Antecedents of Sati narrates how a wife who had The idea of Sati did not figure poisoned her husband, had to commit prominently or favourably in the early Sati as penance and to overcome guilt. Hindu texts. Manu and Yajnavalkya had In the Indian tradition, a wife is supposed only recommended a chaste life for to protect her husband from all evil widows. Evidence of Sati being through her rituals and virtues. If she is recommended is first found in unable to protect him from death, she is Dharm Samhita in the third century A.D. in some way held responsible. That this The Culture of Sati in

Prahlad Singh Shekhawat explores the socieconomic and cultural content

AFTER the first phase of reportage and outrage against the Deorala Sati incident, there should be time to consider aspects beyond protest and immediate action. Sati is not only an evil force; it Regional customs rather than is not an abstract idea is indicated by has the force of belief. specific sanctions of the scriptures of the kinds of abuses a widow has to face. While the Sati phenomenon has to appear to have a more The tale of Sati Savitri, the model be countered on many fronts and the important bearing on the practice of Sati. Hindu wife, shows how she was able to impact of civil rights groups and the But it is the absolute dependence of wife bring her dead husband back to life press cannot be underestimated, some on husband and her self denial, which through her power of devotion. basic questions remain. What is the the Hindu tradition celebrates in its epics Rajasthan Variation nature of the belief? Why does the belief and legends and in its ethical order, that The crucial distinction about carry conviction among so many? What provides the larger context as well as Rajasthan is not that Sati still sometimes makes Rajasthan, where Sati still recurs ideological justification for Sati. occurs (after all, compared to almost daily from time to time, different? Significantly, one of the earliest tales dowry deaths in the capital of modern

30 MANUSHI India, a Sati takes place once in several Sati shrines and temples as well as Sati Sati Matas in Rajasthan and there is the years) but that the cult of Sati, the fairs are almost entirely found in tale of a Charan woman across the border miraculous and healing powers of Sati Rajasthan. The Sati temples in Delhi have in Pakistan, who became a Sati for the Mata, is a significant theme of legends come up because of the devotion of the sake of bringing good fortune to the and folk religion in Rajasthan. It is not as Rajasthani Marwari community. In village, even though her husband was if, going back in time and space, one can Rajasthan the emotions of pride and still alive. simply equate today’s Rajasthan with honour for the community code are Although the dichotomy between 19th century pre-renaissance Bengal. In powerful, but the possibility of attaining idealising a woman in principle and treating her unequally in life is a familiar theme in Hinduism, the accentuation of this theme in the specific Rajasthani context is connected to the culture of Sati. and Shakti and their various forms in Rajasthan like Silla Devi in Jaipur and Kami Mata in Bikaner, so widely worshipped in the Kshatriya tradition, are evocations of feminine energy for macho pursuits like war and power.

Left: Women’s hands decorated with auspicious symbols in henna for a wedding Right: Palm prints of queens who became Satis, Bikaner palace Rajasthan

Perhaps the elevation of Sati as a female deity can also be seen as a glorification of feminine power for sacrifice and self denial, thereby fulfilling another macho norm. It is interesting to compare the stuff of which heroes and heroines are made, in terms of deification, in the folk tradition of Rajasthan. Bhomiya, the central figure, is a landlord and is known for his chivalry and his miraculous powers. In a pastoral and livestock rearing society, he dies defending the village cattle. Lower down in status are the noble spirits who died fighting on the battlefield. In the tradition of ancestor worship, only the male members are worshipped as spirits after death. A dead woman’s spirit is regarded as evil and destructive early 19th century Bengal the element of fame and higher status (and recently like a witch or devil. Becoming a Sati physical coercion was more prominent. even riches), at least for the relatives of offered the only possibility for a woman Both in Bengal then and in Rajasthan a Sati, is another compelling force. to become a heroine or deity. Untimely now the intolerable status of the widow Few widows were expected to or did death for a cause (bringing glory to the is a central issue but in Rajasthan more commit Sati. Not all who committed Sati village) and powers to perform miracles than anywhere else, a woman who became celebrated as legends or were are the two basic qualifications for a deity commits Sati is a candidate for deification. worshipped as Maha Sati. There are living in Rajasthan. These conditions are

NUMBER FORTY TWO-FORTY THREE, 1987 31 fulfilled by a Sati but in her case the Marwari women in a oprocession to remained isolated from direct Mughal or untimely death depends on the death of honour the legendary Rani Sati, British rule and later from the nationalist her spouse, denoting woman’s ultimate Delhi 1987 and social reform movements. The dependence on man. Rajputs not only dominated political life The five male deities—Bhomiya, Sati worship is confined more to the realm but also set ultural norms in the absence Ramdev, Teja, Pabu and Goga, are more of ancesto. worship, except in the case of any considerable Brahman presence widely prevalent and generally occupy of the three or four Maha Satis. or influence. These norms were not a high status in the rural consciousness. Socio Ecology always enforced but came to acquire wide This is revealed in the legend of Pabu. Women in tribal communities occupy acceptance. Immediately after his marriage ceremony, a more free and equal position. The lower Even today, the Rajput women are Pabu responded to the call of duty and down one goes in the caste hierarchy, the only rural women who do not go out died fighting against the thieves stealing the greater are the possibilities for widow of the house even to fetch water, the village cattle, without consummating remarriage. Among the higher castes fuelwood or fodder. Unlike in lower and his marriage. His bride, on hearing of his there is more segregation of sexes, more peasant castes where a woman was death, asked for Pabu’s severed head parda and more dependence of wife on valued for providing free agricultural and, holding it in her lap, committed Sati. husband. Nowhere among the ruling labour, a Rajput woman’s position was She became an honoured woman, but castes is this more fiercely exemplified more vulnerable, especially if she could only as part of the legend of Pabu who is than among the Rajputs of Rajasthan. not provide a male successor. In a macho deified. For hundreds of years Rajasthan society, her life revolved around loyalty A platform and shrine of a Bhomiya or deity is to be found in nearly all The people spearheading, or swordheading the villages. Sati Mata shrines are found only pro Sati movement are educated urban and in those places where a woman is reported to have actually committed Sati. semiurban youth

32 MANUSHI to her husband for whom she lived and died. Within Rajasthan, the Shekhawati region has proved to be a more fertile ground for Sati. Incidents of Sati in recent times have mainly occurred here. The two biggest Sati temples, in Jhunjhunuand Dhandan (Sikar), host the biggest annual Sati fairs, with their sprawling buildings and dharamsalas. Both the Jhunjhunu and Dhandan Satis were Bania women. The Marwaris of Shekhawati, who include some of the leading business houses, have done much to promote the cause of Sati through their devotion and donations. Even in Calcutta and Bombay, where many of these Marwari families are based for generations, the worship of Sati Mata continues. Those who have been worshipping at the shrine of Sati Mata, when told that it is an evil, feel aggrieved. Some of them do not favour incidents of Sati in the present but defend the right to worship their traditional Sati Mata. The autonomy of the belief is also indicated by the two well known living Sati Matas who have acquired Satihood not by immolating themselves with their dead husbands but by the tales of their healing and The Sati Mata temple, Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan miraculous powers, such as their reported power to survive without food for several years. quality of this modernisation which is provided a cause to celebrate their new- New Features being so widely emulated? found identity. The Rajputs, who A few new and disturbing features The other new aspect is the comprise a marginal portion of the state’s have been highlighted by the Deorala commercialisation of Sati as shown, for total population, have found it difficult Sati. Deorala, with schools, electricity, a example, in the brisk sale of photographs to accept their very reduced role in the bank and lying close to the Jaipur Delhi and collection of massive funds. context of electoral politics, compared to highway is by no means a remote and However, the most prominent feature of their earlier total domination. Sati has the backward village. Roop Kanwar was Deorala has been the projection of charisma of belief in a superior heritage educated and grew up as an urban girl. Rajput identity. Sati is by no means the of self sacrifice and honour,contrasted Her father-in-law is a school teacher. monopoly of the Rajputs and most of to the presentday world of mundane and The people spearheading (or the lakhs who came to pay homage at uninspiring “modern” values. swordheading) the pro Sati movement Deorala were non Rajputs. Out of the 41 Reform are educated urban and semi-urban recorded incidents of Sati in recent times, Reform through codification and youth. Contrary to what could be only 18 have been Rajput women. refinement of law is important and can expected, the education system and But, for Rajputs, it has provided a be used to their advantage by activist economic development have not led to a rallying ground to assert their sagging groups and reformers. Yet progress in change in attitudes but have given rise identity and solidarity. Particularly for the law can also become an excuse for moral to new distortions. What then is the unemployed youth, the Deorala Sati has complacency and lack of social efforts.

NUMBER FORTY TWO-FORTY THREE, 1987 33 Critique and reform of the Sati culture Woman can be based mainly within the tradition How many promises you made or mainly outside it, but there is space to your friends for the two spheres to relate to each to the servants to the midwife other. and minstrels. The Indian tradition has room for many and diverse views Gandhiji’s Today, all of them movement, for example, by emphasising look woebegone, nonviolence and fasting, brought out and in you women in large numbers for political anger flares up protest and stressed the value of anger at god, integrating women’s traditions in public at your wife, life. This was in contrast to the dominant for not having given you Kshatriya tradition of force, power and a son. revenge. Gandhiji’s assailant Godse had A son for you to rear asserted that Gandhi had to be stopped not as a human being from emasculating Hindu society. Yet the but as an heir- Recognition force of Gandhi’s nonmacho movement Your wife You wonder when was quite formidable. guilt ridden, I will break The most important and successful covered in shame, beneath the burden reformers of the 19th and 20th centuries, fearing your wrath, of insults and degradations, Ram Mohan Roy and Gandhiji, who also lies, her back turned, when I will swing made the issue of women’s status central hiding her face. on a rope to their struggle, were both profoundly from the ceiling influenced by Western ideas. Yet, But tiny fingers or soak myself in oil ultimately, particularly in the case of touch her back, and explode Gandhiji, their success lay in their ability asking for a drop of milk. like a firework. to emphasise humane values within the —Shashi Girdner idiom of local culture and within their (translated from Punjabi) Well, keep waiting, vision of tradition. in the belief that finally, More feasible efforts for reforming cne day, the culture of Sati lie in developing a defeated, I will go that way. dialogue with the cultural idiom by forging links between the essential Do you think critique from within and those who want I would sacrifice an equal status for women based on this human form secular human rights values. attained after countless births, Outright condemnation of the entire merely to satisfy gamut of cultural traditions will make the your sterile ego ? task of reform ineffective. However, Sati, female infanticide and dowry are not mere No, I have no desire aberrations in an otherwise sound social for the status of a Sati, a Suhagan, order. It is also essential to see them as no longing for false glory. symptoms of a deadly anti-women bias in I want only some of our traditions. to renew the quest ‘ for what I am, to recognise my self, and only that self will I wed. —Indu Sena (translated from Hindi)

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