Sati: Beyond the Funeral Pyre
The practice of sati was the Hindu practice that involved a widow killing herself by self-immolation right after the death of her husband. The widow would be decked up in her finest jewellery and clothes like a newlywed bride and sit on her husband's funeral pyre, ready to be united with him in a world beyond the physical world. This was regarded as an expression of her wholehearted devotion to her deceased husband. In the eyes of orthodox Hindus, this act was the way through which a widow could metamorphosize herself into a goddess, venerated by her people after she was gone. We do not find any direct sanction for the practice in sacred Hindu texts. Sati is never prescribed in the Griya Sutras or the older smritis like the Manu and Yajnavalkya Smritis. There is only one reference to sati in the Ramayana , when Vedavati informs Ravana that her mother along with the corpse of her husband Kushadhaja perished in a fire. The Mahabharata mentions that Madri performed sati. Deviki, B...