Sati, the Blessing and the Curse : The Burning of Wives in India Paperback / softback

Several years ago in Rajasthan, an eighteen-year-old woman was burned on her husband's funeral pyre and thus became sati.

Before ascending the pyre, she was expected to deliver both blessings and curses: blessings to guard her family and clan for many generations, and curses to prevent anyone from thwarting her desire to die.

Sati also means blessing and curse in a broader sense.

To those who revere it, sati symbolizes ultimate loyalty andself-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, and assuch, 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 and the West; in literature, art, and opera; in religion, psychology, economics, and politics.

With contributors who are both Indian and American, this is a genuinely binational, postcolonial discussion.

Contributors include Karen Brown, Paul Courtright, Vidya Dehejia, Ainslie Embree, Dorothy Figueira, Lindsey Harlan,John Hawley, Robin Lewis, Ashis Nandy, and Veena Talwar Oldenburg.