1910–1911
Britannica 11th
Encyclopaedia Britannica · 11th edition
SUTTEE (an English corruption of Sanskrit sati, " good woman " or true " wife "), the rite of widow-sacrifice, i.e. the burning the living widow on the funeral pyre of her husband, as practised among certain Hindu castes. As early as the Atharva Veda the rite is mentioned as an " old custom," but European scholars have shown that the text of the still earlier Rig Veda had been corrupted, probably wilfully, by the Hindu priesthood, and that there was no injunction that the rite should be observed. The directions of …
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- Vol. 26, pp. 171-171