SATI TRADITION
India caste system, polytheistic religions, forms of belief such as worshiping idols, and different cultural structure, another tradition is that women burn themselves alive after their husbands die.. Like the caste system, this tradition dates from the Aryan period.. If the woman burns herself, it is called Sati. However, if many women burn themselves, it is called “Jauhar“. This tradition has been practiced by the Brahmans for centuries and continues to be practiced even today.
The emergence of the Sati tradition : In the war in the Indian state of Rajastan It is a tradition that started when all the men died and the widowed women realized that they could not resist the sexual attacks of the enemies and they all threw themselves into the fire.. On the women who do not commit suicide, the Sati tradition is imposed by the society under pressure, and the women who do not throw themselves into the fire are forced to be expelled by their families. According to the Sati belief in the holy book of Manu, it is accepted that if the woman whose husband died, burned herself, she displayed a very honorable behavior and would be purified from her sins and go to heaven.. Women who are not burned are ostracized by their families and society and are not accepted into any gatherings, weddings or entertainment.. As they are forbidden to marry, they are not allowed to live in their own homes.
Humayun and his son Akbar remove this tradition have attempted to. The British, who dominated India after the Mughal Empire, banned the Sati tradition completely in 1829.
In 1856, the prohibition of marriage for women who did not burn themselves was lifted.
The tradition of Sati has caused controversy because of an event that took place most recently in 1987. It turned out that the Sati tradition did not completely disappear because of Roop Kanwar, who was killed at her husband’s funeral pyre in the village of Deorala, Rajastan in 1987. It is a tradition that started when all the men died and the widowed women realized that they could not resist the sexual attacks of the enemies and they all set themselves in the fire.
