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BURNING OF HINDU WIDOWS.
295
MY DEAR DR. Wilson,
Although the abolition of the practice of Sahamarańa in the British Indian territories has legally set the question at rest, and deprived it of all interest in the public eye, yet its discussion will always afford pleasure to the historian and antiquarian, and has its peculiar value in a literary point of view.
The perusal of your very interesting article “On the supposed Vaidic authority for the burning of Hindu Widows, and on the Funeral Ceremonies of the Hindus”, which appeared in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. XVI, Part I, having induced me to inquire whether any trace of this custom can be found in the Vedas, I have made certain discoveries and come to a conclusion, which I believe would lead you to modify considerably the opinion you have formed on the subject.
The most explicit authority for the burning of a widow with her deceased husband is to be found in the two verses of the Aukhya Sákhá of the Taittiriya Sanhitá, quoted in the eighty-fourth Anuváka of the Náráyaniya Upanishad, of which I give the following literal translation, and subjoin' the original text with the commentary of Sayanáchárya:
| Text. 7 ani gagfatih Tetaan afrafa - केयं तन्मे राध्यताम् ॥१॥ Com. हे अग्ने कर्मसाक्षिन् । यतः त्वं व्रतानां प्राजापत्याद्यखिलव्रतानां व्रतपतिरसि । पुनव्रतग्रहणं त्वमेव व्रतानामधिपतिनान्य इति नियमबोधनाय ॥ तस्मान्मयाचर्यमाणं यत्सांप्रतिकं व्रतं तद्यथाहं कर्तुं शकेयं तथाराध्यतां क्रियतामित्यर्थः ।
