SUTTEE, the Indian practice of concremation of a widow on the pyre of her deceased husband (Sanskr. sati, "true" wife). Whether the usage existed in Vedic India has been hotly debated. World-wide primitive usage compelled a widow to be the wife of her husband's brother or near kinsman or, if he had been of princely standing, to be immolated with his concubines, slaves, steeds, etc., at his tomb, to maintain his dignity in the next world. This usage eventually found priestly support in the Hindu con ception of matrimony as a bond eternally renewed when the mar ried pair were reborn in succeeding lives—a concept hard to reconcile with polygyny. In late Hindu myth Sati was Siva's spouse who, resenting a slight put upon her lord by her father, destroyed herself but was reincarnated as Uma, the beauteous wife of Siva. Here Sati's act is prompted by a very different mo tive, and the tale supports the view that the text of the Rig-Veda was tampered with, to support the Brahmanical ideal.
According to Diodorus Siculus, Strabo and St. Jerome, Suttee existed in the 4th century B.C. In mediaeval India the practice flourished among the Rajputs—and where Brahman influences were strong. The Sati too began to be worshiped as a Maha Sati or "great and true" wife, commemorated by a stone. Yet re formers denounced the usage, as in Malabar. Even the Brahmani cal jurists sometimes deprecated sati, allowing the widow the op tion of living an ascetic life, with rights of inheritance. The Jains do not practice sati. Buddhism probably discouraged it. Sikhism expressly forbade it, yet on Ranjit Singh's death in 1839, several of his widows were burnt. Outside British jurisdiction, sati con tinued in families of high rank until late in the 19th century. In British territory, it was not till 1829 that Lord William Bentinck, with some support from Indian opinion (see BRAHMA SAMAJ) was able, despite strong protests, to make it a statutory offence.