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the bracelets which they wear, both in arms and legs, with their earrings and
rings, belong of right to the Brahmans, who search for them in the ashes after
the women are burnt. 55

Tavernier’s account aids the visualization of this shocking tragedy.
The fact that the Brahmans first encourage the widows to suttee, then
burn them with their own hands and finally pick the valuables from the
ashes demonstrates that the Hindu traditions are a horrific means of ex-
ploitation. Tavernier relates the details of this tyranny:
“I have seen women burnt in three different ways, according to the customs of
different countries. In the kingdom of Gujarat; and as far as Agra and Delhi,
this is how it takes place: On the margin of a river or tank, a kind of small hut,
about 12 feet square, is built of reeds and all kinds of faggots, with which some
pots of oil and other drugs are placed in order to make it burn quickly. The
woman is seated in a half-reclining position in the middle of the hut, her head
reposes on a kind of pillow of wood, and she rests her back against a post, to
which she is tied by her waist by one of the Brahmans, for fear lest she should
escape on feeling the flame. In this position she holds the dead body of her hus-
band on her knees, chewing betel all the time; and after having been about half
an hour in this condition, the Brahman who has been by her side in the hut
goes outside, and she calls out to the priests to apply the fire; this the
Brahmans, and the relatives and friends of the woman who are present imme-
diately do, throwing into the fire some pots of oil, so that the woman may suf-
fer less by being quickly consumed. After the bodies have been reduced to ash-
es, the Brahmans take whatever may be found in the way of melted fold, silver,
tin, or copper, derived from the bracelets, earrings, and rings which (p.166)
the woman had on; this belongs to them by right, as I have said.» 56

The whole world considers this suttee practice as barbaric, the
Hindu mind justifies it with a twisted rationale; a loyal widow’s tran-
scendence of the fear of her own death becomes a deity by accomplish-
ing this ritual.

Harun Yahya (Adnan Oktar)