Sati: The Myth

Do you know what sati is? When it was practiced? Why it was practiced?

Many of us must know what it is but for those who don’t know let me tell you all. According to British Sati or suttee is a historical Hindu practice in which a widow sacrifices herself by sitting atop her deceased husband's funeral pyre. But are you sure it is a Hindu practice? Before anyone comes and comments let me clear it.

It is NOT and we have a proof of it. If we go through our books Vedas, Puranas, or any other Hindu scriptures we will get to know that this never existed. There is nothing about this topic in our books. Even nothing similar to it. So, we can conclude that sati is nothing related to our dharma.

Then now the question arises, how this evil practice started in our society and was supported at that time? This practice started during the period when Islamic invaders attacked our country. When the invaders attacked and won, they just did not occupy that part of the country but also used to rape the women, especially the widows. So, to protect themselves from them they started to practice sati. And this was the reason why they supported it. Some rulers banned it but to protect their reputation they didn't stop.

After some time when the British came to India the same things happened again and the practice continued.

So, when English writers and historians wrote about it they connected it with Hindu culture and portrayed it as evil practice of our religion without knowing its actual reason. And to our bad luck, we continue to learn this as an evil practice of our society without knowing the real reason. Which is not good. It needs to be corrected because we have the right to know what is right and wrong.

When we are talking about sati then how can we ignore Jauhar? Jauhar is a type of mass immolation. Let me tell you a better example to understand this better. Most of you might have watched the movie ‘Padmaavat’. At the end of the story, the queen and the rest of the people gave themselves as a sacrifice in the big fire pond. This is also known as Jauhar. The queens and women who did Jauhar were considered heroic but the ones who did sati per considered victims of evil Hindu society. But I will like to say if Jauhar is a heroic deed then Sati is also a heroic deed and if Sati is the evil practice of our society then Jauhar too is evil. When both the things are the same and have the same reason then why is one portrayed as evil and one as a great deed?

We cannot blame the British completely for this because they knew nothing about our culture and wrote what they saw but it was our duty to correct it. Which we never noticed till now. We were taught what they left for us without thinking about whether it was correct or not. Let's take an oath to know our history and correct it so, that the right information reaches the young minds.

At last, I will like to conclude that through this article I don't support sati or Jauhar. It was just me trying to deliver exact info to my audience. Thank You.

~Ananya