What terrible secret of the ancients are the sati stones hiding in the long-lost Indian village of Velambur
An Indian explorer was obsessed with finding a long-lost Indian village called Velambur. All that was left of it was a signpost and it wasn’t on any map. The scientists scoured the entire area, but the mysterious ancient settlement could not be found.
After two decades of fruitless searches, the archaeologists were lucky. In an abandoned part of an agricultural area, they found what they had been looking for for so long. It was indicated by three sati stones, over four hundred years old. What mystery of the lost city did these ritual memorials tell the scientists?
The abandoned village and its sati stones
Researchers found three sati stones in a long-abandoned field. A temple should have been somewhere nearby, but no buildings were left. The ancient memorials turned out to be more than four hundred years old. They were erected in honor of widows whose husbands died in the war, and women, according to tradition, burned themselves on the funeral pyres of their spouses.
Research revealed that the Velambur settlement was once part of another long-lost village called Madhamamnayaknur. In the 16th century, elephants were trained in this area.
The three sati stones found here differed from those archaeologists see all over India. Instead of sculptural handprints of deceased women, standard on most sati rocks, they were elaborately carved. Two of the stones depicted three figures — a man surrounded by two women.
Scientists suggest that the deceased were of royal blood. The ornaments on the central male figure indicate this. This may be King Kausilan, who ruled the local lands in the 16th century. The women next to him are his wives. The queens wear the decorations befitting married women of such high rank.
A terrible ritual
The practice of sacrificing widows was more common in northern and central India. It was widely practiced among the Hindu community, especially among the militant Rajput clan. The sati custom was observed in the early years of the Mughal rule in India, which lasted from 1526 to 1857. Back then, such a religiously diverse subcontinent was mostly ruled by an Islamic dynasty. As a result, the sati stones have a rather controversial heritage, still fraught with religious and political tensions.
These ritual stones have a long history going back centuries. In ancient times, virginity was the most valuable thing in women, and widowhood was demonized. The time was hectic. Constant wars where men were killed forced their wives to take their own lives. Visit. A F R I N I K .C O M . For the full article. Widows often voluntarily and willingly went to their deaths to avoid the violence of male conquerors and the fate of becoming a slave.
Often, of course, the question of consent to this ritual was quite controversial. Sati was an important part of the rigid religious and moral code that prevailed in society during that historical period. Women, especially noble ones, had to obey these traditions and set an example of proper behavior.
Even today, the debate about the sati stones is heating up on social media and making it into the news. In India, ruled by Hindu nationalists and strongly polarized along religious lines, Muslims have recently been portrayed in a historical context as invaders and conquerors. This is so pronounced that cities bearing the names of the Mughal rulers are currently being renamed. The sati stones and the fear of invaders they represent unintentionally fit into this sad narrative.
Sati Stones — the Mystery of India
Sati stones are very often found in groups, especially in large cities. There are much fewer of them in rural areas. This suggests that this practice was more common among military clans. There are especially many such stones near the sites of ancient battles. The custom was especially widespread from the 10th to the 18th centuries. Scientists say that modern science does not know everything about sati. The ideology, ethnography, and culture of this ritual remained only in the eyewitness accounts and on the sati stones.
The labels may include personal information such as the names of the woman’s family members, as well as the name and profession of her husband. In central India, the stones are distinguished by the fact that they are carved with horsemen and warriors. In this sense, they have similarities to Greek and Roman motifs. Some have sculptural images of couples and symbols depicting the worship of the Hindu god Shiva.
The sun, moon, mirrors and water jugs are also carved on the stones. Researchers suggest that they symbolize purity and reference objects that a woman could take with her to death. In the north of India, the stones are not so richly decorated and they often become objects of vandalism. They can be used for the foundation of a house during construction.
This legacy has been preserved in modern history. The practice of sati so frightened the British colonialists that on December 4, 1829, Governor-General William Bentinck issued the Bengali Sati Ordinance, which outlawed this custom. Nevertheless, the sati stones continued to be worshipped. In 1987, an 18-year-old widow named Roopkuvarba Kanwar, who had been married for only eight months, was forcibly burned on her husband’s funeral pyre in her native village of Deorala in Rajasthan. After that, the Indian government intervened to strengthen laws and enforcement.
Any ceremonies involving stones, even attempts to perpetuate or honor the memory of women, were prohibited. Although these laws were welcomed, they complicated the archaeological preservation of the stones themselves. Researchers have been criticized for studying them, and many villages where there were such sanctuaries have fallen into disrepair. Scientists believe that sati stones are in urgent need of protection and preservation. These are more than just monuments. They contain valuable information about Indian history that cannot be allowed to be lost.
