Perfection and Devotion: Sati Tradition in Rajasthan

Abstract Although English defines the term suttee as an act, the self-immolation of a widow on her husband’s funeral pyre, the Sanskrit and Hindi term sati literally means “a good woman,” a woman who has become capable of self-immolation. This distinction reveals a crucial presupposition: whereas suttee as an act is something one commits at a particular moment, sati as a person is something one becomes gradually through good behavior. This chapter examines the personal ideal of sati espoused by certain Rajput women—those belonging to the erstwhile aristocracy of Rajasthan. It then articulates two often interrelated ways in which those Rajput women practice good behavior by keeping in mind (that is to say, by remembering) those who have died as satis.1