Befitting of a Shakespeare tragedy, teenager Roop Kanwar, a girl from the Deorala village in Rajasthan’s Sikar district mourned her dead husband of just seven months. Mal Singh was rushed to hospital with severe stomach pains and vomiting. Within two days he had died and consigned his besotted and grieving bride to woe and to lament his premature passing.
After Mal’s body was returned to the village from the hospital and temporarily reunited with his widow, witnesses claimed 18-year-old Roop was induced in a prayer as she cradled her husband’s corpse in her lap. She showered the villagers with blessings and benedictions as she caressed lovingly the head of her dead husband. Onlookers maintain Roop chanted Gayatri mantra which is a powerful and devotional chant whose lyrics possess a comforting and calming effect.
Roop found serenity and peace even as the flames licked, enveloped and consumed her appeasing body. For Roop was committed to Sati – ritual suicide after a husband has perished – by throwing oneself onto the burning pyre next to his cremated body.
The villagers of Deorala were convinced that Roop Kanwar died a serene and peaceful death. Even as flames consumed her legs, torso, face and head onlookers testify that she remained calm until the end. She then merely fell forward onto the ashes of her husband.
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The fort at Jodhpur, Rajasthan contains the handprints of some of the wives who have bequeathed their lives to join their husbands in death (which is evident in the attached photograph). Sati appears to have originated approximately 700 years ago and was finally made illegal in 1829. Roop Kanwar was a relatively recent case dating to the 1980’s but at its peak around 400 – 500 cases were recorded per year.
It’s customary for a shrine or temple to be established where Sati has occurred. After Roop had perished, efforts were made to establish such a shrine where she had willingly sacrificed her own life to be with her husband. These efforts were abandoned after widespread public outrage.
Adamant as they were that Roop didn’t suffer as she was consumed by fire and flame, an alternative version of the event has been postulated by other witnesses. For 15 minutes Roop circumvented the pyre until she was ready to commit Sati. One onlooker, Tej Singh Shekhawat cited: “We kept telling her that it was getting too late and the police might arrive but she signalled us to be patient. Then she climbed on to the pyre and her husband’s head was laid in her lap.”
It was Mal Singh’s younger brother who finally lit the pyre. The crowds, village elders and holy men cheered, applauded and hailed as Roops body was enveloped by fire and turned to ashes. To what degree of pain and torture she suffered we will never know! What we can be sure of is that Roop committed the ultimate sacrifice to her deceased husband.