Young widow becomes suttee in ancient rite

Press, 23 September 1987, Page 26

Young widow becomes suttee in ancient rite

By

RAJENDRA BAJPAI

NZPA-Reuter Deorala, India When Roop Kanwar, aged 18, allowed herself to burn to death on her husband's funeral pyre many Indians believe she attained the status of a goddess. Roop Kanwar, a bride of only eight months when she chose to join her husband in death, became a suttee in an ancient practice outlawed for more than 150 years but which millions of ordinary people still see as an act of supreme fidelity. The ban, and Government campaigns over several decades against widows joining their husbands in death, have not doused the belief that suttees achieve divine status, bring luck and fulfil the wishes of Hindu believers. Some Indians are horrified and see suttee as a barbaric act not even sanctioned by Hindu scriptures. But in the two weeks since Roop Kanwar’s death, more than one million people have made a pilgrimage to the village of Deorala amid the hot sands of western India’s Rajasthan state. They celebrate what

they see as. Roop Kanwar’s martyrdom by chanting “Suttee is immortal" and dancing with naked swords in their hands, or bowing at the spot where the funeral pyre blazed. “Suttee has neither religious sanctity nor scriptural base," said Raghvendra Vajpayee, a professor of ancient Indian history In Delhi. “Even Manu Smriti, the holy Hindu book, does not provide for widow-burn-ing although it does lay down social restrictions on widows,” he said. Vajpayee said the first references to suttee were found in the Rg Veda, the Hindu scriptures, nearly 1000 years before Christ But it discouraged the practice. However, the great Indian epics such as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata attached respectability to suttee at a time when it was confined to royal and princely families. In the tribal belts of Rajasthan and particularly among the Rajput warrior caste to which Roop Kanwar belonged, the practice resurfaced in the sixth century AD. Much of it was rooted in the fact that widows had no role in society, were seen as a curse on the community and were often exploited, sometimes sexually. To encourage women to die on their husbands’ funeral pyres, an aura of divinity was added to the suttee and over the centuries they came to be regarded as goddesses with temples built in their memories. - The valour of suttees was also popularised by local

folklore and has been handed down through the In the fourteenth century, when Turkish rulers of Delhi attacked Chittor in Rajasthan and the defeat of the Hindu rulers looked imminent, the wives of Rajput warriors prepared funeral pyres for themselves. They burned to death to escape capture by the invaders and to help their husbands fight their last battle without worrying about the womenfolk. Roop Kanwar, the educated country girt who probably expected to raise a family and live the uneventful life of a village woman, will now be remembered by a temple soon to be raised on the spot where she died. Annual religious festivals will be held in the village to commemorate x her sacrifice. “She was God's gift It was not a question of courage in committing suttee. She had divine inspiration," said Kesar Devi, a Deorala woman, aged 50. More than 5000 people watched while the girl was consumed by flames as she sat calmly on the pyre holding her dead husband’s head on her lap. Man Singh, aged 21, died of gastroenteritis on September 4. Hours later, villagers said, his widow declared she would join him in the funeral flames. The husband’s family, they said, tried to argue against it but the girl was adamant She dressed herself in her bridal finery, a brocaded sari, and stepped on to the pyre showing no

signs of panic Her« brother-in-taw, aged 15, Ut M the flame. The villagen watched in awe as flames I < engulfed the couple. Nobody tried to stop her. TO Although villagers said Roop Kanwar was not iS forced and was a willing: suttee, Vajpayee believes ' the family may have prepared her psychologically < ; and charged her emotionally for her ordeat The police have ar^.. rested Man Singh’s father and brother and two close relatives, but were unable > to prevent more than 200,000 people attending : ceremonies marking Roop ; Kanwar’s death. TS Most Indian newspapers 4 printed glowing accounts of the event, although a. i few appeared to oppose : the practice. The publicity I has made Roop Kanwar as heroine in India. But the “Hindu” of Madras said laT an editorial: “That the savage practice of suttee persists even 150 years after its ban is a shameful commentary on the social '■ awareness of sections of j the people of Rajasthan.” Suttee was first banned by India’s Mughal em-- : perors, who were. Muslims, in the seven-. teenth century. It was. | again outlawed under the . 3 British Raj. Successive governments have campaigned against < suttee but every few years vf a young widow emerges f in Rajasthan to commit'l herself to the flames conP» suming her husband. T Not a tear was shed Ini Deorala as flames leapt out of the pyre where Roop Kanwar sat calmly. The villagers chanted,; “Safi mata ki jai” (Suttee; is immortal). : "J