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Suttee   Listen
noun
Suttee  n.  
1.
A Hindoo widow who immolates herself, or is immolated, on the funeral pile of her husband; so called because this act of self-immolation is regarded as envincing excellence of wifely character. (India)
2.
The act of burning a widow on the funeral pile of her husband. (India) Note: The practice, though abolished in British India law in 1829, is not wholly prevented.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Suttee" Quotes from Famous Books



... discovered the force of the feelings which then agitated me. I trembled from head to foot, and, though burning with impatience to obtain from them farther particulars, it was some moments before I could trust myself to speak. At length I asked them when the Suttee would take place; and was answered by one of them, that it would certainly be performed on the following day; and that he had seen the funeral pile himself. Without any farther delay, I set out immediately for the city, and reached ...
— A Voyage to the Moon • George Tucker

... be released when the material shape is destroyed or purified by the action of fire. Everything, in such a state, is supposed to possess a soul of its own; and the fire is the chosen mode for setting the soul free from all clogging earthly impurities. So till yesterday, in the rite of suttee, the Hindoo widow immolated herself upon her husband's pyre, in order that her spirit might follow him unhampered to the world of ghosts whither he was bound. Thus the twin barrows on Ogbury hillside bridge ...
— Falling in Love - With Other Essays on More Exact Branches of Science • Grant Allen

... over for the fortunate dead. The plundering of strangers present, it may be remembered, also took place among the Indians of the Carolinas. As already mentioned on a preceding page, the cruel manner in which the widow is treated seems to be a modification of the Hindoo suttee, but, if the account be true, it would appear that death might ...
— A Further Contribution to the Study of the Mortuary Customs of the North American Indians • H.C. Yarrow

... up at the barred windows, how long this kind of Suttee would be permitted in happy France, or, indeed, in any other country, and whether in the life-time of that foolish English girl the doors would be opened and she would be compelled to live and labour ...
— Holidays in Eastern France • Matilda Betham-Edwards

... clean, in the old classic story. Oh for such a sudden flow of the River of God, which is full of water! But must we wait until it comes? Did we wait until India herself asked for the abolition of suttee? Surely what is needed is such legislation as has been found necessary at home, which empowers the magistrate to remove a child from a dangerous house, and deprives parents of all parental rights who are found responsible for its ...
— Lotus Buds • Amy Carmichael

... "True, the little girls might cry as they handed a dated doll to the BSG-man; while he prepared it for suttee with a wash of gasoline and set it into the fire; but little girls, as I suppose you know, relish occasions for weeping. They cheered up mighty quick, believe me, when the thermite grenades were set off, filling the night air with the electric smell of molten metal, burning dated ...
— The Great Potlatch Riots • Allen Kim Lang

... and utterly foolish creature. How many shattered idols had not Lady Bridget picked up from beneath their over-turned pedestals and consigned to Memory's dust-bin! On how many pyres had not that oft-widowed soul committed suttee to be resurrected at the next freak of Destiny! And yet with it all, there was something strangely elusive, curiously ...
— Lady Bridget in the Never-Never Land • Rosa Praed

... had heard what Sir Francis said, and, as soon as the procession had disappeared, asked: "What is a suttee?" ...
— Around the World in 80 Days • Jules Verne

... of East and West The Last Suttee The Ballad of the King's Mercy The Ballad of the King's Jest The Ballad of Boh Da Thone The Lament of the Border Cattle Thief The Rhyme of the Three Captains The Ballad of the "Clampherdown" The Ballad of the "Bolivar" The English Flag Cleared An ...
— Departmental Ditties and Barrack Room Ballads • Rudyard Kipling

... prediction made by an ascetic was bound to come true, the king, momentarily forgetting the baleful curse, died in the embrace of his second wife, who, in token of grief, was burned with his remains, this being the earliest mention of a suttee. ...
— The Book of the Epic • Helene A. Guerber

... my surprise, he made no objections. A dark pall of resignation had fallen upon him. In such a mood as his, an Indian woman would go to Suttee without a qualm. He pulled the boat to shore, placed a plank, and with a thrilling pride of possession we walked ...
— The Chauffeur and the Chaperon • C. N. Williamson

... woman: but women do want asking, and John never had the word. The rape of such men is left to the practical animal. So John sat alone with his old flame. He had become resigned to her perpetual lamentation and living Suttee for his defunct rival. But, ha! what meant those soft glances now—addressed to him? His tailor and his hairdresser gave youth to John, but they had not the art to bestow upon him distinction, and an undistinguished man what woman ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... statesman, governor of Madras in 1806, but recalled for an error which led to the mutiny at Vellore; but was in 1827 appointed governor-general of India, which he governed wisely, abolishing many evils, such as Thuggism and Suttee, and effecting many beneficent reforms. Macaulay held office under him. He returned to England in 1835, became member for Glasgow in 1837, and died before he made any mark ...
— The Nuttall Encyclopaedia - Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge • Edited by Rev. James Wood

... fierce and ruinous extravagances of the Doorga Pooja, the mutilating monstrosities of the Churruck, the enslaving sorceries of the Atharvana Veda, the raving mad revivals of Juggernath, the pious debaucheries of Nanjanagud, the strange and sorrowful delusions of Suttee, the impudent ravishments of Vengata Ramana,—all the fancies and frenzies, all the delusions and passions and moral epilepsies that go to make up a Meerut or ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. II, No. 8, June 1858 • Various



Words linked to "Suttee" :   suicide, self-annihilation



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