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| Format: | Recurso digital |
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2026
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18722103 |
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| author | gemsofindology gems |
| author_facet | gemsofindology gems |
| contents | <p>This paper re-examines widow immolation (commonly termed sati) in South Asia through a structural and regionally differentiated lens. Rather than treating the practice as either a timeless civilizational norm or a colonial fabrication, the study traces its inscriptional emergence, commemorative clustering, legal entanglements, and administrative transformation across distinct historical phases. The earliest surviving epigraphic references (fifth–sixth centuries CE) situate widow immolation within elite martial contexts, where conjugal fidelity was monumentalized alongside battlefield valor. Medieval memorial stones demonstrate geographic breadth but uneven density, with clustering in regions marked by clan-based sovereignty and intensified honor cultures. In Bengal, the Dayabhaga inheritance system positioned widows as life-interest holders of property, potentially heightening material stakes around widowhood within a legally formalizing colonial environment. Mughal records reveal pre-colonial regulatory engagement, while early nineteenth-century British enumeration and visual representation amplified the practice’s perceived scale prior to its criminalization in 1829. Across these phases, a consistent structural feature emerges: the widow’s pivotal position within patrilineal systems rendered her symbolically and materially consequential under varying political ecologies. Widow immolation thus appears not as a uniform institution but as a historically layered phenomenon shaped by converging configurations of lineage, gender asymmetry, martial culture, inheritance structure, and bureaucratic visibility.</p> |
| format | Recurso digital |
| id | zenodo_https___doi_org_10_5281_zenodo_18722103 |
| institution | Zenodo |
| language | |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publisher | Zenodo |
| record_format | zenodo |
| spellingShingle | Widow Immolation in South Asia gemsofindology gems widow widow immolation <p>This paper re-examines widow immolation (commonly termed sati) in South Asia through a structural and regionally differentiated lens. Rather than treating the practice as either a timeless civilizational norm or a colonial fabrication, the study traces its inscriptional emergence, commemorative clustering, legal entanglements, and administrative transformation across distinct historical phases. The earliest surviving epigraphic references (fifth–sixth centuries CE) situate widow immolation within elite martial contexts, where conjugal fidelity was monumentalized alongside battlefield valor. Medieval memorial stones demonstrate geographic breadth but uneven density, with clustering in regions marked by clan-based sovereignty and intensified honor cultures. In Bengal, the Dayabhaga inheritance system positioned widows as life-interest holders of property, potentially heightening material stakes around widowhood within a legally formalizing colonial environment. Mughal records reveal pre-colonial regulatory engagement, while early nineteenth-century British enumeration and visual representation amplified the practice’s perceived scale prior to its criminalization in 1829. Across these phases, a consistent structural feature emerges: the widow’s pivotal position within patrilineal systems rendered her symbolically and materially consequential under varying political ecologies. Widow immolation thus appears not as a uniform institution but as a historically layered phenomenon shaped by converging configurations of lineage, gender asymmetry, martial culture, inheritance structure, and bureaucratic visibility.</p> |
| title | Widow Immolation in South Asia |
| topic | widow widow immolation |
| url | https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18722103 |