The Institution of Sati in India

Sati is funeral practice among some Hindu communities in which a recently-widowed woman would immolate herself on her husband's funeral pyre. Voluntary death at funerals has been described in northern India before the Gupta empire. The original practices were called anumarana, and were uncommon. Anumarana was not comparable to later understandings of sati, since the practices were not resticted to windows - rather, anyone, male or female, with personal loyalty to the deceased could commit suicide at a loved one's funeral.