**3. Contextualizing Co-Cremation**

In order to understand the societal system behind the co-cremation of widows, voluntary or forced, it is necessary to explore the cultural and ethical values around the married woman. The logic of *sat¯ı* emerges out of a matrix of marital formations as an alternative to widowhood. What then, was so special about a married woman, and why was widowhood considered to be so inauspicious that some newly widowed wives chose joining their deceased husbands in the flames over life as a widow?

First, there is a myth, the myth of the goddess Sat¯ı. To cut a long myth short, goddess Sat¯ı, who was married to the great but rather 'untamed' god Siva, once found out that her husband had ´ been dishonored by her father Daks.a, who had failed to invite him to a great sacrificial offering. As the ultimate consequence of her husband's dishonor she entered the fire. The self-immolation of wives partly13 rests on this myth of goddess Sat¯ı (Hawley 1994; Ramos 2017). Not only do they have the name in common, in the ancient story Sat¯ı had entered the sacrificial fire as the dramatic gesture of showing loyalty to her husband. The rationale behind the practice of *sat¯ı* is thus related to notions of how a woman should ideally behave towards her husband. The technical term for this behavioral code is *pativratadharma ¯* , namely the *dharma* that is appropriate to a married woman. Central to her duties is care of her husband. A devoted wife ideally brings well-being to the husband, the family, and the overall community (Harlan 1994). Given this hierarchical relation, the husband ought to outlive his wife. If the husband dies first, this is considered a disruption in more ways than one. As the wife had generally left her own native family at the time of her wedding and became adopted into the community of her husband's lineage, the widow traditionally occupied an anomalous position. She herself often marked this transition by withdrawing to the margins of her family-in-law, renouncing participation in all auspicious family rituals. Breaking her bangles (which used to mark her auspicious married state), removing the red powder from the parting of her hair, and shedding all jewelry or bright colors, she was expected to live out her life as a carrier of inauspiciousness. Moreover, she might be treated badly or even banished from the house of her in-laws. Ritually, however, her function would be paramount: she was expected to scrupulously perform all the calendrical rituals required to guarantee her dead husband's well-being in the hereafter. Her anticipation of such a life of widowhood may well have brought her to the point that she favored *sat¯ı* as a more elevated alternative. Or, in some cases, she may have been forced by her in-laws, and possibly priests, to do so (Oldenburg 1994b).

In addition to the argument related to the inauspiciousness and material deprivation of a widow's state, there is another. The practice of *sat¯ı* may well have emerged among martial communities in frontier zones, as we saw above in the Greek report. In western and northern India, *ks. atriyas'* prime activity in the early days was the defense of land and cattle, and heroic sacrificial death-in-action became highly valued. It has been argued that this found a female parallel in shared death—the widow following her husband after he had died on the battlefield—for at least two reasons: first, that the male notion of honor and property extended to his wife (or wives), who should not fall into the hands of others; and second, that *ks. atriya* women had generally been reared in the spirit of heroism anyway.<sup>14</sup>

<sup>13</sup> It is important to note here that her husband Siva had not died, but had merely been dishonored. Still, his wife literally died ´ of shame.

<sup>14</sup> Especially among the Rajputs—living in the northwest regions where a succession of invaders had entered the continent—there ¯ was a special but extremely rare form of chivalric suicide by Hindu women: *jauhar* or *jauhar sat¯ı. Jauhar* was the act of collective self-immolation to avoid capture and abuse by foreign invaders. The term *jauhar* is commonly derived from Sanskrit *jatugr.ha*, literally a house plastered with lac and other highly combustible materials. This house was intentionally and purposely set on fire while women and childeren were inside, in order to save their honor when husbands and

This special form of heroism (*v¯ırya*) became iconographically represented in many memorial stones of warriors (*v¯ıra*; often *bir* in the vernacular) on horseback, depictions in which the warrior is always accompanied by his wife who stands next to him, with her hands in the gesture of paying homage to him (Courtright 1994). What is striking about such memorial stones is that the ladies make this respectful gesture with their bangles perfectly in place on their wrists, indicating that they were seen as married and not as widowed, even in death. The famous *sat¯ı* stones, found across the entire landscape of India, sometimes became, over time, more abstract in expression. For instance, when nothing but a raised right arm is depicted, or merely a lady's hand or a palmprint (supposedly the print of the palm of her hand on stone, still with traces of the auspicious red powder with which she had decorated herself; see Figure 2).15 In many places this auspicious red color is maintained even now, as married women still visit such sites 'to derive strength' and 'to gain *sakt ´ ¯ı* ' by putting their own hand palms in the palmprints allegedly left there in the past by virtuous widows on their way to their husband's pyre (Courtright 2011).

**Figure 2.** Fort Palace in Jaisalmer, with *sat¯ı* palmprints (Albertina Nugteren).

Places where a widow had followed her husband in death have often become places of pilgrimage. The pilgrim's destination may be a single memorial stone, a wayside shrine, or a proper temple. The story of a singular historical *sat¯ı* may have been at the basis of such a site, but often the historical and the devotional get fused. The story of the goddess Sat¯ı likewise forms a network of local and regional shrines, especially in Rajasthan (Harlan 1994). The idea is that a human *sat¯ı*, first by her self-chosen death and then by her continued service to her deceased husband in the hereafter, partakes in a particular form of divine power, called *sakti ´* or *sat*. This power may be considered to be beneficial for devotees, but, as the other side of the coin, may easily be turned into a curse as well. Some historical

armies faced inescapable military defeat. This makes it, in the words of Wendy Doniger, 'a kind of prophylactic suttee' (Doniger 2010, p. 611). Although in collective memory, both in India and in Britain, *jauhar* is often connected with Muslim invasions—the most famous *jauhar* is that during the Mughal siege of Chittorgarh in 1568—the practice was at least a millenium older. Even Arrian, in Book VI of his *Anabasis* (second century CE), referred to a military clash between Macedonian and 'Agalossoi' armies, during which civilians, fearing defeat, set fire to their home town and cast themselves into the flames. See, for instance, Hawley (1994).

<sup>15</sup> Although we call them handprints or palmprints, they are in most cases the exact opposites, and in that sense palindromic in form. The existence of daubed palmprints on walls must have originated in actual impressions (concave), which over time became reproduced in elevated form (convex). The same counterintuitive reversal is found in the cult of Buddha's footprints.

*sat¯ıs* have thus transcended the status of a simple lineage goddess and have grown into community goddesses, both loved and feared.
