Sati, the Blessing and the Curse: The Burning of Wives in by John Stratton Hawley

By John Stratton Hawley

a number of years in the past in Rajasthan, an eighteen-year-old girl used to be burned on her husband's funeral pyre and therefore grew to become sati. prior to ascending the pyre, she used to be anticipated to convey either advantages and curses: benefits to protect her relations and extended family for plenty of generations, and curses to avoid somebody from thwarting her wish to die. Sati additionally capacity blessing and curse in a broader feel. to people who revere it, sati symbolizes final loyalty and self-sacrifice. It frequently figures close to the center of a Hindu identification that feels embattled in a contemporary global. but to those that deplore it, sati is a curse, a contravention of each woman's womanhood. it truly is homicide mystified, and as such, the emblem of accurately what Hinduism will not be be.

In this quantity a bunch of top students ponder the numerous meanings of sati: in India and the West; in literature, paintings, and opera; in faith, psychology, economics, and politics. With individuals who're either Indian and American, it is a certainly binational, postcolonial dialogue. participants contain Karen Brown, Paul Courtright, Vidya Dehejia, Ainslie Embree, Dorothy Figueira, Lindsey Harlan, John Hawley, Robin Lewis, Ashis Nandy, and Veena Talwar Oldenburg.

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