making of her home a microcosm of dharma. She was to worship her husband
(theManusmr.titells us) irrespective of a husband’s worthiness. Just as her
husband fulfilled the imagery of “sacrifice” in his role as husband, so she too
was to perform “sacrifice” in her role as wife/mother. The wife who fulfilled
her dharmic obligations was afforded respect and was thought to have
considerable power even after death. She came to be known as a suman.galı ̄,
an ideal woman through whom children could be born and wealth and
religious merit could be accumulated.^14 Hence, the role of wife and mother
was viewed with some ambiguity by the orthodox male. While honored, on
the one hand, for the capacity to give love, comfort, and happiness, she was,
nonetheless, expected to be obedient and subservient to her husband. And
at least by the late centuries BCE, her freedom of movement outside the
home was increasingly restricted and her ability to participate in public
vaidikaceremonies curtailed. Yet by the eighth century CE, there were
women poets, patrons of temple rituals and commentators on scriptures.^15
Girls generally were prepared from childhood for marriage, the purposes
of which were thought to include the promotion of religious traditions,
assuring progeny, and enjoying sexual pleasure. Boys were supposed to
marry after their years of studentship, while, in the early years of this period,
brides were to be fully adult. However, in due course, girls were often
married right after, or even before, puberty.^16 Girls came to be thought of
as an economic liability, particularly if remaining at home unmarried. In
addition, the assumption that women were naturally sexually driven had
become widespread, hence, the perceived need to marry them as early as
feasible.^17 Marriages were arranged by the parents of the couple and were
solemnized by a complex series of rituals, usually funded by the bride’s
parents. The ceremony would be climaxed by the couple’s walking together
around a sacred fire and the taking of seven steps, the bride stepping on a
small pile of rice at each step.
A second type of woman was the widow. Such texts as the Manusmr.titell
us she was “auspicious” only insofar as she remained faithful to her dead
husband. In fact, however, her life was deemed to be inauspicious indeed.
Especially by the early centuries of the common era, she was expected to live
a life of simplicity in the home of her in-laws and not remarry. Her regimen,
at least in orthoprax homes, was that of an ascetic: eating simply, dressing
without ornaments or colored garments, sleeping on the ground. She was
expected to spend her time engaged in performing religious rites on behalf
of her deceased husband awaiting the possibility of rejoining him.
It is in the context of those circumstances that the practice of a widow’s
being immolated on the funeral pyre of her dead husband – the practice
which came to be known as satı ̄– is to be viewed. Precisely when this practice
started is not clear – it was apparently rare during the early years of this
64 The Urban Period