Widow burning in Pakistan and India is a common tragedy. I would be greatful if someone could shed some light on the subject from a historical perspective.
Thankyou.
Stud
Stud,
It has a lot to do with a story in Hindu mythology!If u really want to know let me know...i'll post it!
Stud:
widow burning in Pakistan? Where and when?
Widow burning in Pakistan. NOW THAT IS A NEW ONE!!! How come, I, who tries to read Jang/NEWS/DAWN daily am not able to read things like these.
If you just said something like that and had no clue that it was correct or not, please remember that you are on the internet.
If you have instances tell me. I think Satti was a part of the Hindu religion.
Hamid
Satti is practised in the province of Sind. Social organisations like W.A.Rkeep track of such incidents. It also seems to me that this has Indian or Perhaps Hindu Origins.
If some one can direct me to a good book or a published paper I will be very greatful.
Queer Kindly post the information regarding Satti. Thankyou.
Stud
Stud,
the basic idea goes like this....
The hindu god shiva was a wild guy who lived along with his gang of friendly ghosts up a mountain far away from the civilized world...a king's daughter named Sati fell in love with him and married him against her father's will!
Later, some confusion ensued (i'm not very clear about the details) and the king convinvced sati that Shiva had been burnt to ashes in a fire...and Sati out of grief jumped into the same fire and died...
It became a common custom among the "rajputs" ( the warrior class) in India to commit Sati ! However it was banned under British rule !
Thankyou Queer. That was very interesting. I never thought that such an evil custom could have such romantic origins.
When I read things like these I can not help but admire Islam.
Stud
Dear Stud,
It certainly is a barbaric custom ....and it happens to be derived from a misinterpreted story from hindu mythology...an example of what people are capable doing when it comes to religion! "No questioning if it's in the scriptures" attitude is the culprit!
Every religion has it's own share of barbaric rituals....even Islam...though not common, female circumsicion certainly is a brutal ritual!
I agree with Queer, many of these cruel practices are not part of religious beliefs. Hinduism is a religion which preaches love for everything living and tolerance, yet there are fundamentalists who mis-interpret the teachings and add their own innovative practices.
Female circumsion (like Satti) is based on a mis-interpreted and controversial Hadith (Prophetic saying attributed to Muhammad).
Achtung ;)
Stud,
i've some more info for U :)
It's on how the custom started ! Whenever there used to be a war, the victorious side used to raid the losers' cities and capture the womenfolk....the war widows used to jump into their husband's funeral fire to escape from the torture....this became very common ,with the afghans raiding the north west very often...the region which reported most cases even recently...since there was a similar story in hindu mythology, it was called sati...
Here is a quote from: "The Discovery of
India" by Jawaharlal Nehru,
published by: The John Day Co. 1946
"...Sati, or the immolation of women on the
funeral pyre of their husbands, was never
widespread. But rare instances continued
to occur among the upper classes. Probably
the practice was brought to India originally
by the Scytho-Tartars, among whom the custom
prevailed of vassals and liegemen killing
themselves on the death of their lord.
In early Sanscrit lierature the sati custom
is denounced. Akbar tried to stop it, and
the Marathas were also opposed to it".
The following is an additional quote
from: Encyclopaedia Brittanica:
"In late Hindu myth Sati was Shiva's spouse
who, resenting a slight put upon her lord
by her father, destroyed herself but was
re-incarnated as Uma, the beauteous wife
of Shiva. Here Sati's act is prompted by
a very different motive, and the tale
supports the view that the text of the
"Rig-Veda" was tampered with, to support
the Brahmanical ideal"