c. 1200.—"Hearing the Raja was dead, the Parmâri became a satí:—dying she said—The son of the Jadavanî will rule the country, may my blessing be on him!"—Chand Bardai, in Ind. Ant. i. 227. We cannot be sure that satí is in the original, as this is a condensed version by Mr. Beames.
1298.—"Many of the women also, when their husbands die and are placed on the pile to be burnt, do burn themselves along with the bodies."—Marco Polo, Bk. iii. ch. 17.
c. 1322.—"The idolaters of this realm have one detestable custom (that I must mention). For when any man dies they burn him; and if he leave a wife they burn her alive with him, saying that she ought to go and keep her husband company in the other world. But if the woman have sons by her husband she may abide with them, an she will."—Odoric, in Cathay, &c., i. 79.
" Also in Zampa or [Champa]: "When a married man dies in this country his body is burned, and his living wife along with it. For they say that she should go to keep company with her husband in the other world also."—Ibid. 97.
c. 1328.—"In this India, on the death of a noble, or of any people of substance, their bodies are burned; and eke their wives follow them alive to the fire, and for the sake of worldly glory, and for the love of their husbands, and for eternal life, burn along with them, with as much joy as if they were going to be wedded. And those who do this have the higher repute for virtue and perfection among the rest."—Fr. Jordanus, 20.
c. 1343.—"The burning of the wife after the death of her husband is an act among the Indians recommended, but not obligatory. If a widow burns herself, the members of the family get the glory thereof, and the fame of fidelity in fulfilling their duties. She who does not give herself up to the flames puts on coarse raiment and abides with her kindred, wretched and despised for having failed in duty. But she is not compelled to burn herself." (There follows an interesting account of instances witnessed by the traveller.)—Ibn Batuta, ii. 138.
c. 1430.—"In Mediâ vero Indiâ, mortui comburuntur, cumque his, ut plurimum vivae uxores ... una pluresve, prout fuit matrimonii conventio. Prior ex lege uritur, etiam quae unica est. Sumuntur autem et aliae uxores quaedam eo pacto, ut morte funus suâ exornent, isque haud parvus apud eos honos ducitur ... submisso igne uxor ornatiori cultu inter tubas tibicinasque et cantus, et ipsa psallentis more alacris rogum magno comitatu circuit. Adstat interea et sacerdos ... hortando suadens. Cum circumierit illa saepius ignem prope suggestum consistit, vestesque exuens, loto de more prius corpore, tum sindonem albam induta, ad exhortationem dicentis in ignem prosilit."—N. Conti, in Poggius de Var. Fort. iv.
c. 1520.—"There are in this Kingdom (the Deccan) many heathen, natives of the country, whose custom it is that when they die they are burnt, and their wives along with them; and if these will not do it they remain in disgrace with all their kindred. And as it happens oft times that they are unwilling to do it, their Bramin kinsfolk persuade them thereto, and this in order that such a fine custom should not be broken and fall into oblivion."—Sommario de' Genti, in Ramusio, i. f. 329.
" "In this country of [Camboja] ... when the King dies, the lords voluntarily burn themselves, and so do the King's wives at the same time, and so also do other women on the death of their husbands."—Ibid. f. 336.
1522.—"They told us that in Java Major it was the custom, when one of the chief men died, to burn his body; and then his principal wife, adorned with garlands of flowers, has herself carried in a chair by four men ... comforting her relations, who are afflicted because she is going to burn herself with the corpse of her husband ... saying to them, 'I am going this evening to sup with my dear husband and to sleep with him this night.'... After again consoling them (she) casts herself into the fire and is burned. If she did not do this she would not be looked upon as an honourable woman, nor as a faithful wife."—Pigafetta, E.T. by Lord Stanley of A., 154.