Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Vedas and Sati Pratha



Vedas and Sati Pratha

Dr Vivek Arya 

Sati Pratha is one among the most favorite topic discussed by Hindu-bashers. There are special groups working on intellectual platform whose duty is to dishonor Hindus as one who oppress Women-hood equality and Rights. Most of these groups belongs to Christian and Islamic institutions. Surprisingly Christian’s refrains from any comment on alive burning of thousands of women on name of witchcraft in Europe for centuries.While Islamic's groups refrains from any comment on their support to ill practices like Female Genitalia mutilation, Polygamy, Triple Talaq and Halala on name of Sharia. On contrary to that they judges an outdated, extinct and almost forgotten ill practice of Sati Pratha on name of Human Rights watching.

Origin of Sati Pratha is being attributed to Vedas. This is a big misconception. In reality Sati Pratha is nowhere mentioned in Hindu scriptures. There is no advice of forceful widow burning in Vedas.This confusion was created in middle ages by ignorant commentators of Vedas.
Atharvaveda 18.3.1 is mostly quoted as Vedic Mantra which supports Sati Pratha.

This mantra is interpreted as

Choosing her husband's world, O man, this woman lays herself down beside thy lifeless body. Preserving faithfully the ancient custom. Bestow upon here both wealth and offspring. [Translation by Griffith]

In this Mantra the word ‘Choosing her husband's world’ is often interpreted as Wife is advised to join the Dead Husband in afterlife in next world. So she must burn herself in funeral pyre of her husband.

The Correct interpretation of this Mantra is

This Women have chosen her Husband’s world earlier. Today she is sitting besides your dead body. Now Bestow upon here both wealth and offspring for rest of her life to continue her afterlife in this world.

Thus, this mantra speaks about continuation of worldly affairs by Women in this world after her husband’s death.

In the very next Mantra of Atharvaveda 18.3.2 the same advise is attested by the authority of the Vedas. It says..

Rise, come unto the world of life, O woman: come, he is lifeless
by whose side thou liest.
Wife hood with this thy husband was thy portion who took thy
hand and wooed thee as a lover. [Translation by Griffith]

This Mantra clearly speaks to Women to rise besides the dead body of her husband and start worldly affairs in this living world.

Even Vedas speaks of Widow Remarriage for a Widow.

Evidence from Rigveda 10:18:8

The Rigveda contains a famous passage mentioning Sati and preventing it. To a widow who is with her husband on his funeral pyre, the text says: rise up, abandon this dead man and re-join the living.
This mis-interpretation of Vedic Mantras were done in the middle ages by ignorant class of Priests. The fraud related to interpretation of Rigveda 10.18.7 was exposed by none other than Maxmuller. In this mantra widow women as was advised to go ahead (Agre) in her life rather than go in funeral pyre (Agne means fire) after her husband’s death. The word Agre was mis-interpreted as Agni. Maxmuller condemned this fraud widely. He quotes ,“ This is perhaps the most flagrant instance of what can be done by an unscrupulous priesthood. Here have thousands of life be sacrificed, and a practical rebellion threatened on the authority of a passage which was mangled, mistranslated and misapplied.”
In Mahabharata Madri burned herself to death not due to custom of Sati Pratha but due to regret. She felt that it was her who was responsible for death of her husband Pandu. There is no evidence of Women performing Sati Pratha in Mahabharata post war whose husbands were killed in the Great War.

Thus it is proved that Vedas never supports Sati Pratha. Its mere a palpable falsification of a Vedic Hymn which forcibly killed thousands of innocent widows. This ill practice prevailed in middle ages only.

Vedas advise a widow to return from her Husband’s corpse and live a happy life in her remarriage.
First sincere attempt to stop Sati Pratha was taken by Raja Ram Mohan Rai in 1829 with help of British Government. A special law as enacted by the Government against Sati Pratha. This law was not consummated widely by the Society. Even if it was accepted by few it lead to sudden rise in large number of Widow in country. The reason being the institution of widow remarriage was still not in practice. Ishwar Chandra Vidya Sagar started few attempts of remarriage. But wide acceptance of remarriage begin only in early 20th century when Aryasamaj started a crusade movement in support of Widow Remarriage. Swami Dayanand was first eminent in Modern India to support Widow Remarriage.


12 comments:

  1. Brilliant Sir. May Lord Shiva Bless you and give you strength to dispell all the falsehood propagated about Hinduism, Hindutva by Christian evangelists and Islamists

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  2. A great thanks. It helped me to explain to my friends about sati pratha and hindutva connection.

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  3. What about pandu's wife madri and krishna's father Vasudev is followed on pyre by four wives, Krishna's death triggers the self immolation of five of his wives... Any explanation about this?

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    1. I don't know about Krishna ji and his father, but for pandu, his wife sacrificed her life at her own will because she suffered from the guilt that her husband's death was her mistake.

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  4. During early 19th century when British enacted a law to ban Sati at Bengal, the then Sanatana Hindus petitioned British Crown to intervene and stop the act. Similarly, for widow marriage, child marriage before puberty, thuggies in the name of God. If there is no mention of sati in Hindu scriptures why Rajaram Mohan Roy and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar were to fight against the Sati and widow marriage respectively

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    1. Because it was not in vedic time but later when islamic invasion begins in india ...when rajput warriors lost battles and died their wifes practice sati or johar ...if they didnt then they will captured by invaders ,raped and killed ...so it was a type of suicide .

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    2. Why did Shivaji's wife commited Sati then? Isn't Maratha Empire described as the ultimate opposer of Islamic invasion.

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    3. Rajput wifes were not alone, even Sikh women used to do sati when sikhism dosent promote it at all, the reason is that when islam invaders used to come or some other enemies, they used to firstly do molestation with them, later used to either kill them or sell them as slaves and rarely used to marry them. So, better they felt that they would die rather than facing this, but Rajput ranis were very idealistic, they would rarely wish to marry the enemy. Thus they used to voluntarily decide to burn themselves. Later, it became a custom only as people were not educated mostly, also the another wrong interpretation of vedas i.e. the caste system prevented the lower castes and general public to get educated, neither internet was available:p and you know, the orientalist J. Ducan working with Warran Hastings, used the Vedas to convince Rajputs to ban these evil practices and he was successful also. So, he knew well that it contradics the scriptures. But dying after being defeated by an enemy was done even by the males in China. You can also refer to this Video for more details https://youtu.be/NmRjgjKrocs

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    4. After Shivaji's death in 1680, Sakvarbai had wanted to commit sati just like her husband's third wife Putalabai because of the reason mentioned above. But she was not allowed to do so because she had a daughter. Sati was also done voluntarily in the sorrow of passing away of the husband by many. While, later it had become a custom as i mentioned, very few were educated and never knew the Vedas, and it is always beneficial fopr the males, after husbands death, the entire property would go to the wife, if wife dosent remain, the children will be the sole benefactors!! Thats the reason in all the religions and places we find Widowburning practices like Witchhunting in europe etc.

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. if u r concerned about your religion, thus every religions have black sheep's persons who innovate the actual teachings.
    thus what u mentioned above for islam, u have misunderstandings about
    halala,triple talak, femae genital mutilations which r in fact innovations ideas have put.if u ask proper scholar from salafis predessors, ahlulhadeeth scholars or ho through hadeeth books of previous scholars u can get true pictures.

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  7. all religious books of previous religions are not intact of its originality but only one scripture will remain and its an challenge by the scripture itself and that's al-quran.

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