A Deeper Look Into the Practice of Sati in Hinduism

I was in the midst of the reading for Hinduism, specifically in Introduction to World Religions, and I came across the term sati two times during the reading. The first was a general statement, as sort of a back-up point to prove the author's previous point. It read, "Even practices such as sati have been extolled by fundamentalists..." (Partridge 163). The second instance was a tad more engaging: "Ram Mohan Roy's campaign against sati resulted in the banning of this practice" (Partridge 164). In both cases however, it never explained what sati was or why it was considered to be wrong. I researched what it was and found this article that goes deeper into the issue.

According to Hindu scriptures, a widow is required to mount the funeral of her dead husband and be cremated along with his corpse. If the husband dies at a distant place, the widow is nonetheless to be burned alive on a pyre by herself. A widow who burns herself to death this way is called sati. The guiding force to motivate Hindus to practice sati is the instructions given in their scriptures. Some of these are as given below [ 1 ]:
"It is proper for a woman, after her husband's death to burn herself in the fire with his copse; every woman who thus burns herself shall remain in paradise with her husband 35,000,000 years by destiny."
"The wife who commits herself to fames with her husband's copse shall equal Arundathi and reside in Swarga (heaven)."
"Accompanying her husband, she shall reside so long in Swarga as the 35,000,000 of hairs on the human body.
"As the snake-catcher forcibly drags the serpent from his earth, so bearing her husband [from hell] with him she enjoys heavenly bliss."
"Dying with her husband, she sanctifies her maternal and paternal ancestors and the ancestors of him to whom she gave her virginity."
"Such a wife adorning her husband, in celestial felicity with him, greatest and most admired, shall enjoy the delights of heaven while fourteen Indras reign."
"Though a husband had killed a Brahman, broken the ties of gratitude, or murdered a friend she expiates the crime."

I couldn't believe that this was under the subtitle, The status of women in modern Hinduism, as the banning of sati only came about in the 20th century. It is shocking . As Partride writes, Hindu mythology emphasized the image of a domesticated and subservient woman; figures such as Sita, the "virtuous and long-suffering" wife of Rama, were held up as precedents for all women. Even though modern Hindu women are in the workforce and are asserting their independence over the traditional family system, films such as Monsoon Wedding by Mira Nair capture the dilemmas of women even today. I watched the film a while ago and found minute ways in which Hinduism has reached into the daily lives of young women, even women who read Western magazines (Vanity Fair) and watch American television. Such women in the film constantly had the pressure of marriage by their joint families, and often joked about how the"virtuous virgin" look would please someone they were interested in. Among right-wing Hindu groups these films were very controversial.