Suttee

Suttee (Sanskrit sati,”true wife”), practice that prevailed in India of a widow burning herself on the funeral pyre, either with the body of her husband or, if he had died at a distance, separately. Classical authors mention it as early as 316 bc. It appears at first to have been a royal custom and privilege, afterward generalized and made legal. The custom was abolished by the British in 1829, but isolated instances persisted in remote parts of India until recent times. In theory the act of suttee was voluntary, but in orthodox communities any woman who refused to perform it was ostracized.