Most of these stones talk about the death of men: amidst the raids of villages, cattle, fighting with dacoits or wild animals. But a significant ratio Are Sati Stone. Often in contemporary India, we get so stuck in mythology that we forget to see the very real evidence left by medieval people.
Some Sati stones are inscribed, which tell us the name of the dead woman and her inspirations – at least, as is considered by her male contemporaries. We know, for example, DecabeWhich was in October 1057, one in Sati Rituals in Highlands to the west of Mysuru.
Decabe’s husband was killed by Chola Raja for the crime of Kinsleing. Hearing the news, it is said that he has announced: “Can I have any mind to live, and may humiliate the good name of this house Who Gave me [in marriage] And the one who took me [in marriage?],
Despite repeated entry from his family, he held firmly. On the day of his death, carving on his Memorial Stone Show, he was taken to the pyre in a palanquin procession with drivers and flatists. He gifted all his property, jumped into the fire from one platform, and “went into the world of gods”.
After posthumous, Decabe The famous Decabe who is praised as Sri, Gauri, Saatchi, Sita, Rati and Prithvi-Devi “, and declared an incarnation of valor, generosity and purity.
This inscription is quite revealed by the general medieval view of Sati. The Decabere belonged to a family of landlords and military chieftains, as her husband did. While his family begged him not to go with it, Decabe thought that it would be an “insult” to live as a widow, while Sati would be praised by committing it, identified with the Goddess -Goddesses.
So while she was not technically Compelled In Sati, there was a clear social pressure on rich widows – especially from the ruling families. A scan of medieval Kannada inscriptions, collected in Epigrafia Carnatiica, Reveals many such cases.
SATI wasNo Limited to the middle elite, One of the two, Like Decabe’s family – we know that even among the Chola family, with many powerful and independent queens, some committed Sati and were posthumously revered. An example of this is Vira-Mahadevi, a junior wife of famous winner Rajendra Chola, whose brother gave a gift of water to feed his thirst after his Sati. ,Annual Report of South Indian Epigraphy1916, Stone inscription no. 260).
Review of medieval texts, almost always written by the male aristocrat, suggests that Sati was seen as a work of love, purity and glory. For example, take Vikramarjuna Poet Pampa written in 10Wan Century c. Vijaya There are several scenes where virtuous wives participate from their warrior husband. They were studied in the volume edited by the setter of historians and MM Kalbaragi, Memorial Stones,
A woman announced, for example, that her husband, a decline in the fight, “will unite with astronomical nymphs and leave me alone here … Nai, I will move forward and welcome her to heaven”. (Canto X, Shloka 45). Many Memorial Stones painted Sati in the panels of Satit and their wives who died and their wives.FOr in Medieval aristocracy – both men and female -goals were to achieve varinor deaths, which improved social reputation and ensure the attainment of heaven, in fact of divinity.
There is no evidence of the medieval Brahmins or the people of the working class, who are doing Sati: It seems that it is a practice of war, appropriate classes, which had to be publicly proved their honor and status. Even among them, we know that some women managed to make a career Widowed widowMainly through temple protection. But Sati Memorial Stones confirm that many more, for various reasons, passed with the Grisley Act.
IT will actually increase imagination to claim this All These cases were purely voluntary – even though male chronicrs, representing the ideas of orthodox society, praised him in those words.
Also read: Sati economy is still big in Rajasthan. No pending file on Roop Kanwar in Jaipur
Why debate?
As we understand the reality of Sati, we can also check today’s thought processes that want to romantic history for political loops. RThe Ight-wing scene of Sati, if the disputes of the previous week are any indications, can be boiled for the following. One: Mahabharata And various other mythological treatise presents Sati as a voluntary practice. Two: There is a lack of historically verified Sati events, especially in medieval period. Three: Colonial missionaries regularly exaggerated Sati reports and extended the “misinterpretation” texts.
Implications: Women are always treated surprisingly treated in Hinduism, so why “malign” the history of religion, or claim that some medieval approaches, especially about purity and honor, still, still women Feed against crimes against?
FirstTeaThat is the fact that there are mythological texts Texts, They are not undisputed, irreversible, purpose fiction. They reflect the ideas of a particular stratum of society, often men, often upper caste.
British colonial authorities arbitrarily selected the texts that Hinduism was “really” to create an idea of what was “really”, but this process is currently going on- RThe IGHT Wing is simply a different set of cherry-pixes. No mythology can prove the existence of an ideal Indian societyMYTS only tells us what a part of Indian society saw at one time. still, Mahabharata Suggestions that ideal For your time Voluntary sati, or virtuous widow.
SecondEMost of India’s medieval inscriptions in India will throw away the examples of Sati, reading a cursory. Not every part of the society, yes, but of course the land from the aristocratic class. As a medieval, I continuously comET With confidence about how the medieval society was “really”, There is absolutely no basis for medieval evidence. Instead, our imagination of medieval period combines a past that exists only to support today’s political agendas. Medieval evidence does not matter much as modern imagination. The past was not the location of endless persecution, but it was not even a utopia. We cannot easily reject its iniquity as “promotion”.
thirdyES, colonial missionaries incorrectly introduced Sati as a universal Hindu practice, When really, it W.As deep Landed cast pride is associated with the ideas of women’s sanctity. Accepting it does not mean that all Sati cases were lies. This is one of some consistently verified practices Indian subcontinentThe post -century century is mentioned by Greek, Chinese, Arab and Portuguese travelers.
It is not difficult to find Sati Stones, whether in museums or in temples. Often, they portray the dead woman’s hand, raise straight, sometimes holding a lemon.
Nobody can help, but surprisingly, what were the lives of their owners, looking at these carved hands: The food they must have eaten, the clothes they had done and the clothes they had worn, they must have worn Friendship he nurtured. All cuts less than the death of their husbands and events – voluntary or not – which immediately, after ending their lives.
Separating from us for a thousand years, Sati Stones tell a story of sexual relations that in some ways we have grown beyond, but we should never forget.
This article is a part of ‘Think medievalThe series that makes a deep dive in India’s medieval culture, politics and history.
The Anirudh Kanisti is a public historian. He is the author of the ‘Lords of Earth and C: A History of the Chola Empire’, and the award -winning ‘Lord’s of Deccan’. He hosts the echo of India and Yudha Podcast. He tweets @akanisetti and is on Instagram @anirbuddha. Views are personal.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachahav)