The abolished 'Sati Pratha': Lesser-known facts on the banned practice

[BMD]

The abolished 'Sati Pratha': Lesser-known facts on the banned practice

The abolished 'Sati Pratha': Lesser-known facts on the banned practice

The abolished 'Sati Pratha'

The Bengal Sati Regulation which banned the Sati practice in all jurisdictions of British India was passed on December 4, 1829 by the then Governor-General Lord William Bentinck. The regulation described the practice of Sati as revolting to the feelings of human nature.

On the 186th anniversary of the Bengal Sati Regulation, here is all you need you need to know about the practice of Sati and facts relating to the custom:

Who is a Sati and what is Sati custom?

• Sati, also spelled as Suttee, is a practice among Hindu communities where a recently widowed woman, either voluntarily or by force, immolates herself on her deceased husband's pyre
• The woman who immolates herself is, hence, called a Sati which is also interpreted as a 'chaste woman' or a 'good and devoted wife'
• There have been many instances of how the widows were shunned in India and therefore, the only solution for a life without husband was to practice Sati as it was considered to be the highest expression of wifely devotion to a dead husband.

Some lesser-known facts on the Sati practice:

• Sati, or Suttee, is derived from the name of the goddess Sati, who immolated herself because she was unable to bear her father Daksha's humiliation towards her husband Shiva
• Sati was regarded as a barbaric practice by the Islamic rulers of the Mughal period
• In the 16th century, Humayun was the first to try a royal agreement against the practice. Akbar was next to issue official orders prohibiting Sati and since then it was done voluntarily by women. He also issued orders that no woman could commit Sati without a specific permission from his chief police officers
• Akbar had also instructed the officers to delay the woman's decision for as long as possible
• Many Hindu scholars have argued against Sati, calling it as 'suicide, and...a pointless and futile act'
• By the end of the 18th century, the practice had been banned in territories held by some European powers
• The Portuguese banned the practice in Goa by 1515
• The Dutch and the French banned it in Hugli-Chunchura (then Chinsurah) and Pondicherry
• Sati has occurred in some rural areas of India in the 21st century
• According to some official reports, around 30 cases of Sati, from 1943 to 1987, were documented in India
• The practice still occurs today in some parts of India and is still regarded by some as the ultimate form of womanly devotion and sacrifice.

 

[randomradio]

The practice was started by wives of kings and noblemen who died in battle, primarily kings.

It increased significantly after Islamic invasions, since women didn't want to be defiled by the nut jobs who liked taking sex slaves, so even common women decided to kill themselves by immolation. And that's how it spread and became a part of regular custom.

 

[RATHORE]

Sati was regarded as a barbaric practice by the Islamic rulers of the Mughal period

Yes, because it deprived them of the opportunity to rape those women and take them as sex slaves.

Many Hindu scholars have argued against Sati, calling it as 'suicide, and...a pointless and futile act'

Not sure who those "scholars," are, but in that case they simply haven't understood the concept. When it became most common and widespread as "jauhar," it was a final act of defiance and the only way out for Hindu women who didn't want to be subject to brutal rape and sexual enslavement by barbaric Islamic invaders; and was done in coordination with the men riding out for a final battle, with the sole intention of dying in combat.

 

[BMD]

So why did India have to introduce a Sati Prevention Act as late as 1987?

And since when did Muslims wait until relatives were dead before raping?

 

[Guynextdoor]

So why did India have to introduce a Sati Prevention Act as late as 1987?

And since when did Muslims wait until relatives were dead before raping?

Indians introduced the act because the British were promoting this and we wanted to stop this abomination.

 

[BMD]

Indians introduced the act because the British were promoting this and we wanted to stop this abomination.

Err no, the British were the first to ban Sati in India as early as 1829. The practice also pre-dates the Mughals, back to the 3rd century BC.

Sati (practice) - Wikipedia

 

[Guynextdoor]

Err no, the British were the first to ban Sati in India as early as 1829. The practice also pre-dates the Mughals, back to the 3rd century BC.

Sati (practice) - Wikipedia

Lol, I laugh at your historical understanding blacksmith. British did not want to interfere in local customs so Raja Rammohan Roy led a public movement to get the practice banned. This was a time when women were sent to convents in Britain for having pre-marital/extramarital sex.

 

[Superkaif]

Err no, the British were the first to ban Sati in India as early as 1829. The practice also pre-dates the Mughals, back to the 3rd century BC.

Sati (practice) - Wikipedia

Why you entertaining the troll? Let him swivel on his own vomit and the entertainment will cease. Let’s me honest - the retard has no interest in this matter - all this topic does is rule the juices of some and amuse those that have an inadequate life in the real world.

 

[BMD]

Lol, I laugh at your historical understanding blacksmith. British did not want to interfere in local customs so Raja Rammohan Roy led a public movement to get the practice banned. This was a time when women were sent to convents in Britain for having pre-marital/extramarital sex.

I laugh at your historical understanding buttsmith. William Carey, an English missionary campaigned to have it banned.

 

[Guynextdoor]

I laugh at your historical understanding buttsmith. William Carey, an English missionary campaigned to have it banned.

William Carey, like the small minority of englishmen who allied with Rammohan Roy stood with it in the same way that some whites supported mandela. petulant and childish...I don't blame you. You have been denied the fruits of a complete education and need to make the best of your tradesman learning.

 

[BMD]

William Carey, like the small minority of englishmen who allied with Rammohan Roy stood with it in the same way that some whites supported mandela. petulant and childish...I don't blame you. You have been denied the fruits of a complete education and need to make the best of your tradesman learning.

How strange then that you had over 2000 years to ban it before the British arrived and only managed it when they did and still needed to introduce separate prevention acts after the British left.

And why was child marriage only banned in 1929?

Wow, burning widows and marrying children, I bet your medieval empires under the like of the Cholas must have been an absolute bag of bliss for all the subdued. I hardly think you are in any position to criticise the British.

 

[Kvasir]

Practices like this were found in Europe too. When a Viking warrior died, his thralls and wife would be murdered and buried alongside him so that they too could follow him into the afterlife.

Því at hánum fylgja
fimm ambáttir,
átta þjónar,
eðlum góðir,
fóstrman mitt
ok faðerni,
þat er Buðli gaf
barni sínu

Or if you can't read Old Norse:

Bond-women five
shall follow him,
And eight of my thralls,
well-born are they,
Children with me,
and mine they were
As gifts that Budhli
his daughter gave

And why was child marriage only banned in 1929?

Child marriage is still legal in many European states and in some states of the United States. Hell, it was just outlawed in Norway earlier this year!

 

[Angel Eyes]

How strange then that you had over 2000 years to ban it before the British arrived and only managed it when they did and still needed to introduce separate prevention acts after the British left.

And why was child marriage only banned in 1929?

Wow, burning widows and marrying children, I bet your medieval empires under the like of the Cholas must have been an absolute bag of bliss for all the subdued. I hardly think you are in any position to criticise the British.

You are acting like other idiotic ignorant Westerners here, i thought you were better than them. This Sati practice was practically non existent in our society prior to 10th century. There is no mention of it in Itishasa, Puranas ,Vedas . Even foreign scholars, who spent considerable time in India doesn't gives any reference to it. It become a practiced phenomena only after invasion of Islamic hordes who used to rape and enslave women.

 

[Guynextdoor]

How strange then that you had over 2000 years to ban it before the British arrived and only managed it when they did and still needed to introduce separate prevention acts after the British left.

And why was child marriage only banned in 1929?

Wow, burning widows and marrying children, I bet your medieval empires under the like of the Cholas must have been an absolute bag of bliss for all the subdued. I hardly think you are in any position to criticise the British.

yes, why didn't we ban Sati 2000 years ago like the west which had this till 150 years ago


Chastity belt - Wikipedia

 

[BMD]

Practices like this were found in Europe too. When a Viking warrior died, his thralls and wife would be murdered and buried alongside him so that they too could follow him into the afterlife.

Því at hánum fylgja
fimm ambáttir,
átta þjónar,
eðlum góðir,
fóstrman mitt
ok faðerni,
þat er Buðli gaf
barni sínu

Or if you can't read Old Norse:

Bond-women five
shall follow him,
And eight of my thralls,
well-born are they,
Children with me,
and mine they were
As gifts that Budhli
his daughter gave



Child marriage is still legal in many European states and in some states of the United States. Hell, it was just outlawed in Norway earlier this year!

That's a poem dude, hardly evidence.

Haha, don't pay semantics. We're not talking about 1-2 years under 18, we're talking about actual children.

 

[BMD]

yes, why didn't we ban Sati 2000 years ago like the west which had this till 150 years ago


Chastity belt - Wikipedia

Where does it mention burning?

You are acting like other idiotic ignorant Westerners here, i thought you were better than them. This Sati practice was practically non existent in our society prior to 10th century. There is no mention of it in Itishasa, Puranas ,Vedas . Even foreign scholars, who spent considerable time in India doesn't gives any reference to it. It become a practiced phenomena only after invasion of Islamic hordes who used to rape and enslave women.

Not so, it originated from aristocratic Hindu families. It even spread to countries invaded by the Cholas.
Sati (practice) - Wikipedia

 

[Angel Eyes]

Not so, it originated from aristocratic Hindu families. It even spread to countries invaded by the Cholas.
Sati (practice) - Wikipedia

Here you can read all about it...

Jauhar - Wikipedia

It was always accompanied by every men ritually fighting to a certain death against the attackers.

 

[BMD]

Here you can read all about it...

Jauhar - Wikipedia

It was always accompanied by every men ritually fighting to a certain death against the attackers.

You have been deducted 10 internet points for not reading your own link.

The practice of Jauhar is culturally related to Sati with both a form of suicide by women, although it occurred for different reasons.[12] Sati was the custom of a widow to commit suicide by self-immolation on her husband's funeral pyre, while Jauhar was collective self-immolation by women to escape abuse and rape and slavery,[20] when they expected certain defeat at the hands of enemy.[12][5]

 

[Angel Eyes]

You have been deducted 10 internet points for not reading your own link.

Jauhar is the widely quoted self immolation practice , not sati. Sati has rather some mythical angle in it, of which only some isolated incidents have been observed. Moreover it was not restricted to only India but incidents were reported from all over the world. It seems you too have not read your own link....

"According to J.C. Harle, the medieval memorial stones appear in two forms – viragal (hero stone) and satigal (sati stone), each to memorialize something different. Both of these are found in many regions of India, but "rarely if ever earlier in date than the 8th or 9th century".[23] Numerous memorial sati stones appear 11th-century onwards, states Michaels, and the largest collections are found in Rajasthan"

 

[jetray]

We should stop responding to mischievous posts with no facts or stats. Sati was hardly practiced on a large scale. British wanted to show themselves as saviors and created this cock & bull story to justify their illegal occupation of land. They did the same thing in australia by taking away the young children from parents.


For the jack *censored* who opened this thread can he either provide the stats on how many ppl committed sati or simply shut up. It is like watching a english porn movie and coming to conclusion that all whites are promiscuous and running naked.