Posted:
I found this on the internet. I found the story fascinating so I am starting a new thread so that more people get a chance to read it-
The Mughal Emperor Akbar seems to have promoted (without much success it would seem) widow remarriage amongst hindus.
But it was in the case of Sati that his measures actually ended up reforming Hinduism.
But it was in the case of Sati that his measures actually ended up reforming Hinduism.
He was quite disgusted with the whole concept of Sati as is evident by one of Abul Fazl's quotation of Akbar on this subject in the Ain-i-Akbari. He had an earnest desire to put a total, unconditional ban on Sati. Unfortunately, many of the prominent Hindus at the time opposed an unconditional ban on Sati, and so Akbar had to drop the idea since he did want to take any such step without evolving a general consensus on the issue.
On the question of Forcible Sati, however, he put his foot down. Forcible Sati was banned throughout the Mughal Empire.
It is a historical fact that on at least one occasion, the Emperor Akbar was obliged to stop a case of forcible sati through his personal intervention. The facts are as follows:
Once, Akbar heard that a lady of a royal Rajput family whose husband had just died was being forced to commit Sati. As soon as he heard this news, he immediately climbed on his horse and rode to the house of the concerned Rajput family *by himself, all alone*. [His personal security guard, when they heard the emperor had gone off all on his own, galloped after him.]
He arrived at the house just in time to stop the Sati taking place; already the woman was being led out of the house for the Sati site (after having been drugged). By his sheer force of personality(he was all alone) he was able to stop the sati from taking place.
[This particular incident, of Akbar stopping the forcible Sati, is described in detail in V.A. Smith's book, 'Akbar the Great Mughal']
In book 3 of Abul Fazl's Ain-i-Akbari (chapter titled 'Happy Sayings of his Majesty'), the greatest of all the Mughal Emperors, and one of the greatest Emperors of India and indeed the world is recorded as saying:
"It is a strange comment on the magnanimity of men that they should seek their deliverance through the self sacrifice of their wives."
Credit for abolition of sati rightly goes to Raja Ram Mohan Roy who did a lot of work in raising awareness about this social evil, but his predecessor in this matter was the great mughal emperor Akbar who was to my knowledge the first Indian emperor to have officially banned forcible sati in his empire, thus contributing to the fight against for women emancipation.
Mangal Lakshmi
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