 | Sati practice: Encyclopedia II - Sati practice - Prevalence
Sati practice - Prevalence
Records exist of sati across most of the subcontinent. However, there seem to have been major differences historically, in different regions, and among different communities.
Sati practice - Numbers
There are no reliable figures for the numbers who died by sati across the country. A local indication of the numbers is given in the records kept by the Bengal Presidency of the British East India Company. The total figure of known occurrences for the period 1813 to 1828 is 8,135[13], thus giving an average of about 600 per year. Bentinck, in his 1829 report, states that 420 occurrences took place in one (unspecified) year in the 'Lower Provinces' of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, and 44 in the 'Upper Provinces' (the upper Gangetic plain)[14]. Given a population of over 50 million at the time for the Presidency, this suggests a maximum frequency of immolation among widows of well under 1%.
Sati practice - Communities
It is said by some authorities that the practice was much more common among the higher castes, and among those who considered themselves to be rising in social status. It was little known or unknown in the lowest castes and the tribal groups[15]. According to at least one source, it was very rare for anyone in the later Mughal empire except royal wives to be burnt.[16]
However, it has been said elsewhere that it was unusual in higher caste women in the south (quoted from Kamat).
Sati practice - Regional variations
It was known in Rajasthan from the earliest (6th century) to the present. About half the known sati stones (about 150 in total) in India are in Rajasthan. However, the extent to which individual instances of deaths resulted in veneration (glorification) implies that was not very common.
It is known to have occurred in the south from the 9th century through the period of the Vijayanagara empire, up to the 17th century. Madhavacharya, who is probably the best known of those historical figures who justified the practice, was originally a minister of the court of this empire. The practice continued to occur after the collapse of the empire, though apparently at a fairly low frequency. A record exists of a minister of the kingdom of Mysore giving permission for a widow to commit sati in 1805.[17]
In the Upper Gangetic plain, while it occurred, there is no indication that it was especially widespread. The earliest known attempt by a government to stop the practice took place here, that of Muhammad Tughlaq, in the Sultanate of Delhi in the 14th century. [citation needed]
In the Lower Gangetic plain, the practice may have reached a high level fairly late in history. it appears possible, based on available evidence and the existing reports of the occurrences of it, that the greatest incidence of sati in any region and period, in terms of total numbers, occurred in Bengal and Bihar in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.[18] This was during the earlier period of British rule, and before the abolition. The Bengal Presidency kept records from 1813 to 1829. The frequency increased in periods of hardship and famine. Ram Mohan Roy suggested that it was more prevalent in Bengal than in the rest of the subcontinent. An unusually large number of the surviving reports for this period are from Bengal, also suggesting that it was most common there.
In modern times, it has been largely confined to Rajasthan, mostly in or near Shekhawati, with a few instances in the Gangetic plain.
The custom of the immolation of a widow (or other close relatives and slaves) was also practiced by the ancient peoples of Scythia, Egypt, Scandinavia and China.
Sati practice - Recent incidence
Sati still occurs occasionally, mostly in rural areas. About 40 cases have occurred in India since independence in 1947, the majority in the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan. The last clearly documented case was that of Roop Kanwar. However there are claims that other more recent deaths have also been cases of Sati.
Roop Kanwar, a childless 19-year old widow, committed Sati in 1988, some allege forcibly, dressed in her red wedding dress, in Rajasthan's Deorala village. Several thousand people were said to have been at the event. The event quickly turned into a national case of outrage, pitting a modern Indian ideology against a traditional one. A much-publicised investigation led to the arrest of a large number of people from Deorala, said to have been present in the ceremony, or participants in it. Eventually, 11 people were charged. On January 31, 2004, a special court in Jaipur acquitted all of the 11 accused in the case, observing that the prosecution had failed to prove charges that they glorified Sati.
Other related archives1325, 1500, 1812, 1813, 1829, 1832, 1846, 1872, 1988, 2001, 2004, 316 BC, 4 December, 400 AD, Akbar, Alvars, Around the World in Eighty Days, Articles lacking sources, Aurangzeb, Bengal Presidency, Brahmin, British East India Company, Buddhism, Calcutta, Chalukya, China, Chinsurah, Columbia University, Dakshayani, Egypt, George Mason University, Goa, Greek, Gupta empire, Hanuman, Harsha, Harvard School of Public Health, Hindu, Hinduism, Humayun, IAST, Ibn Battuta, Indras, Islam, Islamic conquest of South Asia, Jainism, Jaipur, January 31, Jauhar, Lord William Bentinck, Madhavacharya, Madhya Pradesh, Madri, Mahabharata, Manu Smriti, Muhammad Tughlaq, Mysore, Napier, October 10, Pandu, Passepartout, Persia, Phileas Fogg, Pondicherry, Portuguese, Privy Council, Puranas, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Rajasthan, Ram Mohan Roy, Rama, Ramayana, Sagar, Sati, Scandinavia, Scythia, Self-immolation, Shah Jahan, Shekhawati, Sikh, Sultanate of Delhi, Tantras, Tara, The Guardian, University of Toronto, Vaishnava, Vijayanagara empire, William Bentinck, William Carey, William Wilberforce, citation needed, eighteenth century, funeral, ghee, ideology, immolated, jauhar, kalpa, piety, princely states, pyre, seppuku, thuggee
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