Page:The English Works of Raja Rammohun Roy Vol 2.djvu/342

330 cloak of religion, introduced the practice of burning widows alive under the first impressions of sorrow or despair, immediately after the demise of their husbands. This system of female destruction, being admirably suited to the selfish and servile disposition of the populace, has been eagerly followed by them, in defiance of the most sacred authorities, such as the Oopunishuds or the principal parts of the Veds, and the, as well as of the direct commandment of Munoo, the first and the greatest of all the legislators, conveyed in the following words: ‘Let a widow continue till death forgiving all injuries, performing austere duties, avoiding every sensual pleasure,’ &c. (Ch. 5, v. 158.)

While in fact fulfilling the suggestions of their jealousy they pretended to justify this hideous practice by quoting some passages from authorities of evidently inferior weight, sanctioning the wilful ascent of a widow on the flaming pile of her husband, as if they were offering such female sacrifices in obedience to the dictates of the Shastrus and not from the influence of jealousy. It is however, very fortunate that the British government under whose protection the lives of both the males and females of India have been happily placed by Providence, has, after deligent inquiry, ascertained that even those inferior authorities, permitting wilful ascent by a widow to the flaming pile, have been practically set aside, and that, in gross violation of their language and spirit, the relatives of widows have, in the burning of those infatuated females almost invariably used to fasten them down on the pile, and heap over them large quantities of wood and other materials adequate to the prevention of their escape—an outrage on humanity which has been frequently perpetra-