Sati–The Holocaust of widows: Goa’s abominable 

past
March 24, 2018Neofito Victor Rodriguez

 
 (Sati stones in the Goa State Musuem)

In the Archaeological Museum at Old Goa as well as at the Goa State Musuem in the Idalcao
Palace at Panjim, one can see numerous carved basalt “Sati stones” on display depicting the
stories of some unfortunate women forced to die on their husband’s funeral pyres.
Sati is the abbreviation of the phrase sati-saha-gamana which means the going (journey) of the
wife along with her dead husband. The term sati denoted a virtuous, modest and submissive wife
who lived a life of uninterrupted dedication  in her conjugal life and who burnt herself on the
pyre of her husband in order to continue the same in eternity.

Linschoten records in the late 16th century in Goa, “When the Brahmins die, all their friends
assemble together, and make a hole(note this!) in the ground, wherein they throw much wood
and other things; and if the man be of any importance, they cast in sweet sanders, and other
spices, with rice, corn, and such others and much oil, because the fire should burn  stronger. That
done they lay the dead Brahmin in it; then comes his wife with music and [many of] her nearest
friends, all singing certain praises in praise of her husband’s life, comforting her  and
encouraging her to follow her husband  and go with him into the other world. Then she takes[all]
her jewels and distributes them among her friends  and so with a cheer full countenance  she
leaps into the fire and is presently covered with wood and oil. So she dies quickly and with her
husband’s body she, too, is  burned to ashes. And if by chance-which doesn’t happen often—if
any [woman] refuses to be burnt with her husband, then they shave her head and as long as she
lives she must never ever wear any jewels. From that time onwards she is despised and branded
as a dishonest woman.”
 ( Illustration of a Sati ceremony by Linschoten)

Francis Careri writing in his “A voyage round the world” describes an abominable scene he
witnessed in Ponda, outside the Portuguese territory of Goa, on the 7th   of March, 1695.
“Monday 7th, I saw the dismal spectacle of a wretched pagan woman. The family of her dead
husband had obtained at the price of great presents from the Suba(The local Indian governor), to
be burned with the dead body, according to their wicked unmerciful custom.

“In the afternoon the woman came out well clad, and adorned with jewels, as if she had gone to
be married, with music playing, and singing. She was attended by the kindred of both sexes,
friends, and brahman priests. Being come to the place appointed, she went about undaunted,
taking leave of them all, after which she was laid all along, with her head on a block, in a cottage
twelve spans square, made of small wood wet with oil, but bound to a stake, that she might not
run away with the fright of the fire.

“Lying in this posture, chewing betel, she asked of the standers by, whether they had any
business by her to the other world; and having received several gifts, and letters from those
ignorant people, to carry to their dead friends, she wrapped them up in a cloth. This done, the
Brahman, who had been encouraging her, came out of the hut, and caused it to be set on fire; the
friends pouring vessels of oil on her, that she might be the sooner reduced to ashes, and out of
pain. Francis de Miranda told me, that as soon as the fire was out, the Brahmans would go
gather all the melted gold, silver and copper. This barbarous action was performed a mile from
Ponda”

 
Fryer states that the widow who perfomed sati was fed an infusion of dutry ( datura) due to
which she loses her senses and turning half mad  throws herself  into the funeral pyre.

Francois Pyrard makes an interesting mention of the uses of  datura by the women of the Indies
when he visited the City of Goa in 1608.

“All the women of the Indies snake much use of a certain fruit, like a large medlar, that grows
not upon a tree, but upon a shrub, and is all green, round and prickly on the outside, and full of
little seeds within. It is found nearly everywhere in the Indies, and among other places is large
quantities at the Maldives, where it is called” Madman’s herb.” In other parts of the Indies it is to
called Dutroa.

“When the women wish to enjoy their amours in all security, they make a drink for their
husbands of this fruit infused in their beverages or in soup. An hour afterwards they become
giddy and insensible, singing, laughing, and performing a thousand antics, for then they have lost
all consciousness and judgment, and know neither what they are doing nor what is being done in
their presence. Then do the wives make use of their time, admitting whom they will, and taking
their pleasure in the presence of their husbands, who are aware of nothing. The effect lasts five
or six hours, more or less, according to the quantity of the dose. Then they fall asleep, and at
their waking believe they have been asleep all the while, without remembering anything of what
they have done, heard, or seen.

“Also when the men want to enjoy a girl or a woman, and cannot attain their end, they get them
to take some of the same stuff, and when they are in this folly, they do unto them as they will,
without the women being aware of it afterwards. While I was in that country, many were found
to have become pregnant without knowing whence this had happened to them. But were one to
take a large dose of this fruit, he would infallibly die of it, When the soldiers and others cannot
obtain possession of a woman, they tamper with their maid-servants, who sell and betray their
mistresses for money in this manner, by giving them to drink of this herb.”

Linschoten also noted this among the inhabitants of the City of Goa in the previous century. He
writes, “They have  a Herb called Deutroa which bears a seed, whereof bruising out the sap, they
put it into a cup or other vessel, and give it to their husbands, either in meat or drink, and
presently , the man is as though he were half out of his wits, and without feeling, or else drunk,
doing nothing but laugh, and sometimes it makes him sleep, whereby he lies like a dead man, so
that in his presence they may do what they will, and take their pleasure with their friends, and the
husband never know of it. In which sort he continues four and twenty hours long, but if they
wash his feet with cold water he presently revives, and knows nothing thereof, but thinks he had
slept.”

The above discussion was merely to state the fact that sati was not always an outcome of a
willing sacrifice by a widow but, more often than not, was induced by administering mood
changing drugs to null the senses of the hapless woman. Such naturally occurring drugs were in
currency all over the Indian sub-continent.

The Hindu women of Goa  did not enjoy equal status with men. They were denied a number of
rights such as those of education, inheritance, choice of their life partners, and so on. The lack of
education kept the women in ignorance and they were exploited by the male dominated society.
They were married off before they attained puberty.

If  a woman’s husband died while she was still young, she was not permitted to marry a second
time but was forced to immolate herself on  her husband’s funeral pyre.
It was a fact that when the relatives knew that the victim would desist from undergoing sati, they
generally threw her into the blazing flames, adding wood, oil and butter. But occasionally, she
would jump out from the pyre before the fire could engulf her. To avoid any such incidence, the
Hindu pundits made circular pits into which the widow was made to jump while the fire burnt
high. If she refused to jump into the pyre or jumped out of it, she was considered unfaithful to
her husband and was looked down upon by the society as a symbol of disgrace and humiliation.

She was not only disowned by her relatives but was also forced to lead a life of a prostitute or
devadasi. It could be possible that one of the reasons for the growth of the devadasi system might
have been  the consequence of the disowned or escaped young widows taking refuge in the
temples.

The satis were remembered by erecting sati-stones and placing lighted lamps where they
committed sati. It is difficult to imagine the plight of the innocent child widows. It only reminds
us of the stranglehold of religion on the Indian society. The Europeans were appalled by the
abomination and took stern action against the custom. But the Hindu pandits deliberately dubbed
them as anti-Indians and whipped up an anti-European hysteria in the country.

It was Afonso de Albuquerque who banned sati in the Island of Goa as early as 1510. But sati
was practised in Bardez and Salcete till 1560 by the  high  caste  Hindus. Even in the Island of
Goa sati went on unofficially and unnoticed for some time. In 1555, Governor Francisco
Barretto revoked the prohibition of Afonso de Albuquerque at the request of the Hindus of Goa.

Under the  governership of Constantino de Braganca (1558 – 1561) the leading Brahmins of
the island of  Chorao requested the Viceroy to allow them to take the widows with their deceased
husbands and burn them on the mainland. The Viceroy not only rejected their request but also
castigated them. He reintroduced the  prohibition of sati  on 30 June, 1560.

The prohibition stated that the one who abetted the crime would be sent to the gallows and his
properties would be confiscated. Yet, the system of sati went on covertly for some time when
one would behold a canoe or a small boat bursting into flames in the middle of the Mandovi or
Zuari river in the dead of the night.

The prohibition of sati forced the widows to lead a life of total withdrawal, renouncing all
colourful dress, tilak, jewellery, flowers, cosmetics, and so on. She was now under the tutelage
of her son or brother-in-law. Her life often amounted to virtual slavery. There was a feeling that
she was unwanted everywhere. She was considered  a bad omen on auspicious days or occasions.
She was shunted out from attending any function. It was an accursed  life.

The Provincial Councils summoned by the archbishop of Goa, therefore, not only condemned the
sati system as evil but also condemned the monotonous and slavish life of a widow. They passed
resolutions allowing freedom to the young widows to remarry if they so desired. The councils
took note of the ill-treatment of the widows at the hands of their relations and expressed sorrow
at their life of anguish. They could not understand why the widows were not permitted to
remarry and why some of them were forced to satisfy the carnal pleasures of overzealous
relations.
The Council Fathers took note of the plight of the Hindu widows and asked them not to renounce
the world by abhorring a good dress, jewellery, and so on, but to lead a fuller life by marrying
again if they so desired. The councils requested the king of Portugal to pass appropriate laws
enabling the Hindu widows to remarry. The councils passed decrees which spelt out that if
anyone impeded such a marriage, half the property of the accused would go to the accuser and
the other half would be utilised for pious works.

Today, sati is still considered as a benign social custom of a bygone era. Nobody gives much
thought to this horror. The numerous sati artifacts that are collected by the musuems– and still
continue to be added to their collection—underline the fact that the horrific practice was quite
common place in the Goan society as much as it was everywhere else in India, though historians
note that it was not so common in Southern India, south of the Krishna River. Sati may have
been practiced as a tool to increase the honour of a dead man’s family by forcing his widow to
follow him even in death or it could have been a mechanism to get rid of a burdensome widow
by the in-laws. One fails to understand how such a perverse society had come to lose  all human
values by desiring the horrific death of one of its loved one, a society which otherwise falsely
prides itself in honouring a mother—even in a cow. Countless mothers, sisters and daughters
were burnt on this evil altar of  human sacrifice over millennia. Even Europe’s Inquisition which
burnt heretics at the stake pales in comparison to this evil cultural heritage of India. There is of
course another evil which has been revived by the Brahmins in modern day India. The evil of
murdering a man for consuming beef or for harming a cow. An ancient historian had mentioned
as a footnote in his book that this was done so that the vegetarian Brahmin would not be deprived
of milk due to the extinction of cows. The abolition of sati anyway deprived him of the gold and
silver of the sati victim.

We owe it to the European powers, chiefly the Portuguese first and later the British, for putting
an end to this abominable evil. The women of India at least owe it to them.