5.3 ANCIENT TRAVELLERS' ACCOUNTS
The abundant observations by ancient travellers testifies to the ubiquity of the
practice and the ruthless rigour with which it was enforced. Alexander the
Great and the Greeks observed Sati in Punjab [ Onescrites in Strabo xv.i.ch 30 ]
[ Barth 59 ]. The Greek Diodorus Siculus who lived in the 1st century BC,
mentioned the practice of sati in his account of the Punjab in the 4th century BC
[ EB 11:421 ]. Indigenous historical evidence substantiates this, for
` The earliest recorded historical instance of sati is that of the wife of the Hindu
general Keteus, who died in 316 B.C. while fighting against Antigonos. Both his
wives were eager to perform sati, but as the elder one was with child, only the
younger one alone was allowed to carry out her wish.'
-- [Sheth 104]
It is to be noted that the earliest inscriptions in India are dated to only a few
decades before this particular citation of sati. In other words Sati is attested in
the oldest inscriptions discovered in India, proving that it dates to the greatest
antiquity.
The sati rite was customary for the widows of Kshatriyas in the end of the first
century BC as mentioned by Strabo [ Strabo XV.ch.700.30 ] [ Harp.273 ]. Sati
was performed by all the Aryan races, for it is recorded that the Germanic
tribes used to immolate the widows of chieftain to accompany the husband to
Valhalla [ Harp. 273 ] [ David.150 ]. The Scythians also performed a similar
rite. This pan-Indo-European occurrence of Sati further confirms that Sati was
practiced by the Indo-Aryan barbarians.
The Arab writer Alberuni mentioned the practice of sati among the `Hindus'. [
al-B. ii p.155 {Ch.LXIX}; ii p.170 {Ch.LXXIII} ]
" She [ the widow ] has only to choose between two things -
either to remain a widow as long as ashe lives, or to burn herself,
... As regards the wives of kings, they are in the habit of burning
them whether they wish it or not."
-- [ al-B.ii.p.155 {Ch.LXIX} ]
This shows that the Hindu kings forcibly burnt their women
against their wishes. What true fruits of Vedic philosophy ! Later
travellers also refer to this horrible practice :
`Nicolo deo Contei states that as many as 3000 of the wives and
concubines of the kings of Vijayanagar were pledged to be burnt
with their lord on his death [and often ministers and palace
servants accompanied the king in death]'
-- [ Bash.188 ]
During the era of Anglo-Brahmin colonialism, when the Brahmins
betrayed the nation to the Anglo-Saxon invaders and collaborated
with them, the Pandits were free to re-enforce the harsh Vedic
sati laws which had been uprooted by the Islamic liberators.
Hence the Brahmins thwarted the best efforts of the Non-Brahmin
Ram Mohan Roy to stop it [ Harp.273 ]. That Sati actually revived
during Brahmin-British rule is also confirmed by the Abbe DuBois -
" [Sati] is more in vogue on the banks of the Ganges, [while] in
Bengal Presidency [only] 706 suttees occurred in 1817 [and in]
the Madras Presidency [out of] 30 million inhabitants not 30 allow
themselves to be burnt each year."
-- [DuB.357 ]
DuBois mentions with horror the brute custom of sati :
`[the wife] must, on the death of her husband, allow herself to be
burnt alive on the same funeral pyre [of her husband]'
-- [ DuB.345]
Contemporary literature is replete with references to the practice
of sati :
• One hundred queens of the Chedi king Gangayadeva burnt
themselves after the death of their husband king at Prayaga
[ 1200 p.65 ].
Sati was not only practiced by the wife of the deceased. Even
slave girls, mothers and sister-in-laws were forcefully burnt alive
when a man died. So cheap is the life of a Hindu woman !
• Dhanapala in his `Tilakamanjari' (p.156) refers to slave girls
going towards the funeral pyre to burn themselves when
they learned the death of their master. [ 1200, p.66 ftn.132 ]
• In the 4th act of the Venisamhara (VII.15) we find the
mother of the dead hero coming to the battle field to enter
his funeral pyre along with her daughter-in-law. [1200 p.66 ]
49
• Gajja, the mother rof Anada, burnt herself with her deceased
son [ Raj.Tar. VII.1380 ] [ 1200, p.66 ].
• Vallabha died with her brother-in-law Malla [ Raj.Tar.
VII.1486 ]
This shows that the brute custom of sati was merely designed to destroy
womanhood as a whole, and non-Brahmin women in particular. Sati still
continues to this day. In 1990, more than 50 widows were burnt alive as satis.
[ Verma ] This, once again, is the Brahmin conspiracy at work, destroying non-
Brahmin women.
Tonsuring of the head was another evil that widows had to face. The widow
was supposed to look like a sannyasi, so that no one would be attracted to her [
1200, p.69 ]. The braid of hair, if continued by the widow, would supposedly
result in the husband being put in bondage in the next world [ Skanda Pur.,
Kashikhanda 4.74 f ]. If a widow does not become a sati, she should get her
head tonsured [ Vedavyasa II.53 ]. That these restrictions were enforced is
indicated by the contemporary literature. Thus the young widowed daughter of
a merchant ( who kept her well-guarded ) had to devise ways and means to
enjoy her lover [ Akhy, p.192-193 ] [ 1200, p.69 ].
