A CASE OF SUTTEE IN INDIA.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4553, 23 October 1875, Page 2 (Supplement)

A CASE OF SUTTEE IN INDIA.

The Lucknow Times gives its an account of a case of sati which took place on the 4th instant at the: village of Basulpur, in Tahsil Sandila, in Oudh. The victim of superstition was one Bilasi, the widow of a Brahmin named Chota. She was encouraged to 'commit the deed by her. nephew and other relations, though the village authorities attempted to prevent it, and the solitary chaukildar went off to report it to the nearest thana. “ After bathing,” says our contemporary, “ Bilasi arrayed herself in her best dress and bridal ornaments, and the funeral procession set out for the moskoa, or burning place. In addition to the relatives and friends of the deceased, a number of oilmen, chamars, and even Mohammedans, accompanied the victim, carrying the materials for constructing the sacrificial pyre. As a sufficient supply, of wood could uot be obtained quick enough, dried cowdung was substituted. A large pile of this being heaped up, Bilasi was seated on it with the corpse, of her husband in her lap, she was then buried up to the neck among kandra, or dried cowduug. The whole was then covered with bundles of straw, aud Haka, her nephew, handing a light to the sati, sho herself set fire to the pile. The victim is stated to have sat calm and quiet amidst the roaring flames till she died, the pile being reduced to ashes in about three hours. The thanadar readied the scene after all was over, though the chaulcidar had used his best despatch iu travelling the fourteen miles between the village aud the thaua. The District Superintendent of Police and the Deputy Commissioner of the district hurried to. the spot,, and all the relatives of the victim, together with the authorities of the village, thirty men in all, have been arrested and committed to the sessions. The other residents declare thenprofound ignorance of the deed, and either will not or cannot give evidence in the matter.”