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VAIDIC AUTHORITY FOR THE
though its interpretation, apart from other considerations, may, on a first view, seem to discountenance the practice.
A very strong presumption in support of the opinion, that Sahamarana rests upon Vaidic authority, arises from the circumstance of its having prevailed in India in very remote times, when Vaidic rites only were in vogue. On referring to the Mahabhárata, for instance, we find the widows of the heroes slain in the battle of Kurukshetra consuining themselves in the funeral fires of their husbands, when there lived great kings and sages imbued with Vaidic learning, and devoted to the observance of Vaidic rituals.
Nearly two thousand years ago Propertius describes the prevalence of this custom in India, in a passage of which the following is a translation by Boyses (see Brit. Poets, Chalmer's Ed., Vol. XIV, p. 563):
“Happy the laws that in those climes obtain, Where the bright morning reddens all the main, There, whenso'er the happy husband dies, And on the funeral couch extended lies, His faithful wives around the scene appear, With pompons dress and a triumphant air; For partnership in death, ambitious strive, And dread the shameful fortune to survive! Adorned with flowers the lovely victims stand, With smiles ascend the pile, and light the brand! Grasp their dear partners with unaltered faith, And yield exulting to the fragrant death."
Cicero, also, who lived about the same time, mentions this fact in his Tusculum Questions. Herodotus
