the obligations imposed by Indian law on the widower and on the widow.[1]
Here is the law for the husband: "Every Dwidja knowing the law, who sees his wife die before him, if she has obeyed these precepts, and is of the same class as himself, must burn her with consecrated fires and with utensils of sacrifice."—"After having accomplished thus with consecrated fires the funeral ceremony of a wife who has died, let him contract a new marriage, and light a second time the nuptial fire."[2] As for the widow, her duty is very different: "A virtuous woman, who desires to obtain the same abode of felicity as her husband, must do nothing which may displease him, either during life or after death."—"Let her willingly emaciate her body by feeding on flowers, roots, and pure fruits; but, after losing her husband, let her not pronounce the name of any other man."—"But the widow, who, through the desire of having children, is unfaithful to her husband, incurs contempt here below, and will be excluded from the celestial abode whither her husband has gone."—"Nowhere in this Code is the right of taking a second husband assigned to a virtuous wife."[3]
The obligation not to marry again, and especially that of living on flowers and fruits, are sufficiently vexatious, but they are nothing to the suttees, or burning alive of widows, which were quite recently common in Bengal. The Code of Manu does not speak of this abominable custom, though it was very ancient, for Diodorus mentions it, and relates how the two widows of Ceteus, an Indian general under Eumenes, disputed the honour of burning themselves with the corpse of their husband. The description which Diodorus gives corresponds in every detail with what took place at the suttees quite recently; so slow to change are these old theocratic societies. One of the wives, says Diodorus, could not be burnt because she was with child. The other advanced to the funeral pile crowned with myrtle, adorned as for a wedding, and preceded by her relatives, who sang hymns in her praise. Then after having distributed her jewels to her friends and domestics, she lay down on the
