3-056-709 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Suttee, India, 1792. A crowd has gathered for a funeral and suttee. The body of the deceased man is being washed in the river before being dressed in fresh cotton robes. The funeral pyre stands ready, just to the left of the elephants. The practice of suttee or sati, whereby a Hindu widow was burned alive on her husband's funeral pyre, was legally banned in all the princely states of India by 1861.