Early Modern Period: Autobiography, Bahina Bai
Bai, Bahina. Bahina Bai: A Translation of Her Autobiography and Verses. Translated by Justine E. Abbot. Poona, India: Scottish Mission Industries Co., 1929.

This selection comes from the autobiography of Bahin-_ B__ (1628-1700), a Hindu poetess. Most of what we know about Bahin-_ comes from her own writings, where she tells her life story. Born into a family of the Brahmin—or priestly—caste, she was married at the age of five to a widowed... [more]

Sati: Letter, Francois Bernier
Bernier, Francois. Travels in the Mogul Empire, AD 1656-1668. Translated by Archibald Constable on the basis of Irving Brock’s version. Edited by Vincent A. Smith. 1934. Reprint, Delhi: Low Price Publications, 1994.

During the 17th century, Louis XIV of France sought to strengthen the power of the monarchy in France and to enhance France’s position in world politics. In 1664, Jean Colbert, his finance minister, established the French East India Company to develop French trade with India. Besides providing... [more]

Sati: Engraving, Sati
A Gentoo Woman burning herself on the funeral Pile of her deceas’d Husband. Copper engraving from Edward Cavendish Drake. In A New Universal Collection of Authentic and Entertaining Voyages and Travels. London: J. Cooke, 1768.

From the late 1500s and into early 1800s, adventurous and artistically talented European men and a few women traveled to Asia and India, in particular, to see sites and cultures considered exotic. They recorded their impression in prose and in sketches, the latter being transformed into engravings... [more]

Sati: Object, Sati Handprints
Photograph of handprints of satis impressed on a gateway when they left the Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur, Rajasthan on their way to commit self-immolation on their husbands’ funeral pyres outside the Fort.

This image of the hands of Hindu widows and concubines of the ruling family of the Rajput state of Jodhpur, also known as Marwar, memorializes the devotion of these women and the high status of the men for whom the women committed sati. Indian princes, such as the maharajas of Jodhpur, who had... [more]

Sati: Letter, Panduranga Joshi Kulkarni
A letter from the secretariat to Panduranga Joshi Kulkarni of the town of Talegaon and the villages of Jategaon, Pabal sub-division, and Karandi, Chakan sub-division. Selections from the Satara Raja and the Peshwa's Diaries - Part 7 Peshwa Madhavrao I, Vol. 2. Translated from Marathi by Sumit Guha. Selected by the Ganesh Chimnaji Vad. Edited by Bapu Purushotam Joshi Poona. The Poona Vernacular Translation Society, 1911.

Although the self-immolation of Hindu widows was less common in western India than in Bengal, this letter confirms its occurrence in Maratha-ruled areas during the 1700s. The Marathas were a distinctive ethnic group of peasants who spoke the Marathi language and achieved an impressive reputation... [more]

Sati: Nonfiction, Rajah Rammohun Roy
Roy, Rajah Rammohun. Translation of Several Principal Books, Passages and Texts of the Veds, and of some Controversial Works on Brahmunical Theology. London: Parbury, Allen, 1832.

Ram Mohan Roy (1774-1832), a highly educated Bengali brahman from a well-to-do landed family, had worked in the lower levels of the Company bureaucracy. Since Indians were excluded from the elite Indian Civil Service, Roy eventually left the Company service to advocate rationalist religious and... [more]

Sati: Diary, Fanny Parks
Parks, Fanny. Wanderings of a Pilgrim in Search of the Picturesque. With an introduction and notes by Esther Chawner. Vol. I. Oxford in Asia Historical Reprints. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1975. First published 1850 by Pelham Richardson.

From 1600 to the early 1800s, few officials of the English East Indian Company lived with English wives in India. This practice began to change as transportation became easier with the development of steamships. Born in 1794, Fanny Archer married Charles Parks, a writer (clerk) with the Company, in... [more]

Sati: Official Documents, Lord William Cavendish Bentinck
The Correspondence of Lord William Cavendish Bentinck, Governor-General of India 1828-1835. Edited with an introduction by C. H. Philips. Vol. I. 1828-1831. Oxford: Oxford University Press; School for Oriental and African Studies, 1977.

After having lost most of their first empire in north America, the British stabilized the basis for their second empire by expanding their territorial control in India through the instrument of their East India Company. Lord William Cavendish Bentinck (1774-1839), the second son in an aristocratic,... [more]

Sati: Petition, Orthodox Hindus
“The Petition of the Orthodox Hindu community of Calcutta against the Suttee Regulation.” 14 January 1830. In J. K. Majumdar, ed. Raja Rammohun Roy and Progressive Movements in India: A Selection from Records, 1775-1845. Calcutta: Art Press, 1941.

The debates that led to the Company’s prohibition of sati stimulated elite orthodox Hindus to form organizations, such as the Dharma Society, to protect what they deemed traditional Hindu practices. Orthodox Hindus staunchly argued that custom as well as Hindu scriptures supported self-immolation... [more]

Sati: Engraving, James Peggs
“Burning a Hindoo Widow”. In Peggs, James. India’s Cries to British Humanity, Relative to Infanticide, British Connection with Idolatry, Ghau Murders, Suttee, Slavery, and Colonization in India. Third edition, revised and enlarged. London: Simpkin and Marshall, Stationers' Court, 1832.

Toward the end of the 1700s, the evangelical movement in Britain argued that one’s commitment to Christ should be reflected in action, primarily the effort to end slavery in the British empire and to proselytize or seek converts among the “heathen.” Initially, the English East India Company had... [more]

Sati: Nonfiction, James Peggs
Peggs, James. India’s Cries to British Humanity, Relative to Infanticide, British Connection with Idolatry, Ghau Murders, Suttee, Slavery, and Colonization in India. Third edition, revised and enlarged. London: Simkin and Marshall, Stationers' Court, 1832.

Toward the end of the 1700s, the evangelical movement in Britain argued that one’s commitment to Christ should be reflected in action, primarily the effort to end slavery in the British empire and to proselytize or seek converts among the “heathen.” Initially, the English East India Company had... [more]

Sati: Nonfiction, Pandita Ramabai
Ramabai, Pandita. The High-Caste Hindu Woman. 1887. Reprint, New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1901.

Literacy among Indian women was low during the 19th century, and so primary sources written by Indian women are rare for this period. One notable exception is Pandita Ramabai (1858-1922), an influential Indian woman social reformer from Maharashtra in western India. Her unorthodox brahman father... [more]

Bhakti Poets: Poem, Janabai
“Cast off all shame.” In Women Writing in India, 600 BC to the Present. Vol. 1. Edited by Susie Tharu and K. Lalita. New York: The Feminist Press at The City University of New York, 1991.

Bhakti poets—who were in some cases lower-caste Hindu women—and their audiences drew emotional sustenance from these verses, which expressed a pure devotion to Hindu deities. Their poetry, written in local languages beginning in the 6th century in South India and the 12th century in North India,... [more]

Bhakti Poets: Poem, Mirabai
“Life without Hari is no life, friend.” In Songs of the Saints of India. Edited and translated by John Stratton Hawley and Mark Juergensmeyer. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.

Bhakti poets—who were in some cases lower-caste Hindu women—and their audiences drew emotional sustenance from these verses, which expressed a pure devotion to Hindu deities. Their poetry, written in local languages beginning in the 6th century in South India and the 12th century in North... [more]

Bhakti Poets: Poem, Mirabai 2
“Sister, I had a dream that I wed.” In Songs of the Saints of India. Edited and translated by John Stratton Hawley and Mark Juergensmeyer. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.

Bhakti poets—who were in some cases lower-caste Hindu women—and their audiences drew emotional sustenance from these verses, which expressed a pure devotion to Hindu deities. Their poetry, written in local languages beginning in the 6th century in South India and the 12th century in North... [more]

Bhakti Poets: Poem, Mirabai 3
“I am pale with longing for my beloved.” In Women Writing in India, 600 B.C. to the Present. Vol. 1. Edited by Susie Tharu and K. Lalita. New York: The Feminist Press at The City University of New York, 1991.

Bhakti poets—who were in some cases lower-caste Hindu women—and their audiences drew emotional sustenance from these verses, which expressed a pure devotion to Hindu deities. Their poetry, written in local languages beginning in the 6th century in South India and the 12th century in North... [more]

Bhakti Poets: Poem, Mirabai 4
“I’m colored with the color of dusk, oh rana.” In Songs of the Saints of India. Edited and translated by John Stratton Hawley and Mark Juergensmeyer. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.

Bhakti poets—who were in some cases lower-caste Hindu women—and their audiences drew emotional sustenance from these verses, which expressed a pure devotion to Hindu deities. Their poetry, written in local languages beginning in the 6th century in South India and the 12th century in North... [more]

Bhakti Poets: Poem, Akkamahadevi
“O mother I burned.” In Speaking of Siva. Translated by A. K. Ramanujan. London: Penguin, 1973.

Bhakti poets—who were in some cases lower-caste Hindu women—and their audiences drew emotional sustenance from these verses, which expressed a pure devotion to Hindu deities. Their poetry, written in local languages beginning in the 6th century in South India and the 12th century in North... [more]

Bhakti Poets: Poem, Akkamahadevi 2
“Brother, you’ve come.” In Women Writing in India, 600 B.C. to the Present. Vol. 1. Edited by Susie Tharu and K. Lalita. New York: The Feminist Press at The City University of New York, 1991.

Bhakti poets—who were in some cases lower-caste Hindu women—and their audiences drew emotional sustenance from these verses, which expressed a pure devotion to Hindu deities. Their poetry, written in local languages beginning in the 6th century in South India and the 12th century in North... [more]

Bhakti Poets: Poem, Bahinabai
McGee, Mary. “Bahinabai: The Ordinary Life of an Exceptional Woman, or, the Exceptional Life of an Ordinary Woman.” In Vaisnavi: Women and the Worship of Krishna. Edited by Steven J. Rosen. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1996.

Bhakti poets—who were in some cases lower-caste Hindu women—and their audiences drew emotional sustenance from these verses, which expressed a pure devotion to Hindu deities. Their poetry, written in local languages beginning in the 6th century in South India and the 12th century in North... [more]

Bhakti Poets: Poem, Bahinabai 2
McGee, Mary. “Bahinabai: The Ordinary Life of an Exceptional Woman, or, the Exceptional Life of an Ordinary Woman.” In Vaisnavi: Women and the Worship of Krishna. Edited by Steven J. Rosen. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1996.

Bhakti poets—who were in some cases lower-caste Hindu women—and their audiences drew emotional sustenance from these verses, which expressed a pure devotion to Hindu deities. Their poetry, written in local languages beginning in the 6th century in South India and the 12th century in North... [more]