ESKİ BİR HİNT GELENEĞİ: SATİ

Dul kadınları kocalarının cenaze ateşinde yakma geleneği eski bir HindoGermanik âdetidir. Benzer uygulamalar hem Avrupa'da hem de, özellikle İskandinav kültürlerde, eski Mısır, Yunan ve Bali'de oldukça yaygındı. Fakat dinsel bir seremoni olarak gelişen satãnin kökeni muhtemelen Hindulara dayanır. Satã, dul kalmış bir kadının kendini kocasının cenaze ateşine atarak hayatına son vermesidir. Hindu inancına göre kocası ölen bir kadının kendini kocasının cenaze ateşine atmaktan başka bir görevi yoktur

An Ancient Indian Custom: Sati

The practice of burning the widow with the corpse of the husband is an old Indo- Germanic custom. Similar practices are notably common both in Europe and especially in Scandinavian cultures and also ancient Egyptians, Greece and Bali, etc. But the possible origin of the rite of satã based on Hindus. Sati was a religious funeral practice among Hindus in which a widowed woman has immolated herself on her husband's funeral pyre. In Hindu beliefs there is no other duty but falling into the funeral pyre for all women, when the husband dies. Existance of the practice satã relies on before Gupta Empire, in other words, approximately 400 AD. So throughout history thousands of women maybe millions pass away because of this severe belief or custom. In the end, after so many times of efforts to ban, the practice was forbidden in 1829 by William Bentick the general governer of British India

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(http://en.vikipedia.org./wiki/jauhar, Erişim Tarihi: 04.05.2012)