We know that sati pratha or self-immolation of widows was practised in India.
But do you know that this practice has always been very much the exception rather than the rule in Hindu life.
During the Mughal period, it was practised only by the Rajput princely families in central India and Rajasthan and in the kingdom of Vijaynagara in south India.
During the British period, the practice was revived on a wider scale in areas, which experienced the highest rate of development under British administration, i.e., the capital city of Calcutta and districts around it.
Here it became popular not only among the upper castes, but also among the peasant families of lower and intermediary castes, who achieved social mobility and then sought to legitimise their new status by imitating their caste superiors.
Apart from this sociological reason and the religious notion of an ideal wife who would follow her husband in life and in death, the other factor was the greed of the relatives.
The practice had become most widespread in those areas where the Dayabhaga school of personal Hindu law was applicable. As compared to the Mitakshara school, it allowed the widow relatively greater right to inherit her deceased husband’s property.
