Suttee

a term applied in India to a practice formerly prevalent of burning widows on the funeral piles of their husbands. The term is Hindu, meaning a faithful wife. It was the practice among the Hindus to burn dead bodies on a funeral pile constructed of wood and other inflammable material. When all was ready, the devoted wife threw herself upon the pile and wound her arms about the body of her husband. The torch was then applied and she suffered herself to be burned alive. In case the husband died too far away to be brought home, she caused herself to be burned with his clothing. The suttee was forbidden by Lord Bentinck, the governor-general of India, in 1829. The practice is now almost, if not entirely, extinct. See Ganges; Juggernaut; India