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ON THE BURNING OF HINDU WIDOWS.
293
VII. REMARKS
BY
RÁJÁ RÁDHÁKÁNTA DEVA, ON ART. XI, JOURNAL ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY,
VOL. XVI, PAG. 201; WITH OBSERVATIONS.
From the Journal of the R. Asiatic Society, Vol. XVII (1859), p. 209–20.
The sixteenth volume of the Journal of our Society* has given insertion to a communication made by me on the supposed authority of the Vedas for the burning of Hindu widows, in which I have shown that the passage quoted as enjoining the practice, and as published by Mr. Colebrooke, in his Paper in the Asiatic Researches **, upon the “Duties of a Satí or Faithful Widow," had been either purposely or accidentally wrongly read, and that so far from authorizing the rite, its real purport was the reverse; and that it expected the widow to repress her affliction and return to her worldly duties. This view was entirely
* [See the preceding Article.]
** [Essays, p. 70 - 75.]
