Part 6

But being unaware of the games that the fate had started to play with him, he walked bare footted through the grounds of their encampment, the wet grass relaxing him a lot when he decided to walk a little further.

Towards the outline of the village and the huts that he could see from here. But he had barely put a feet out from their encampment when he heard the ominous chant of people.

"Ram naam satya hai! Ram naam satya hai!"

'It was a funeral procession! '

Saying a quick prayer for the dead man's soul to rest in peace, he peeked through the numerous trees on the left hand side of the kuccha road. Where he supposed was the 'shamshan!'

The chants grew louder and louder as the procession reached the pyre.

A little further he moved and he could clearly see the thick logs of woods being arranged one over the other.

'The deceased was surely a very well known man.' Because even at this hour of the night, he could see thousands gathered and more approaching as the pyre was arranged.

A few minutes more and he saw a large limp body encased in a red silk was lowered down on the pyre that was as high as a tower.

He wondered why though the pyre was made in such a humongous manner as if they were going burn four instead of one!

And he got his answer the next moment. His senses jolting into a whirlwind as he saw the two men dragging a young woman mercilessly towards the pyre. She kept on protesting, crying, kicking, begging for her life to be spared but none listened!

The proud looking men, all stood there watching silently and enjoying the chase before the kill.

'They were going to burn her alive with the corpse of her husband! '

'They were going to perform sati dah!'

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Now here are some little facts about sati dah that you may or may not know.

Around the time of colonial rule in India this 'Sati dah/sati pratha' came into existence.

The women of all over India were affected by it-under which the widow was burned alive with her dead husband's corpse!

They were generally drugged with opium and then pushed into the fire when they hardly had their consciousness.

This was not only a simple torture on women but a very well laid plan for the relatives (cousin brothers of the dead) to remove everyone from his path so that they could inherit the money of the deceased that otherwise would have gone to his wife.

And that's the reason most of the woman made sati were young and childless.

Thousands and more innocent girls young and old were murdered ruthlessly under the name of purity and rituals.

And it wasn't until many years later that a very learned intellect Raja Ram Mohon Roy from Bengal fought tooth and nail against this so called ritual and convinced the British government ruling over India to make a law against it.

It was him who started the widow remarriage in India joined hands with many a great people like Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar.