Ritual suicide of widows (including at the husband’s funeral pyre).
Terms and forms
- “Arvind Sharma notes that while Sahamarana (and hence Sahagamana) refers to the case of concremation, Anumarana (and hence Anugamana) refers to immolation of the widow after the dead husband’s cremation[7].” - Nithin
- anugamana, when performed in a politically charged historical context is also called jIvahara/ jowhar.
Eligibility
- See nithin’s article
- For brAhmaNas, sahagamana was later deemed ok, but not anugamana
यद् अप्य् आङ्गिरसे “पतिम् अनुम्रियेरन्” इत्य् उक्तम्,
तद् अपि नित्यवद् अवश्यं कर्तव्यम् ।
फलस्तुतिस् तत्रास्ति ।
फलकामायाश् चाधिकारे श्येनतुल्यता ।
तथैव “श्येनेन हिंस्याद् भूतानि” इत्य् अधिकारस्य +अतिप्रवृद्धतर-द्वेषान्धतया
सत्याम् अपि प्रवृत्तौ न धर्मत्वम् ।
इति मेधातिथिर् मनुभाष्ये।
धर्म-गर्हिते विशेष-फले काङ्क्षिते भवत्य् अनुगमनम्।
For Brahmins it was forbidden, a negative judgment going back to this Rg-Vedic verse. … It is only logical that some rulers in the Brahmin-dominated Maratha confederacy forbid the practice even before the British East India Company Governor Lord William Bentinck (under prodding from Hindu reformer Ram Mohan Roy) abolished it by law in 1829.
Practice
- “Nevertheless, one shouldn’t foolishly imagine that this spread of sahagamana translated into a large number of satis. Overall, it was a very small number everywhere in bhArata. The real value of the so-called reformers’ contributions should thus be carefully re-evaluated. … There is epigraphic data which reflects many widows being patrons of pious works/endowments, who commanded high respect. But more importantly, sahagamana was simply not a reality for the vast majority of cases (See Meenakshi Jain).”
- “As per numerous testimonies, most self-immolating widows went into the pyre voluntarily, often overcoming pressure from their relatives or from the authorities not to do it.”
- “It was confined to the real or would-be warrior castes, though, in keeping with their ethos of pride and passion.”
Bengal misuse
- “The fact that people simply do not acknowledge in a discussion of sati in immediately pre-modern vangadesha is that it occurs in a context of a prevalence of dayAbhAga jurisprudence, which was much more supportive of various inheritance rights of wives & daughters.”
- “This position did not arise out of thin air. The wife’s joint ownership in the husband’s property was traced to the veda, something that the old, orthodox commentator shabarasvAmin forcefully defends in his ancient commentary on the mImAMsA-sUtra.”
- “So, to sum up, an ancient warrior-centered practice, already very rare (see Jain) & dying off in bhArata by the 18th century, was revived by some property-hungry criminal minds in a region, where the prevailing Hindu jurisprudence was pro-Wife-inheritance.”
Ram Mohun Roy never witnessed his sister-in-law committing Sati. She committed voluntary Sati on 8th April, 1810 - Ram Mohun Roy was in Rangpur at that time.
Accounts
- Bengal, early 19th century - see John Jones account
Origins
From GA19:
- It seems to be a kSatriya practice of NW provenance as far as bhArata is concerned. However, the practice definitely had external roots. (Continue reading)
- Initial reaction by brAhmaNas, prominently medhAtithi, was stern opposition as the shruti condemns those who end their life before the expiry of its natural term. Even if brAhmaNas couldn’t prevent sahagamana’s popularity among kSatriyas, they disliked it for their own women.
- Subsequent rise in prominence & support for sahagamana rests on secondary citations of smRtis as exceptions to the shruti’s general rule against suicide; most of which are not traceable to the cited sources.
- There are similar practices of “Widow-suicide” among Scythians & Manchus, with studies showing how Manchus inherited it from an Altaic culture. There is a genuine case for sahagamana having come from warrior tribes from far northwest of bhArata+Central Asia.
- sahagamana definitely predated Muslim invasions but this doesn’t necessarily make it a Hindu practice. It was a practice of origin that came to be accepted as a deshAcAra for certain regions’ kSatriyas before attaining a wider spread across varNas & deshas.