Sati, the blessing and the curse : the burning of wives in India / edited by John Stratton Hawley.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Columbia University. Southern Asian Institute.

Hawley, John Stratton, 1941- editor.

Series:

Oxford scholarship online.

Oxford scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sati.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (229 pages) : illustrations, maps.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2023.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Several years ago in Rajasthan, an 18-year-old woman was burned on her husband's funeral pyre & thus became sati. Before ascending the pyre, she was expected to deliver both blessings & curses: blessings to guard her family & clan for many generations, & curses to prevent anyone from thwarting her desire to die. Sati also means blessing & curse in a broader sense. To those who revere it, sati symbolizes ultimate loyalty & self-sacrifice. It often figures near the core of a Hindu identity that feels embattled in a modern world. Yet to those who deplore it, sati is a curse, a violation of every woman's womanhood. It is murder mystified, & as such, the symbol of precisely what Hinduism should not be. In this volume a group of leading scholars consider the many meanings of sati: in India & the West; in literature, art, & opera; in religion, psychology, economics, & politics.

Contents:

CONTENTS; LANGUAGE AND TRANSLITERATION; ABBREVIATIONS; Introduction; 1. The Iconographies of Sati; Comment: A Broader Landscape; 2. Die Flambierte Frau: Sati in European Culture; Comment: Sati and the Nineteenth-century British Self; 3. Perfection and Devotion: Sati Tradition in Rajasthan; Comment: Good Mothers and Bad Mothers in the Rituals of Sati; 4. The Roop Kanwar Case: Feminist Responses; 5. Sati as Profit Versus Sati as a Spectacle: The Public Debate on Roop Kanwar's Death; Comment: Widows as Cultural Symbols; Comment: The Continuing Invention of the Sati Tradition Afterword: The Mysteries and Communities of Sati Select Glossary of Indic Terms Bibliography; Notes on the Contributors; Index

Notes:

Previously issued in print: New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-19-774107-X

1-280-44260-3

0-19-972930-1

0-19-536022-2

1-4237-3703-2

OCLC:

476011873