Sati ou Suttee é um antigo costume entre os hindus, hoje em dia estritamente proibido pelas leis do Estado Indiano, que obrigava (no sentido honroso, moral, e prestigioso) a esposa viúva devota a se sacrificar viva na fogueira da pira funerária de seu marido morto.
"The Sati (Su-thi , a.k.a. suttee) is the traditional Hindu practice of a widow immolating herself on her husband's funeral pyre. Sati was prevalent among certain sects of the society in ancient India, who either took the vow or deemed it a great honor to die on the funeral pyres of their husbands".
"O Suttee é um antigo costume entre os hindus, hoje em dia estritamente proibido pelas leis do Estado Indiano, que obrigava (no sentido honroso, moral, e prestigioso) a esposa viúva devota a se sacrificar viva na fogueira da pira funerária de seu marido morto.Apesar da proibição governamental, existem dezenas de relatos de ocorrências de satis nas últimas décadas, tão recentes quanto ao ano 2006. A erradicação de uma prática cultural tida como nobre exige um esforço contínuo por parte das autoridades oficiais.Existem variações dessa prática, por exêmplo, há registros de Suttee simbólicos; e Suttee de enterramento vivo em comunidades onde a prática excepcional de enterramento prevalece, divergindo do padrão da cremação".
O historiador Aristóbulo de Cassandréia que acompanhou Alexandre, O Grande em sua épica viagem à Índia já descreveu um sati presenciado pelas tropas gregas na cidade de Taxila, uma localidade histórica atualmente pertencente ao território paquistanês.
Entre outros exploradores europeus, o português Barbosa visita o império Vijayanagar, em 1510, onde ele presencia um Sati, uma prática que segundo ele era prevalente na comunidade Kshatriya.[1]
Apesar da proibição governamental, existem dezenas de relatos de ocorrências de satis nas últimas décadas, tão recentes quanto ao ano 2006. A erradicação de uma prática cultural tida como nobre exige um esforço contínuo por parte das autoridades oficiais.
Existem variações dessa prática, por exêmplo, há registros de satis simbólicos; e satis de enterramento vivo em comunidades onde a prática excepcional de enterramento prevalece, divergindo do padrão da cremação.
A prática do Sati pode suscitar várias especulações de cunho antropológico-social, fazendo surgir hipóteses tais como a prevenção de um possível assassinato do marido (por exemplo, por envenamento, como já acreditavam os gregos antigos que tiveram contato com tais aspectos da cultura milenar indiana), dada dinâmica de mestre x escravo nesses casamentos tradicionais; a outra é a bem estabelecida diminuição de interesse por parte da família da viúva em manter mais uma boca a ser mantida e sustentada em seu lar. O fato da viúva indiana até hoje em dia ter que enfrentar grandes dificulades financeiras e a perda de prestígio social perante a sua sociedade parece confirmar tais especulações conceituais (lembrando que uma vez casada a noiva, via regra, muda-se para a casa dos pais do novo marido).
Compare-se a prática da auto-imolação das viúvas de certas comunidades indianas com aquela dos vikings, anglo-saxões, e germânicos na qual a sua principal escrava (na prática, sua esposa) devia morrer acompanhando o seu mestre em seu barco funerário que, de acordo com o costume antigo, era incendiado e lançado ao mar.
The Sati System
The Tradition of Sati Through the Centuries
First Online: February 01,2001Page Last Updated: January 15,2009
Scholars differ on the origins of the Sati practice. Some have dated the origins to the period of the Vedas (apprx. 5500 years ago), and a few others have attributed the system to the origins of the caste system (apprx. 1st century A.D.). The following timeline traces some of the important events in the history of the Sati system.
The Tradition of Sati Through the Centuries
First Online: February 01,2001Page Last Updated: January 15,2009
Scholars differ on the origins of the Sati practice. Some have dated the origins to the period of the Vedas (apprx. 5500 years ago), and a few others have attributed the system to the origins of the caste system (apprx. 1st century A.D.). The following timeline traces some of the important events in the history of the Sati system.
The history of the Sati system
- 6th Century A.D. - Kadamba king Raviverma's wife commits Sati after his death
- 908 A.D. - First documented instance of Sati - Heggadetomma's widow Balakka goes Sati
- 1510 - Portuguese traveler Barbosa visits the Vijayanagar empire and witnesses Sati prevalent in the Kshatriya community
- 1623 - Italian traveler Pietro-Della Valle's account of a Sati ritual at Ikkeri
- 1805 - Dewan Purnayya in Mysore Court of Wodeyars gives consent to a Brahmin widow to undergo Sati.(This is historically rare instance of an upper caste woman undergoing Sati.)
- 1828 - Rajaram Mohan Roy establishes Brahmo Samaj to fight the evils of Hinduism like Sati, which gains momentum
- 1829 - The British Administration of William Bentinck bans the Sati system
- 1850 - Colonel Sleeman's account of a Sati ritual
- 1987 - Roop Kanwar, a young widow goes Sati in the state of Rajasthan, stirring a social debate on the topic. People who assisted her insuicide are arrested. But Roop Kanwar is idolized and attains the status of a deity.
- 1996 - The Indian Court upholds the suicide as a social tradition and frees the relatives who assisted Roop Kanwar.
- 2002 - Kuttu Bai, a 65 year widow commits Sati in the state of Madhya Pradesh
The Tradition of Sati in India
by Dr. Jyotsna KamatFirst Online: August 15,1997Page Last Updated: January 11,2009
Sati (Su-thi , a.k.a. suttee) is the traditional Hindu practice of a widow immolating herself on her husband's funeral pyre.
"Sati" means a virtuous woman. A woman who dies burning herself on her husbands funeral fire was considered most virtuous, and was believed to directly go to heaven, redeeming all the forefathers rotting in hell, by this "meritorious" act. The woman who committed Sati was worshipped as a Goddess, and temples were built in her memory.
Sati was prevalent among certain sects of the society in ancient India, who either took the vow or deemed it a great honor to die on the funeral pyres of their husbands. Ibn Batuta (1333 A.D.) has observed that Sati was considered praiseworthy by the Hindus, without however being obligatory. The Agni Purana declares that the woman who commits sahagamana goes to heaven. However, Medhatiti pronounced that Sati was like suicide and was against the Shastras, the Hindu code of conduct. It is believed that they were not coerced, although several wives committed Sati. The majority of the widows did not undergo Sati.
Woman Commits Suicide on Funeral PyreIllustration based on a Maha Sati Sculpture (Hero-stone)
Maha-sati stones (hero-stones) were erected in memory of brave women who committed sati and are periodically worshipped. There are not many instances of remarriage of widows in Indian history and it is believed that women preferred death to the cursed life a widow (see: Origins of the Sati System).
Many hero-stones claim that the wife has committed Sati out of tremendous love for husband, so they can be together after death, but these are not historically substantiated. One finds a large number of satis committed just after the war (like the Johar in Rajasthan (map - topics), when the women must have died to protect their honor from the invading enemies after their men perished in the battlefield.
Indian leader Rajaram Mohan Roy, through his organization Brahmo Samaj was among the first who fought to eliminate Sati. The ritual of sati was banned by the British Government in 1829 (see a timeline of Sati). However, it took a large scale social reforms by Dayanand Saraswati(of Arya Samaj), Mahatma Gandhi and the like to actually stop the practice (see: Timeline of Sati). In the modern times, there was one instance of a Sati reported in Rajasthan (late 1980s), and another in Madhya Pradesh (in year 2002) that caused a lot of controversy and social turmoil.
The Mahasati (the great Sati) or the Sahagamana (joint departure) system of a cremating the woman alive on the death of her husband is an ancient custom in India. Scholars of the Puranas trace the origins to the suicide of Satidevi in the Yajnakunda (sacrificial fireplace) of Lord Brahma, while a few attribute it to the pre-caste Vedic system of Indian society. In the Indian mythology of the Mahabharat, there is the instance of Madri dying on the funeral pyre of husband Pandu, leaving the children to the care of the first wife Kunti. The feminists proclaim the Sati system as a cruel institution established by men against the womankind, while the lower-caste in India have felt it as another means of torture taxed on them by the upper-caste Brahmins.
The answer to the complex question of how Sati system originated is perhaps all of them:
Burning the wife along with the attendants, horses and carriages of the the dead dignitary was a common practice among come Central Asian tribes. India being the melting pot of good and bad social systems of its constituent cultures, the custom of Sati was absorbed.
In a time which believed that a woman's path to heaven is though Sheela and Pativritya -- her character, and devotion to her husband, it was perhaps thought that a woman's life served no purpose after the death of her husband.
It might have come into practice as an evil family conspiracy against the widow to benefit from her assets and gold.
The life of a widow was so bad (this has continued to this day in India), the women perhaps favored death to humiliation.
The women who went Sati were glorified to no avail. The entice of instant fame and immortality cannot be ruled out on why women committed Sati.
There is another suicide tradition in the Jain religion called Sallekhana, where one dedicated one's soul in prayer. Despite of this tradition, numerous instances in Indian history illustrate when a Jain woman has preferred Sati over Sallekhana -- especially in the cases of untimely deaths of the husband.
Some women believed that those who died with the love of their life, were united with the man in heaven in an eternal marriage. Numerous women believed that they have married the same man in several of their lives. There is an interesting instance of a wife who went Sati with another man (not her husband), because of her belief that he was the one.
In Bengal, a system called Däyabhaga prevailed entitling a woman equal property along with male members of the departed husband. This may be the reason for the Sati system being more popular in that region, wherein the woman was driven to commit Sati by force.
There are numerous occasions when the woman experiences a divine calling (see: Valle's interview) and decided to commit Sati.
Excerpted from author's book Mahile - Ondu Adhyanana, Nava Karnataka, 1999
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