Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/27

Rh Ram Mohan had meanwhile been waging incessant war against what he rightly considered one of the most depraved customs that was forming a dark blot upon the Hindu faith. Of the evils of Sati he had had bitter experience in his own family. On the death of his elder brother he had hastened home to be present at the funeral ceremony, only to be horrified by a scene that remained burned forever in his memory. Before his arrival his brother's widow had announced her intention of immolating herself on her dead husband's funeral pyre and in spite of all his protestations she remained firm in her resolve. Ram Mohan, helpless in the face of her determination and the approval of all her relatives, could do nothing. But when the torch had been applied and the flames leapt up, her courage forsook her and she tried to escape from the burning logs. Thereupon the priests, helped by her relatives and friends, thrust her back with long bamboo poles and forced her down among the flames, until she lost consciousness, the drums and musical instruments sounding loudly meanwhile to drown her shrieks. Ram Mohan, one against many, was forced to stand by, a reluctant spectator of this heart-rending scene. Then and there he vowed that he would devote himself heart and soul to the abolition of this revolting practice, and from that time onward he became the leader of the gallant little band of men to whose exertions it was largely due that Sati was finally prohibited.