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99-427: The poem is divided into 9 cantos. Each part exhibits different incidents. Starting from the death of Beerbahu, son of Ravana, it is continued till the sati-daha (the ancient Indian custom of burning the widows alive with the dead husband) of Prameela , Meghnad's beloved wife. The poem starts with the lines: সম্মুখ সমরে পড়ি, বীর-চূড়ামণি বীরবাহু, চলি যবে গেলা যমপুরে অকালে... The great hero, being defeated in

198-552: A Baptist missionary from England, first witnessed the burning of a widow on her husband's funeral pyre. Horrified by the practice, Carey and his coworkers Joshua Marshman and William Ward opposed sati from that point onward, lobbying for its abolishment. Known as the Serampore Trio , they published essays forcefully condemning the practice and presented an address against Sati to then Governor General of India , Lord Wellesley . In 1812, Ram Mohan Roy began to champion

297-574: A chakra (not to be confused with Sudarshan Chakra) as gift. A similar story is told in the late medieval era Sharabha Upanishad . However, Vaishnava Dvaita school refutes this Shaivite view of Narasimha. According to the Shiva Purana , Shiva has 19 avatars. According to the Kurma Purana , he has 28. The vanara god Hanuman who helped Rama (the Vishnu avatar) is considered by some to be

396-728: A concerted effort to push "problem Hindu" theories in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Lata Mani wrote that all of the parties during the British colonial era that debated the issue subscribed to the belief in a " golden age " of Indian women followed by a decline in concurrence to the Muslim conquests . This discourse also resulted in promotion of a view of British missionaries rescuing "Hindu India from Islamic tyranny". Several British missionaries who had studied classical Indian literature attempted to employ Hindu scriptural interpretations in their missionary work to convince their followers that Sati

495-469: A coward; but Lakshmana did not oblige. This is the central theme of this epic . Here are some comments of a few pioneers of Bengali literature: Dutta had mentioned this ballad many times in his letters, of which a few are listed: Sati-daha Sati or suttee is a Hindu practice in which a widow should sacrifice herself by sitting atop her deceased husband 's funeral pyre . It has been linked to related Hindu practice in regions of

594-520: A face-to-face battle, Beerbahu, leaves to the dead man's world, long before he should have ... Meghnad or Indrajit was the son of Ravana , who used Brahmastra to kill 670 Million Vanaras in Ramayana . He was slain by Lakshmana , while he was worshiping Goddess Nikumvilā, in the royal temple of Lanka , because of betrayal by Vibhishana , who was an uncle of Meghnad. Meghnad asked Lakshmana not to fight with an unarmed person, rebuking him as

693-456: A few rituals but without much authority. A ritual with support in a Vedic text was a "symbolic self-immolation" which it is believed a widow of status needed to perform at the death of her husband, the widow subsequently marrying her husband's brother. In later centuries, the text was cited as the origin of Sati, with a variant reading allowing the authorities to insist that the widow sacrifice herself in reality by joining her deceased husband on

792-581: A mark of their love are Cicero and Nicolaus of Damascus . Some of the early Sanskrit authors like Daṇḍin in Daśakumāracarita and Banabhatta in Harshacharita mention that women who burnt themselves wore extravagant dresses. Bana tells about Yasomati who, after choosing to mount the pyre, bids farewell to her relatives and servants. She then decks herself in jewelry which she later distributes to others. Although Prabhakaravardhana 's death

891-407: A means of property annexation from a widow who had the right to inherit her dead husband's property under Hindu law, and sati helped eliminate the inheritor; poverty was so extreme during the 19th century that sati was a means of escape for a woman with no means or hope of survival. Daniel Grey states that the understanding of origins and spread of sati were distorted in the colonial era because of

990-638: A noun particularly in the Puranic literature after the 6th century CE. Despite that, the concept of an avatar is compatible with the content of the Vedic literature like the Upanishads as it is symbolic imagery of the Saguna Brahman concept in the philosophy of Hinduism. The Rigveda describes Indra as endowed with a mysterious power of assuming any form at will. The Bhagavad Gita expounds

1089-590: A petition signed by "several thousand... Hindoo inhabitants of Bihar, Bengal, Orissa etc" and the matter went to the Privy Council in London . Along with British supporters, Ram Mohan Roy presented counter-petitions to Parliament in support of ending sati. The Privy Council rejected the petition in 1832, and the ban on sati was upheld. Avatar Traditional Avatar ( Sanskrit : अवतार , IAST : Avatāra ; pronounced [ɐʋɐt̪aːɾɐ] )

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1188-399: A professor of South Asian and World history, it is unclear if a prohibition on sati was issued by Akbar, and other than a claim of ban by Monserrate upon his insistence, no other primary sources mention an actual ban. Instances of sati continued during and after the era of Akbar. Jahangir ( r.  1605–1627 ), who succeeded Akbar in the early 17th century, found sati prevalent among

1287-815: A tract against Sati in 1927. Sahajanand Swami , the founder of the Swaminarayan sect , preached against the practice of sati in his area of influence, that is Gujarat . He argued that the practice had no Vedic standing and only God could take a life he had given. He also opined that widows could lead lives that would eventually lead to salvation. Sir John Malcolm , the Governor of Bombay supported Sahajanand Swami in this endeavour. In 1828 Lord William Bentinck came to power as Governor-General of India. When he landed in Calcutta, he said that he felt "the dreadful responsibility hanging over his head in this world and

1386-675: A widow who told the potter to make the urn big enough for both her and her husband. The Manimekalai similarly provides evidence that such practices existed in Tamil lands, and the Purananuru claims widows prefer to die with their husband due to the dangerous negative power associated with them. However she notes that this glorification of sacrifice was not unique to women: just as the texts glorified "good" wives who sacrificed themselves for their husbands and families, "good" warriors similarly sacrificed themselves for their kings and lands. It

1485-848: Is a saguna (with form, attributes) embodiment of the nirguna Brahman or Atman (soul). Avatar, according to Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati actually means ' divine descent ' in his commentaries of The Shrimad Bhagavatam and The Bramha Samhita (mentioned in Brahmavaivarta Purana). Neither the Vedas nor the Principal Upanishads ever mention the word avatar as a noun. The verb roots and form, such as avatarana , appear in ancient post-Vedic Hindu texts, but as "action of descending", but not as an incarnated person (avatara). The related verb avatarana is, states Paul Hacker, used with double meaning, one as action of

1584-549: Is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means ' descent ' . It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity , or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearance" is sometimes used to refer to any guru or revered human being. The word avatar does not appear in the Vedic literature; however, it appears in developed forms in post-Vedic literature, and as

1683-500: Is a transcendental theology, where man, with the help of his Guru , is his own savior. The Linga Purana lists twenty-eight avatars of Shiva. In the Shiva Purana there is a distinctly Saivite version of a traditional avatar myth: Shiva brings forth Virabhadra , one of his terrifying forms, in order to calm Narasimha , an avatar of Vishnu. When that fails, Shiva manifests as the human-lion-bird Sharabha which calms down lion-man Narasimha avatar of Vishnu, and Shiva then gives Vishnu

1782-543: Is considered to be a Sati stone. The early 14th-century CE traveler of Pordenone mentions wife burning in Zampa ( Champa ), in nowadays south/central Vietnam . Anant Altekar states that sati spread with Hindu migrants to Southeast Asian islands, such as to Java , Sumatra and Bali . According to Dutch colonial records, this was however a rare practice in Indonesia, one found in royal households. In Cambodia , both

1881-455: Is even possible that the sacrifice of the "good" wives originated from the warrior sacrifice tradition. Today, such women are still worshipped as Gramadevis throughout South India. According to Axel Michaels , the first inscriptional evidence of the practice is from Nepal in 464 CE, and in India from 510 CE. The early evidence suggests that widow-burning practice was seldom carried out in

1980-543: Is expected, Arvind Sharma suggests it is another form of sati. The same work mentions Harsha 's sister Rajyasri trying to commit sati after her husband died. In Kadambari , Bana greatly opposes sati and gives examples of women who did not choose sahgamana . Padma Sree asserts that other evidence for some form of sati comes from Sangam literature in Tamilakam : for instance the Silappatikaram written in

2079-409: Is in medieval era texts, those composed after the sixth century CE, that the noun version of avatar appears, where it means embodiment of a deity. The idea proliferates thereafter, in the Puranic stories for many deities, and with ideas such as ansha-avatar or partial embodiments. The term avatar , in colloquial use, is also an epithet or a word of reverence for any extraordinary human being who

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2178-520: Is most often associated with Vishnu, the preserver or sustainer aspect of God within the Hindu Trinity or Trimurti of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Vishnu's avatars descend to empower the good and fight evil, thereby restoring Dharma . Traditional Hindus see themselves not as "Hindu", but as Vaishnava (Worshippers of Vishnu), Shaiva (Worshippers of Shiva), or Shakta (Worshipper of the Shakti). Each of

2277-417: Is never any account made of her after. François Bernier (1620–1688) gave the following description: At Lahor I saw a most beautiful young widow sacrificed, who could not, I think, have been more than twelve years of age. The poor little creature appeared more dead than alive when she approached the dreadful pit: the agony of her mind cannot be described; she trembled and wept bitterly; but three or four of

2376-457: Is revered for his or her ideas. In some contexts, the term avatara just means a ' landing place, site of sacred pilgrimage ' , or just ' achieve one's goals after effort ' , or retranslation of a text in another language. The term avatar is not unique to Hinduism even though the term originated with Hinduism. It is found in the Trikaya doctrine of Mahayana Buddhism, in descriptions for

2475-483: Is synonymous with "good wife"; the term suttee was commonly used by Anglo-Indian English writers. The word sati , therefore, originally referred to the woman, rather than the rite. Variants are: The rite itself had technical names: The Indian Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987 Part I, Section 2(c) defines sati as the act or rite itself. The spelling suttee is a phonetic spelling using 19th-century English orthography. The satī transliteration uses

2574-833: Is when Vishnu manifests completely along with his qualities and powers. In Bengal Vaishnavism, Krishna is the Purnarupa . In Shaivism, Bhairava is the purnarupa of Shiva. 24 avatars of Vishnu are mentioned in Bachitar Natak's composition in Dasam Granth , the second scripture of Sikhism written by Guru Gobind Singh : The Guru Granth Sahib reverentially includes the names of numerous Hindu deities, including Vishnu avatars such as Krishna, Hari, and Rama, as well those of Devi as Durga. Dasam Granth has three major compositions, one each dedicated to avatars of Vishnu (Chaubis avatar) and Brahma. However, Sikhism rejects

2673-648: The Bangalore Civil and Military Station on 9 June 1826. However, these practices were very rare after the Government of Madras cracked down on the practice from the early 1800s (p. 82). The British authorities within the Bengal Presidency started systematically to collect data on the practice in 1815. The principal campaigners against Sati were Christian and Hindu reformers such as William Carey and Ram Mohan Roy . In 1799 Carey,

2772-692: The Battle of Paraitakene (317 BCE). The younger one is permitted to mount the pyre. Modern historians believe Diodorus's source for this episode was the eyewitness account of the now lost historian Hieronymus of Cardia . Hieronymus' explanation of the origin of sati appears to be his own composite, created from a variety of Indian traditions and practices to form a moral lesson upholding traditional Greek values. Modern scholarship has generally treated this instance as an isolated incident, not representative of general culture. Two other independent sources that mention widows who voluntarily joined their husbands' pyres as

2871-477: The Brahmens , assisted by an old woman who held her under the arm, forced the unwilling victim toward the fatal spot, seated her on the wood, tied her hands and feet, lest she should run away, and in that situation the innocent creature was burnt alive. The Spanish missionary Domingo Navarrete wrote in 1670 of different styles of Sati during Aurangzeb's time. Afonso de Albuquerque banned sati immediately after

2970-597: The Dalai Lama in Tibetan Buddhism, and many ancient cultures. The manifest embodiment is sometimes referred to as an incarnation . The translation of avatar as "incarnation" has been questioned by Christian theologians, who state that an incarnation is in flesh and imperfect, while avatar is mythical and perfect. The theological concept of Christ as an incarnation, as found in Christology , presents

3069-556: The French banned it in Chinsurah and Pondichéry , their respective colonies. The Danes , who held the small territories of Tranquebar and Serampore , permitted it until the 19th century. The Danish strictly forbade, apparently early the custom of sati at Tranquebar , a colony they held from 1620 to 1845 (whereas Serampore (Frederiksnagore) was a Danish colony merely from 1755 to 1845). The first official British response to sati

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3168-556: The Indian subcontinent . Although Puranic scriptures contain occasional references to avatars of Shiva, the avatar doctrine is neither universally accepted nor commonly adopted in Shaivism . The views on the doctrine of incarnation has been one of the significant doctrinal differences between Vaishnavism and Shaivism, in addition to their differences on the role of householder life versus monastic life for spiritual release. Shaivism

3267-410: The Indian subcontinent . Sati appears in some post-Vedic Hindu texts as an entirely voluntary and optional practice. Greek sources from around c.  300 BCE make isolated mention of sati, but it likely developed into a real fire sacrifice in the medieval era within northwestern Rajput clans to which it initially remained limited, to become more widespread during the late medieval era. During

3366-495: The Pancharatra , making a total of forty-six avatars. However, despite these lists, the commonly accepted number of ten avatars for Vishnu was fixed well before the 10th century CE. Madhvacharya also regards Gautama Buddha as an avatar of Vishnu. Manava Purana Manava Purana is one of Upapuranas. It lists 42 avatars of Vishnu. The avatar concept was further developed and refined in later Hindu texts. One approach

3465-526: The Portuguese conquest of Goa in 1510. Local Brahmins convinced the newly arrived Francisco Barreto to rescind the ban in 1555 in spite of protests from the local Christians and the Church authorities, but the ban was reinstated in 1560 by Constantino de Bragança with additional serious criminal penalties (including loss of property and liberty) against those encouraging the practice. The Dutch and

3564-841: The Ramayana includes Rama. The Bhagavata Purana describes Vishnu's avatars as innumerable, though ten of his incarnations, the Dashavatara, are celebrated therein as his major appearances. The ten major Vishnu avatars are mentioned in the Agni Purana , the Garuda Purana and the Bhagavata Purana. The ten best known avatars of Vishnu are collectively known as the Dashavatara (a Sanskrit compound meaning "ten avatars"). Five different lists are included in

3663-469: The Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987 , criminalising the aiding or glorifying of sati through British enlightenment. The modern laws have proved difficult to implement; as of 2020, at least 250 sati temples existed in India in which prayer ceremonies, or pujas , were performed to glorify the avatar of a mother goddess who immolated herself after hearing her father insult her husband; prayers were also performed to

3762-590: The Skanda Purana , Brahma incarnated himself as Yajnavalkya in response to a curse from Shiva. The Linga Purana declares that Ganesha incarnates to destroy demons and to help the gods and pious people. The two Upapuranas  – Ganesha Purana and Mudgala Purana  – detail the avatars of Ganesha. Both these upapuranas are core scriptures of the Ganapatya sect – exclusively dedicated to Ganesha worship. Four avatars of Ganesha are listed in

3861-661: The kshatriyas or Rajput castes, not the Brahmins , were the most respected community in Rajasthan in north-west India, as they defended the land against invaders centuries before the coming of the Muslims. She proposes that Brahmins of the north-west copied Rajput practices, and transformed sati ideologically from the 'brave woman' into the 'good woman'. From those Brahmins, the practice spread to other non-warrior castes. According to David Brick of Yale University , sati, which

3960-620: The 18th century from British ethical involvement. Historian Roshen Dalal postulates that its mention in some of the Puranas indicates that it slowly grew in prevalence from 5th–7th century and later became an accepted custom around 1000 CE among those of higher classes, especially the Rajputs . One of the stanzas in the Mahabharata describes Madri 's suicide by sati, but is likely an interpolation given that it has contradictions with

4059-582: The 2nd century CE. In this tale, Kannagi , the chaste wife of her wayward husband Kovalan , burns Madurai to the ground when her husband is executed unjustly, then climbs a cliff to join Kovalan in heaven. She became an object of worship as a chaste wife, called Pattini in Sinhala and Kannagiamman in Tamil , and is still worshipped today. An inscription in an urn burial from the 1st century CE tells of

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4158-454: The Bhagavata Purana, where the difference is in the sequence of the names. Freda Matchett states that this re-sequencing by the composers may be intentional, so as to avoid implying priority or placing something definitive and limited to the abstract. The Bhagavata Purana also goes on to give an alternate list, wherein it numerically lists out 23 Vishnu avatars in chapter 1.3. Avatars like Hayagriva , Hamsa, and Garuda are also mentioned in

4257-653: The Christian concept of incarnation. The term avatar in Hinduism refers to act of various gods taking form to perform a particular task which in most of the times is bringing dharma back. The concept of avatar is widely accepted all over the India. Sheth disagrees and states that this claim is an incorrect understanding of the Hindu concept of avatar. Avatars are embodiments of spiritual perfection, driven by noble goals, in Hindu traditions such as Vaishnavism . The concept of

4356-803: The Goddess includes Shakambhari and even the masculine Krishna and Rama – generally thought to be Vishnu's avatars. Parvati , Lakshmi and Saraswati are main goddesses worshipped as Devi avatars. Devi is popular in her form as Parvati . In Devi Mahatmya she is seen as the Goddess Mahakali , and in Uma Samhita, she is seen as Devi herself. Regarding her incarnations, it varies per sect in Hinduism. She could be all Goddesses as said in Shaivism and some main Shatism interpretations like

4455-491: The Government to interfere in religious practices. From 1815 to 1818 sati deaths doubled. Ram Mohan Roy launched an attack on sati that "aroused such anger that for awhile his life was in danger". In 1821 he published a tract opposing Sati, and in 1823 the Serampore missionaries led by Carey published a book containing their earlier essays, of which the first three chapters opposed Sati. Another Christian missionary published

4554-628: The Hindus of Rajaur, Kashmir . The reaction to sati was not uniform across different cultural groups. While Hindus were generally more accepting of it, some Muslims also expressed occasional admiration, though the dominant attitude was disapproval. Sushil Chaudhury highlights that Muslim sources often avoided detailed discussions about it, apart from occasional references. Overall, both admiration and criticism of sati cut across cultural lines, with examples of support from Greeks, Muslims, and British individuals, and opposition from Hindus, dating back as far as

4653-458: The Indian women burn at all" by the end of Aurangzeb's reign. Descriptions by Westerners The memoirs of European merchants and travelers, as well the colonial era Christian missionaries of British India described Sati practices under Mughal rulers. Ralph Fitch noted in 1591: When the husband died his wife is burned with him, if she be alive, if she will not, her head is shaven, and then

4752-463: The Sri kula and Kali Kula families, or just a form of Devi in some other Shaktism interpretations and many Vaishnava interpretations. With this in mind, Parvati's forms include: All of these incarnations helped provide security to the world and even brought Shiva into the participation of worldly affairs. Like Vishnu, his consort Lakshmi incarnates as in many forms to help provide order and to enlighten

4851-462: The Veda turning the symbolic practice into the practice of pushing a widow and burning her with her husband. Thapar further points to the "subordination of women in patriarchal society", "changing 'systems of kinship ' ", and "control over female sexuality" as factors in the rise of sati. The practice of sati was emulated by those seeking to achieve high status of the royalty and the warriors as part of

4950-572: The avatar in Hinduism is not incompatible with natural conception through a sexual act, which is again different from the Christian concept of the Virgin Birth . Following 19th Century Western interest in Indian culture and Hinduism, the word "Avatar" was taken as loanword into English and other Western languages, where it is used in various contexts and meanings, often considerably different from its original meaning in Hinduism - see Avatar (disambiguation) . The concept of avatar within Hinduism

5049-485: The banning of sati might be "used by the disaffected and designing" as "an engine to produce insurrection". However these concerns did not deter him from upholding the Governor's decision "in the suppression of the horrible custom by which so many lives are cruelly sacrificed." Thus on Sunday morning of 4 December 1829 Lord Bentinck issued Regulation XVII declaring sati to be illegal and punishable in criminal courts. It

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5148-561: The burial practices of the ancient Asiatic steppe Andronovo cultures ( fl.  1800–1400 BCE ) and the Vedic Age . She considers sati to be a largely symbolic double burial or a double cremation, a feature she argues is to be found in both cultures, with neither culture observing it strictly. According to Romila Thapar , in the Vedic period , when "mores of the clan gave way to the norms of caste", wives were obliged to join in quite

5247-464: The burning of a widow with her deceased husband seems to have been introduced in the pre- Gupta era , since 500 CE. Vidya Dehejia states that sati was forced into Indian society through Hindu culturural practice, and became active practice after 500 CE. According to Ashis Nandy , the practice became prevalent from vedas and declined to its elimination in the 17th century to gain resurgence in Bengal in

5346-446: The cause of banning sati practice. He was motivated by the experience of seeing his own sister-in-law being forced to die by sati. He visited Kolkata's cremation grounds to persuade widows against immolation, formed watch groups to do the same, sought the support of other elite Bengali classes, and wrote and disseminated articles to show that it was not required by Hindu scripture. He was at loggerheads with Hindu groups which did not want

5445-458: The cosmic balance between the ever-present forces of good and evil. The most known and celebrated avatars of Vishnu, within the Vaishnavism traditions of Hinduism, are Krishna , Rama , Narayana and Vasudeva . These names have extensive literature associated with them, each has its own characteristics, legends and associated arts. The Mahabharata , for example, includes Krishna, while

5544-523: The criminal courts. Other legislation followed, countering what the British perceived to be interrelated issues involving violence against Hindu women, including the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act, 1856 , Female Infanticide Prevention Act, 1870 , and Age of Consent Act, 1891 . Isolated incidents of sati were recorded in India in the late-20th century, leading the Government of India to promulgate

5643-503: The dates of other Dharmasastra texts mentioning sahagamana are not known with certainty, but posits that the priestly class throughout India was aware of the texts and the practice itself by the 12th century. According to Anand Yang, it was practised in Bengal as early as the 12th century, where it was originally practised by the Kshatriya caste and later spread to other upper and lower castes including Brahmins. Julia Leslie writes that

5742-467: The deities has its own iconography and mythology, but common to all is the fact that the divine reality has an explicit form, a form that the worshipper can behold. An oft-quoted passage from the Bhagavad Gita describes the typical role of an avatar of Vishnu: Arjuna, whenever righteousness is on the decline, unrighteousness is in the ascendant, then I body Myself forth. For the protection of

5841-454: The divine descending, another as "laying down the burden of man" suffering from the forces of evil. The term is most commonly found in the context of the Hindu god Vishnu . The earliest mention of Vishnu manifested in a human form to establish Dharma on Earth, uses other terms such as the word sambhavāmi in verse 4.6 and the word tanu in verse 9.11 of the Bhagavad Gita , as well as other words such as akriti and rupa elsewhere. It

5940-634: The doctrine of Avatara but with terms other than avatar . Theologically, the term is most often associated with the Hindu god Vishnu , though the idea has been applied to other deities. Varying lists of avatars of Vishnu appear in Hindu scriptures, including the ten Dashavatara of the Garuda Purana and the twenty-two avatars in the Bhagavata Purana , though the latter adds that the incarnations of Vishnu are innumerable. The avatars of Vishnu are important in Vaishnavism theology. In

6039-432: The doctrine of savior incarnation, and only accepts the abstract nirguna formless god. The Sikh Gurus endorsed the view of Hindu Bhakti movement saints such as Namdev (≈1270 – 1350 CE) that formless eternal god is within the human heart and man is his own savior. The Gupti Ismailis , who observe pious circumspection as Hindus, uphold that the first Shi‘i Imam, ‘Ali b. Abi Talib , as well as his descendants through

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6138-564: The early-modern Mughal period of 1526–1857, it was notably associated with elite Hindu Rajput clans in western India. In the early 19th century, the British East India Company , in the process of extending its rule to most of India, initially tried to stop the innocent killing; William Carey , a British Christian evangelist , noted 438 incidents within a 30-mile (48-km) radius of the capital, Calcutta , in 1803, despite its ban within Calcutta. Between 1815 and 1818

6237-625: The eleventh avatar of Rudra (Shiva). Some regional deities like Khandoba are also believed by some to be avatars of Shiva. Ashwatthama , the son of Drona is also considered to be an avatar of Shiva. Shesha and his avatars ( Balarama and Lakshmana ) are occasionally linked to Shiva. Adi Shankara , the formulator of Advaita Vedanta , is also occasionally regarded as an avatar of Shiva. In Dasam Granth , Guru Gobind Singh mentioned two avatars of Rudra: Dattatreya Avatar and Parasnath Avatar. Avatars are also observed in Shaktism ,

6336-488: The embodiment of the essence of a superhuman being or a deity in another form. The word also implies "to overcome, to remove, to bring down, to cross something". In Hindu traditions, the "crossing or coming down" is symbolism, states Daniel Bassuk, of the divine descent from "eternity into the temporal realm, from unconditioned to the conditioned, from infinitude to finitude". An avatar, states Justin Edwards Abbott,

6435-726: The form of image ( archa ). Yet another classification, developed in Krishna schools, centers around Guna-avatars , Purusha-avatars and Lila-avatars , with their subtypes. The Guna-avatar classification of avatars is based on the Guṇas concept of the Samkhya school of Hindu philosophy, that is Rajas (Brahma), Sattva (Vishnu), and Tamas (Shiva). These personalities of the Trimurti are referred to as Guna avatars . The Purushavatara are three. The first evolves all matter (Prakriti),

6534-402: The funeral pyre. Anand A. Yang notes that the Rig Veda refers to a "mimetic ceremony" where a "widow lay on her husband's funeral pyre before it was lit but was raised from it by a male relative of her dead husband." According to Yang, the word agre , "to go forth", was (probably in the 16th century) mistranslated into agneh , "into the fire", to give Vedic sanction for sati. Sati as

6633-492: The general population. Centuries later, instances of sati began to be marked by inscribed memorial stones called Sati stones. According to J.C. Harle, the medieval memorial stones appear in two forms – viragal (hero stone) and satigal (sati stone), each to memorialise something different. Both of these are found in many regions of India, but "rarely if ever earlier in date than the 8th or 9th century". Numerous memorial sati stones appear 11th-century onwards, states Michaels, and

6732-636: The goddess-based Shaktism tradition of Hinduism, avatars of the Devi in different appearances such as Tripura Sundari , Durga , Chandi , Chamunda , Mahakali , and Kali are commonly found. While avatars of other deities such as Ganesha and Shiva are also mentioned in medieval Hindu texts, this is minor and occasional. The incarnation doctrine is one of the important differences between Vaishnavism and Shaivism traditions of Hinduism. Incarnation concepts that are in some aspects similar to avatar are also found in Buddhism , Christianity , and other religions. The scriptures of Sikhism include

6831-404: The historian K.M. de Silva , Christian missionaries in Sri Lanka with a substantial Hindu minority population, reported "there were no glaring social evils associated with the indigenous religions-no sati , (...). There was thus less scope for the social reformer." However, although sati was non-existent in the colonial era, earlier Muslim travelers such as Sulaiman al-Tajir reported that sati

6930-432: The husband's pyre, one author also mentions that widows who declined to die were held in disgrace. In contrast, Megasthenes who visited India during 300 BCE does not mention any specific reference to the practice, which Dehejia takes as an indication that the practice was non-existent then. Diodorus writes about the wives of Ceteus, the Indian captain of Eumenes , competing for burning themselves after his death in

7029-460: The largest collections are found in Rajasthan . There have been few instances of sati in the Chola Empire of South India . Vanavan Mahadevi, the mother of Rajaraja Chola I (10th century) and Viramahadevi the queen of Rajendra Chola I (11th century) both committed Sati upon their husband's death by ascending the pyre. The 510 CE inscription at Eran mentioning the wife of Goparaja, a vassal of Bhanugupta , burning herself on her husband's pyre

7128-480: The line of Isma‘il , are collectively Kalki, the tenth and final avatāra of Vishnu. According to this interpretation, these figures represent the continuity of divine guidance to humankind. In the view of some Guptis, this is corroborated by the Quranic verse 14:4 which mentions the idea that God had sent a messenger to every land . They understand the avatāras to be these messengers sent by God to their people in

7227-443: The lords and the wives of a dead king voluntarily burnt themselves in the 15th and 16th centuries. According to European traveller accounts, in 15th century Mergui , in present-day extreme south Myanmar , widow burning was practised. A Chinese pilgrim from the 15th century seems to attest the practice on islands called Ma-i-tung and Ma-i (possibly Belitung (outside Sumatra) and Northern Philippines , respectively). According to

7326-440: The missionary enterprise as a whole. Leaders of these campaigns included William Carey and William Wilberforce . These movements put pressure on the company to ban the act. William Carey, and the other missionaries at Serampore conducted in 1803–04 a census on cases of sati for a region within a 30-mile radius of Calcutta, finding more than 300 such cases there. The missionaries also approached Hindu theologians, who opined that

7425-527: The more modern ISO / IAST (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration), the academic standard for writing the Sanskrit language with the Latin alphabet system. The origins and spread of the practice of sati are complex and much debated questions, without a general consensus. It has been speculated that rituals, such as widow sacrifice or widow burning, have prehistoric roots. The archaeologist Elena Efimovna Kuzmina has listed several parallels between

7524-604: The names of numerous Hindu gods and goddesses, but it rejected the doctrine of savior incarnation and endorsed the view of Hindu Bhakti movement saints such as Namdev , that formless eternal god is within the human heart, and man is his own savior. The Sanskrit noun ( avatāra , Hindustani: [əʋˈtaːr] ) is derived from the Sanskrit prefix ava- ' down ' and the root tṛ ' to cross over ' . These roots trace back, states Monier-Williams, to -taritum , -tarati , -rītum . Avatar means ' descent, alight, to make one's appearance ' , and refers to

7623-446: The next, if... he was to consent to the continuance of this practice (sati) one moment longer." Bentinck decided to put an immediate end to sati. Ram Mohan Roy warned Bentinck against abruptly ending sati. However, after observing that the judges in the courts were unanimously in favour of reform, Bentinck proceeded to lay the draft before his council. Charles Metcalfe , the Governor's most prominent counselor expressed apprehension that

7722-623: The number of incidents of sati in Bengal Presidency doubled from 378 to 839. Opposition to the practice of sati by evangelists like Carey, and by Hindu reformers such as Raja Ram Mohan Roy ultimately led the British Governor-General of India Lord William Bentinck to enact the Bengal Sati Regulation, 1829 , declaring the practice of burning or burying alive of Hindu widows to be punishable by

7821-496: The officials allow a woman to be burnt". The Aurangzeb order, states Ikram , though mentioned in the formal histories, is recorded in the official records of Aurangzeb's time. Although Aurangzeb's orders could be evaded with payment of bribes to officials, adds Ikram , later European travelers record that sati was not much practised in the Mughal Empire , and that Sati was "very rare, except it be some Rajah 's wives, that

7920-402: The practice increased among Bengali Brahmins between 1680 and 1830, after widows gained inheritance rights. Sati practice resumed during the colonial era , particularly in significant numbers in colonial Bengal . Three factors may have contributed this revival: sati was believed to be supported by Hindu scriptures by the 19th century; sati was encouraged by unscrupulous neighbours as it was

8019-408: The practice of jauhar , with the ideologies of jauhar and sati reinforcing each other. Jauhar was originally a self-chosen death for queens and noblewomen facing defeat in war, and practised especially among the warrior Rajputs. Oldenburg posits that the enslavement of women by Greek conquerors may have started this practice, On attested Rajput practice of jauhar during wars, and notes that

8118-461: The practice of a wife immolating herself alive on a deceased husband's funeral pyre. The practice is named after the Hindu goddess Sati , who is believed to have self-immolated because she was unable to bear her father Daksha 's humiliation of her and her husband Shiva . The term sati was originally interpreted as " chaste woman". Sati appears in Hindi and Sanskrit texts, where it

8217-657: The practice was encouraged, rather than enjoined by the Hindu scriptures . Serampore was a Danish colony, rather than British, and the reason why Carey started his mission in Danish India, rather than in British territories, was because the East India Company did not accept Christian missionary activity within their domains. In 1813, when the Company's Charter came up for renewal William Wilberforce, drawing on

8316-472: The process of Sanskritisation , but its spread was also related to the centuries of Islamic invasion and its expansion in South Asia, and to the hardship and marginalisation that widows endured. Crucial was the adoption of the practice by Brahmins, despite prohibitions for them to do so. Sati acquired an additional meaning as a means to preserve the honour of women whose men had been slain, akin to

8415-403: The second is the soul present in each individual creature, the third is the interconnected oneness or Brahman that connects all souls. The Lilavataras are partial or full manifestations of Vishnu, where either some powers (Shakti) or material parts of him exist. Vishnu is Purushavatara. The Matsya, Kurma, and Vamana avatars of Vishnu are Lilavataras. A Purnarupa in this classification,

8514-648: The sect dedicated to the worship of the Goddess ( Devi ), but they do not have universal acceptance in the sect. The Devi Bhagavata Purana describes the descent of Devi avatars to punish the wicked and defend the righteous as – much as the Bhagavata Purana does with the avatars of Vishnu. Nilakantha, an 18th-century commentator on the Devi Bhagavata Purana ;– which includes the Devi Gita ;– says that various avatars of

8613-855: The seventh century. According to Chaudhury, the evidence suggests that sati was admired by Hindus, but both "Hindus and Muslims went in large numbers to witness a sati and sati was almost universally admired by people in mediaeval India." According to Reza Pirbhai, the memoirs of Jahangir suggest sati continued in his regime, was practised by Hindus and Muslims, he was fascinated by the custom, and that those Kashmiri Muslim widows who practised sati either immolated themselves or buried themselves alive with their dead husbands. Jahangir prohibited such sati and other customary practices in Kashmir . Aurangzeb ( r.  1658–1707 ) issued another order in 1663, states Sheikh Muhammad Ikram , after returning from Kashmir, "in all lands under Mughal control, never again should

8712-525: The soil by the gradual introduction and establishment of our own principles and opinions; of our laws, institutions and manners; above all, as the source of every other improvement, of our religion and consequently of our morals Elijah Hoole in his book Personal Narrative of a Mission to the South of India, from 1820 to 1828 reports an instance of Sati at Bangalore , which he did not personally witness. Another missionary, Mr. England, reports witnessing Sati in

8811-523: The statistics on sati collected by Carey and the other Serampore missionaries and mobilising public opinion against suttee, successfully ensured the passage of a Bill in Parliament legalising missionary activities in India, with a view to ending the practice through the religious transformation of Indian society. He stated in his address to the House of Commons : Let us endeavour to strike our roots into

8910-458: The succeeding verses. According to Dehejia, sati originated within the Kshatriya (warrior) aristocracy and remained mostly limited to the warrior class among and Hindus. According to Thapar, the introduction and growth of the practice of sati as a forced fire sacrifice is related to new Kshatriyas, who forged their own culture and took some rules "rather literally", with a variant reading of

9009-407: The virtuous, for the extirpation of evil-doers, & for establishing Dharma (righteousness) on a firm footing, I manifest Myself from age to age. The Vishnu avatars appear in Hindu mythology whenever the cosmos is in crisis, typically because evil has grown stronger and has thrown the cosmos out of its balance. The avatar then appears in a material form, to destroy evil and its sources, and restore

9108-788: The world with her consort. She has many forms, and just like Parvati, some of her forms are not consistent throughout all sects and interpretations of Hinduism. In Vaishnavism and some interpretations of Shaktism, Lakshmi is seen as Devi herself. She could be every Goddess as said in Vaishnavism and some interpretations of Shaktism, or just another form of Devi as seen in other interpretations of Shaktism and in Shaivism. With this in mind, Lakshmi's forms include: In Dasam Granth , second scriptures of Sikhs written by Guru Gobind Singh, mentioned seven Brahma Avatars. Khat avatar in this list refers to six different scholars who are considered to be founders of six schools of Indian philosophy . According to

9207-480: Was imposed in 1798, in the city of Calcutta only. The practice continued in surrounding regions. In the beginning of the 19th century, the evangelical church in Britain, and its members in India, started campaigns against sati. This activism came about during a period when British missionaries in India began focusing on promoting and establishing Christian educational systems as a distinctive contribution of theirs to

9306-625: Was in 1680 when the Agent of Madras Streynsham Master intervened and prohibited the burning of a Hindu widow in Madras Presidency . Attempts to limit or ban the practice had been made by individual British officers, but without the backing of the East India Company . This is because it followed a policy of non-interference in Hindu religious affairs and there was no legislation or ban against Sati. The first formal British ban

9405-653: Was initially rejected by the Brahmins of Kashmir , spread among them in the later half of the first millennium. Brick's evidence for claiming this spread is the mention of sati-like practices in the Vishnu Smriti (700–1000 CE), which is believed to have been written in Kashmir. Brick argues that the author of the Vishnu Smriti may have been mentioning practices existing in his own community. Brick notes that

9504-525: Was not mandated by Hinduism. Among those that do reference the practice, the lost works of the Greek historian Aristobulus of Cassandreia , who travelled to India with the expedition of Alexander the Great in c.  327 BCE , are preserved in the fragments of Strabo . There are different views by authors on what Aristobulus hears as widows of one or more tribes in India performing self-sacrifice on

9603-541: Was optionally practised, which a widow could choose to undertake. Ambivalence of Mughal rulers According to Annemarie Schimmel , the Mughal Emperor Akbar I ( r.  1556–1605 ) was averse to the practice of Sati; however, he expressed his admiration for "widows who wished to be cremated with their deceased husbands". He was averse to abuse, and in 1582, Akbar issued a decree to prevent any use of compulsion in sati. According to M. Reza Pirbhai,

9702-408: Was presented to William Carey for translation. His response is recorded as follows: "Springing to his feet and throwing off his black coat he cried, 'No church for me to-day... If I delay an hour to translate and publish this, many a widow's life may be sacrificed,' he said. By evening the task was finished." On 2 February 1830 this law was extended to Madras and Bombay . The ban was challenged by

9801-517: Was to identify full avatars and partial avatars. Krishna, Rama, and Narasimha were full avatars ( purna avatars ), while others were partial avatars ( ansha avatars ). Some declared, states Noel Sheth, that every living creature is an avatar of Vishnu. The Pancharatra text of Vaishnavism declares that Vishnu's avatars include those that are direct and complete ( sakshad ), indirect and endowed ( avesha ), cosmic and salvific ( vyuha ), inner and inspirational ( antaryamin ), consecrated and in

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