What does suttee mean?

Definitions for suttee
sʌˈti, ˈsʌt isut·tee

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word suttee.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. sutteenoun

    the act of a Hindu widow willingly cremating herself on the funeral pyre of her dead husband

Wiktionary

  1. sutteenoun

    The custom and/or act of a Hindu woman giving herself up to be cremated on her husband's funeral pyre as a sign of her devotion to her late spouse.

Wikipedia

  1. suttee

    Sati or suttee was a Hindu practice, now largely historical, in which a widow sacrifices herself by sitting atop her deceased husband's funeral pyre. Although it is debated whether it received scriptural mention in early Hinduism, it has been linked to related Hindu practices in the Indo-Aryan speaking regions of India and Nepal which diminished the rights of women, especially those to the inheritance of property. A cold form of sati, or the neglect and casting out of Hindu widows, has been prevalent from ancient times. Greek sources from around 300 BCE make isolated mention of sati, but it probably developed into a real fire sacrifice in the medieval era within the northwestern Rajput clans to which it initially remained limited, to become more widespread during the late medieval era.During the early-modern Mughal period of 1526–1857, it was notably associated with elite Hindu Rajput clans in western India, marking one of the points of divergence between Hindu Rajputs and the Muslim Mughals, who banned the practice. In the early 19th century, the British East India Company, in the process of extending its rule to most of India, initially tolerated the practice; 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 the number of incidents of sati in Bengal doubled from 378 to 839. Opposition to the practice of sati by evangelists like Carey, and by Hindu reformers such as 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 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. Ram Mohan Roy observed that when women allow themselves to be consigned to the funeral pyre of a deceased husband it results not just "from religious prejudices only," but, "also from witnessing the distress in which widows of the same rank in life are involved, and the insults and slights to which they are daily subject."Isolated incidents of sati were recorded in India in the late-20th century, leading the Indian government to promulgate the Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987, criminalising the aiding or glorifying of sati. 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 on a husband's funeral pyre after hearing her father insult him; prayers were also performed to the practice of a wife immolating herself alive on a deceased husband's funeral pyre.

ChatGPT

  1. suttee

    Suttee, also known as sati, is a now-outlawed, historical Hindu practice in India where a widow would self-immolate, or burn herself to death, on her husband's funeral pyre, supposedly voluntary. The practice was viewed as a display of ultimate devotion, loyalty, purity, and marital fidelity. It was officially banned in India in 1829.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Sutteenoun

    a Hindoo widow who immolates herself, or is immolated, on the funeral pile of her husband; -- so called because this act of self-immolation is regarded as envincing excellence of wifely character

  2. Sutteenoun

    the act of burning a widow on the funeral pile of her husband

  3. Etymology: [Skr. sat a faithful wife, fem. of sant existing, real, true, good, p. pr. of as to be. Cf. Sooth.]

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Suttee

    sut-tē′, n. a usage long prevalent in India, in accordance with which, on the death of her husband, the faithful widow burned herself on the funeral pyre along with her husband's body.—n. Suttee′ism, the practice of self-immolation among Hindu widows. [Sans. satí, a true wife.]

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

  1. Suttee

    a Hindu widow who immolates herself on the funeral pile of her husband, a term applied to the practice itself. The practice was of very ancient date, but the custom was proclaimed illegal in 1829 under Lord William Bentinck's administration, and it is now very seldom that a widow seeks to violate the law. In 1823, in Bengal alone, 575 widows gave themselves to be so burned, of whom 109 were above sixty, 226 above forty, 209 above twenty, and 32 under twenty.

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of suttee in Chaldean Numerology is: 9

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of suttee in Pythagorean Numerology is: 9


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"suttee." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/suttee>.

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