Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 397

A PROOF OF WIFELY DEVOTION
357
It was principally in the noble caste of Rajahs that the
It was looked upon as a highly honour-
suttee originated.
able proof of wifely attachment and love, which enhanced
the glory of the families of these wretched victims of blind
Should a widow, by reason of a natural fondness
zeal.
for life or through lack of courage, endeavour to avoid
the honour of being burnt alive on the funeral pyre of her
deceased husband, she was considered to be offering a gross
memory.
was once able to thoroughly convince myself of the
influence which this false point of honour still exercises
over the minds of fanatical Hindus, and at the same time
to discern that this act of devotion to which these wretched
insult to his
I
fit to interfere to check this inconceivable mania by adopting
It has, therefore, directed the different
at least persuasive measures.
magistrates scattered about the country to examine very minutely all
thought
the circumstances attending the custom of suttee (this is the name by
which these barbarous sacrifices are known), and never to sanction it
except after exhausting all the means to oppose it which prudence may
suggest to them. No woman can, therefore, now devote herself to
When
a death of this kind without the sanction of the magistracy.
such permission is sought, the magistrates cause the victim to appear
before them and question her carefully to assure themselves that her
resolution is entirely voluntary, and that no outside influence has been
brought to bear upon her. They then try by every possible exhorta-
But
tion and counsel to induce her to give up her horrible design.
should the widow remain firm in her resolution, they leave her mistress
of her own fate.
The Protestant missionaries, when they first arrived
in the country, expressed a just horror of these abominable sacrifices,
and strove to diminish their number but being ill acquainted with the
character of the Hindus and with their devoted attachment to custom,
they used brusque and violent measures which only resulted in augment-
ing the evil.
I have seen the lists of widows who had sacrificed them-
selves on the funeral pyre of their husbands from 1810 (the period at
which the missionaries commenced their labours) up to the year 1820
and I have remarked that the number of these victims progressively
increased every year during that space of time.
In 1817 there were
706 suttees in the Bengal Presidency. It is true that this insane practice
is much more in vogue on the banks of the Ganges than anywhere else.
In the southern parts of the Peninsula of India suttees are seldom seen.
I am convinced that in the Madras Presidency, which numbers at least
thirty millions of inhabitants, not thirty widows allow themselves to be
thus burnt during a year.
Dubois.
Suttee is now, of course, absolutely abolished.
Its prohibition by
law was effected during the Governor-Generalship of Lord William
Bentinck (1825-1835), at the instance of the great Rajah Ram Mohun
;
;
Roy.— Ed.