India / France: 'The Manner in which the Indian Women Cast Themselves into ye Flames...

Sati (also spelled suttee) is an obsolete Hindu funeral custom where a widow immolates herself on her husband's pyre, or commits suicide in another fashion shortly after her husband's death. Mention of the practice can be dated back to the 4th century BCE, while evidence of practice by widows of kings only appears beginning between the 5th and 9th centuries CE. The practice is considered to have originated within the warrior aristocracy on the Indian subcontinent, gradually gaining in popularity from the 10th century CE and spreading to other groups from the 12th through 18th centuries. The practice was particularly prevalent among some Hindu communities, observed in aristocratic Sikh families, and has been attested to outside South Asia in a number of localities in Southeast Asia, such as in Indonesia and Champa.