Sati

Topic: Medieval India through Travellers' Eyes · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 1 "Through the Eyes of Travellers"

Meaning

Sati was the practice of a widow burning herself, or being burnt, on her dead husband's funeral pyre (the pile of wood on which a body is burnt). It matters because European travellers such as Bernier used it as the main sign that India was different from Europe. Its ban in 1829 is also a key event in the story of social reform in modern India. [2]

Explanation

Background: where the custom came from

• The first mention of the custom in a Sanskrit text is in the Mahabharata, which was composed roughly 2,000 years ago. [2]
• The custom was not practised everywhere or by everyone. It was strongest in certain groups and regions.
• Brahmins of Bengal practised sati regularly, especially between 1680 and 1830. [2]
• This period comes during and after Bernier's time in India.
• So the practice was very much alive when European travellers were writing about it.

How travellers saw it: Bernier's account

• François Bernier was a French doctor who lived in the Mughal Empire for about twelve years, from 1656 to 1668.
• European travellers treated the way women were treated as the most important marker of difference between East and West. Sati was their favourite example.
• Bernier's best-known description is of the child widow at Lahore:
• She was about twelve years old.
• She was weeping and clearly did not want to die.

• Brahmanas and an old woman held her and pushed her towards the pyre.

• But Bernier did not show only one side.

• He wrote that some women seemed to accept death cheerfully.
• Others were forced to die.
• Students often miss this mixed picture, but it matters in the exam.

Why the traveller's view must be read with care

• All the travellers in this chapter (Al-Biruni, Ibn Battuta, Bernier) were men and outsiders.
• They wrote about the dramatic and the exotic, such as sati and the slave market.
• They wrote almost nothing about ordinary working women:
• women sowing, weeding and harvesting in the fields
• women spinning yarn and preparing clay for pottery

• women of merchant families who traded and even took business disputes to court

• This silence is evidence too. It tells us what the travellers chose to look at. It does not mean those working women were absent.

Results: ban and modern law

• 1829: Sati was banned by Lord William Bentinck, the Governor-General, through Regulation XVII of 1829. [2][3]

• The campaign of Ram Mohun Roy pushed for this ban. [2][3]

• The "difference" argument had a political use. Writers who described the East as backward helped justify European intervention in Indian society.

• Modern law: The Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987 (Act No. 3 of 1988) is the law today. [4]
• Section 5 punishes the glorification of sati, meaning praising it or making it look grand. [4]

Time, place and evidence

• Origin in texts: first Sanskrit reference in the Mahabharata, composed roughly 2,000 years ago. [2]
• Traveller evidence: Bernier's account of the Mughal Empire (he was in India from 1656 to 1668, during Shah Jahan's and Aurangzeb's reigns). His sati scene is set at Lahore.
• Peak region and period: Bengal, among Brahmins, especially 1680–1830. [2]
• Abolition: 1829, under Lord William Bentinck, backed by Ram Mohun Roy. [2][3]
• Present law: Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987. [4]
• How we know: Sanskrit texts, European travellers' accounts (mainly Bernier), colonial records of the ban, and the 1987 Act. NCERT Class 12, Ch 1 "Through the Eyes of Travellers" reads Bernier's account critically.

Don't confuse with

• Jauhar: mass self-burning by Rajput women to avoid capture when a fort was about to fall in war. Sati is one widow dying on her husband's pyre.
• Ibn Battuta's account of women: Ibn Battuta wrote about female slaves (sold in markets, given as gifts, used as spies). The famous sati description in this chapter is Bernier's, not Ibn Battuta's.
• 1829 Regulation vs 1987 Act: Bentinck's 1829 regulation banned sati. The 1987 Act is today's law, and its Section 5 also punishes glorifying sati. [3][4]
• Bentinck vs Ram Mohun Roy: Bentinck was the Governor-General who passed the ban. Ram Mohun Roy was the Indian reformer whose campaign pushed for it. [2][3]

Prelims Hooks

• Bernier's sati scene is set at Lahore. The widow was about twelve, and Brahmanas and an old woman forced her to the pyre.
• Trap: Bernier said some widows went cheerfully and others were forced. A statement saying he described all satis as forced is wrong.
• Earliest Sanskrit reference to sati: the Mahabharata. [2]
• Bengal Brahmins practised sati especially between 1680 and 1830. [2]
• Sati was banned in 1829 by Lord William Bentinck, after a campaign by Ram Mohun Roy. [2][3]
• Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987 (Act No. 3 of 1988): Section 5 punishes glorification of sati. [4]

Mains Points

• Sati as a marker of "difference". European travellers used the treatment of women to argue that the East was basically unlike the West.
• This idea was later used to justify colonial intervention.
• Yet Bernier's own note that some widows were willing and others were forced weakens any single, flat picture.

• Link this to the 1829 ban under Bentinck and to Ram Mohun Roy's reform campaign. [2][3]

• Source criticism (GS-I). The travellers were men and outsiders who focused on sati and slavery. They ignored women's work in farming, crafts and trade, including merchant women who went to court over business disputes. The gaps in a source tell us about the observer. So the idea that all medieval women were shut away at home was more an elite, urban ideal than everyday life.

• Continuity and change. Sati has a long history, from its first textual mention in the Mahabharata, through its peak in Bengal (1680–1830), to its ban in 1829. Even so, India needed a new law in 1987 that also punishes glorifying sati. This shows that a social custom can last long after it is legally banned. [2][4]

Related concepts

• Slavery in the Delhi Sultanate

Read more

• Women through travellers' eyes: slaves, sati, labourers