this time, like the Manusmriti, which didnt mention the practice of

Without her husband she was considered to be anatha and vulnerable to being labeled as unchaste.8 With her purity in question, the widow had two real options before her-either to assume the life on an ascetic or to follow her dead husband to his pyre. Therefore, we see that from 500 A.D., the widows had dismal prospects before them as they couldn’t remarry and were blatantly discriminated against, and thus found the prospect of committing sati a better option than leading miserable lives as widows.9 Thus, it is seen that economic factors like the system of inheritance, male dominance and religious pressures had a bearing on the custom of sati. While individually none of these factors could provide justification for the practice, collectively they provide a closer understanding of why and how thousands of widows were burnt to death with the overt sanctions of large sections of the