Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Suttee |
SutteeNoun1. The act of a Hindu widow willingly cremating herself on the funeral pyre of her dead husband. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "suttee" was first used: 1786. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Literature | Suttee (Indian). A pure and model wife (Sanskrit, sati, chaste, pare), a widow who immolates herself on the funeral pile of her deceased husband. Abolished by law in British India. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
In Hinduism, Sati, also called as Dakshayani is one of the daughters of Prasuti and Daksha. She loved Shiva, but her father, Daksha, forbade her marriage to Shiva. She did so anyway, and Daksha got revenge by not inviting Shiva to a festival during his absence. Sati killed herself by self-immolation on a fire. After Shiva returned and found Sati's body, he killed and decapitated Daksha, later replacing his head with a goat's.Sati was reborn as Parvati (Paarvati, the daughter of the mountain or Parvata), and reappears as Shiva's consort.
Another woman with the title of Sati is Savitri. Savitri was the wife of Satyavan, who begged Yama (the God of Death), to restore her husband to life. Her dogged persistence caused Yama to grant her one wish, on the condition that the wish should not be to restore Satyavan's life. Then Savitri asked to have children from Satyavan, after which Yama had no choice but to restore his life.
By extension from the mythic Sati, the term is also used for the death, voluntary or involuntary, of widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands in India. The term is also extended to refer to the widow herself. For this usage, the term is often written using the old English spelling of suttee. Though supposed to be voluntary, it is believed to have been often enforced by various social pressures exerted on the widow.
Although the practice may have occurred in ancient times, the extent of it then is not certain. It has generally been restricted to certain castes and communities. Some accounts indicate that it may have been introduced from central Asia by Scythians, from whom Rajputs of Rajasthan are believed to be descended. Sati is known to have been practised in many different regions of India from medieval times, though the prevalence varied. Many rulers made efforts to ban or limit it, including the Mughal emperors. The practice was moderately common in Rajasthan and in parts of the Gangetic plain till the early 19th century, and a few hundred deaths were recorded each year then. At this time it was rather uncommon or even unknown in other parts of India.
It was banned in the Bengal Presidency on December 4, 1829, other East India Company lands shortly after, and in the last princely state to permit it, Jaipur in 1846. Instances however continue to occur occasionally to the present day. Various measures against it now include efforts to stop the 'glorification' of the dead women. This glorification often includes the erection of shrines to the dead, encouragement of pilgrimages to the site of the pyre, and an income to nearby villagers.
See also Jauhar.
In Egyptian mythology, Sati is an alternate spelling for Satis,which see for more details.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Sati."
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Disinterestedness | Self-denial, self-abnegation, self-sacrifice, self-immolation, self-control; (resolution); stoicism, devotion, martyrdom, suttee. |
Idolatry | Sacrifices, hecatomb, holocaust; human sacrifices, immolation, mactation, infanticide, self-immolation, suttee. |
Killing | Suicide, felo de se, hara-kiri, suttee, Juggernath; immolation, auto da fe, holocaust. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Suttee" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Suttee" is used about 15 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 15 | 90,616 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes the usage of "suttee" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified. |
| Name | Usage/Gender | Usage per 100 million Persons | Rank in USA |
| Suttee | Last name | 100 | 77,472 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits. | |||
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
suttee | 11 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "suttee"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Arabic | أرملة (relict, widow). (various references) | |
French | satî, veuve. (various references) | |
Hungarian | máglyahalált haló hindu, hindu özvegy máglyahalála, özvegy (dowager, relict, widow). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | utteesay.(various references) | |
Russian | сжигающая себя вдова. (various references) | |
Turkish | kadının ölen kocasıyla beraber yakılması. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Sanskrit | 300 BCE-Modern | sati. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "suttee": suttees. (additional references) | |
| |
"Suttee" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Cttee, scutage, Shutty, sithee, sitty, slutte, slutty, sotty, sturee, stushie, stute, subtree, sute, sutee, Suthee, Sutlej, sutta, Suttie, suty, utee. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: tutees. | |
| Words within the letters "e-e-s-t-t-u" | |
-1 letter: tutee. | |
-2 letters: sett, stet, suet, tees, test, tets, tuts. | |
-3 letters: see, set, sue, tee, tet, tut, use, uts. | |
-4 letters: es, et, us, ut. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-e-s-t-t-u" | |
+1 letter: musette, puttees, suttees, trustee. | |
+2 letters: burettes, curettes, cuvettes, fouettes, fumettes, lettuces, lunettes, musettes, outsteer, petuntse, quietest, reutters, textures, trusteed, trustees, unsettle, untested, upsetter, utterers. | |
+3 letters: austenite, austerest, baguettes, besmutted, betelnuts, brunettes, butteries, coquettes, cotrustee, cutesiest, destitute, devoutest, entrusted, eructates, eutectics, euthenist, extubates, maquettes, metestrus, moquettes, mutterers, outsteers, petuntses, petuntzes, poussette, putterers, rebutters, restitute, roulettes, scuttered, sextuplet, shuttered, soubrette, sputtered, sputterer, statuette, stoutened, stuttered, stutterer, superette, teetotums, teguments, tenuities, tessiture, tetanuses, tumescent, tutelages, umbrettes, unfetters, unsettled, unsettles, untethers, upsetters, usherette. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Usage: Commercial 3. Images: Slideshow 4. Usage Frequency | 5. Names: Frequency 6. Expressions: Internet 7. Translations: Modern 8. Translations: Ancient | 9. Derivations 10. Anagrams 11. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
