WIDOW BURNED ALIVE

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2626, 30 August 1923, Page 4

WIDOW BURNED ALIVE

HUSBAND’S FUNERAL PYRE.

In the town of Etawali, near Delhi, the capital of India, Ganga Din Ahir, a young man of 28, died after a short illness. Wjhen his body was given to the flames a few hours afterwards, in accordance with the native custom of cremating the dead his beautiful 25-year-old wife, Musammat Rukka, arrayed in bridal finery, mounted the funeral pyre and died a “holy woman.” Quite the most remarkable feature of the young wife’s sacrifice was the bold way in which it was conducted. In open defiance to the British law, she methodically carried out with strict religious detail, every ceremony prescribed in the sacred writings for death by fire. According to the ancient custom of her Brahmin ancestors, immediately after her husband’s death, the widow announced her intention of becoming a sati —a name given a wife burned with her husband’s ashes. As was forseen by relatives if she carried out this intention everyone connected with the dead man’s obsequies would surely be called to account, .so they tried to dissuade the young woman. But Musammat Rukka would not be moved. “Have I not the right to die as have the holy women of my faith?” she asked all who would withhold her. “I am willing to suffer burning alive that I may not be separated from by beloved for the short months or long years I might otherwise survive him.”

Religious rites after the death of a person always move quickly in India. When the new widow had made her vow of burning, she immediately began the religious observance of the rite by bathing with water from the holy Ganges. Then she went to her room and put on a complete set of new wearing apparel, except for certain parts of her bridal costume, which she had laid away and which she put on again for the first time since her wedding day. As she had been the dead man’s bride in life, so she declared her desire to be his bride when he went to Paradise.

When the ceremony of dressing was completed, priests came to her and painted her face with red ochre, into which they had ground gunpowder and sulphur, so that her features might burn all the quicker. In the meantime the body of her husband had been carried to the spot where it was to be cremated, and relatives had built a funeral pyre and announced that all was ready. Amid the mournful wail of pipes the journey to the funeral pyre was begun. Arrived at the scene of holocaust, the fire-bride looked with firm gaze upon her husband’s corpse arrayed in a burial garment, and spread on a bed of dry leaves and wood that had been raised on stilts from the ground, so as to get the benefit of a good under-draught. She saw to it that plenty of melted butter and oil was poured on the wood until every stick was saturated.

Then the priests approached, and into her hand .pressed an evergreen herb, called Cusa, and in the other hand a bowl of water, all the while chanting the prayers for the dead. The sati distributed ochre among her relatives and gave her jewels to the clergy. Her evergreen wand was to signify eternal life, and the water was a symbol that her-spirit had been purified and made ready for Paradise.

While this was going on, a multitude of friends had gathered, who joined their voices in the chants raised when the widow walked slowly around the funeral pyre, throwing grains of rice for blessings to those who were assisting in the ceremony. Three times around the pyre she walked, listening to the priests reciting religious texts and calling to mind the high place she was to hold among the blessed in Paradise.

The last moments had come; Men with gongs and sacred pipes and drams let forth a furious noise, while women bowed their heads in lamentation and murmured: “Sati. A good wife. Blessed in Ganga Din Ahir.” With easy composure the Brahmin priests led the young widow to the edge of the pyre. All in readiness. The men blew louder on the sacred pipes, the cymbals clash-

ed, and the bodies of' the mourners swayed to their, rylhmetic beat. Scarcely audible above the din Musammat Rukka repeated three times the sacred word “Safinh,” and fell on the pyre. It was the signal to apply the fire from burning wheat stocks. First, the flames were applied to the mouth of the corpse, and this failing to ignite the pyre, as was to be expected, the flames were touched to the oil-soaked leaves at the bottom of the pyre, so that the under-draught would furiously drive them through. As the flames mounted upward incense was sprinkled on the pyre and the priest took strips of wood dipped in ghee and scattered them over the corpse. In a few moments the two bodies — the dead man’s and the living body of the young woman —were reduced to ashes. The sati had paid her last great token of respect to her dead husband’s memory. Not a cry or murmur came from the burning widow on the funeral pyre. When news of the woman’s tragic death came to the British officials of Delhi, an order for the arrest of all those who had participated in the ceremony was sent out, and within a short time the local constabulary at Etawali had arrested six of the principal men of the village, charged with the crime of abetting suicide. As a result of the trial three of these men were sentenced to four years in prison.