Sati: A Widow Entering the Funeral Pyre

This line drawing depicts a scene of sati, the historical practice of widow burning. A woman wearing an ornate headdress, long tunic, and jewelry stands calmly within the flames with her hands held high in a gesture of resignation or prayer. Beside her, a man lies supine on the pyre. In the lower-left foreground, four men in traditional Indian garments and turbans observe the scene; some have their hands raised as if in mourning, ritual performance, or distress. The composition uses simple, expressive lines to suggest heat and movement in the fire while maintaining a somber, detached quality. Two rectangular frames are embedded within the lower portion of the image, containing Persian script.

This image illustrates the ritual practice of 'sati' (the immolation of a widow upon her husband's funeral pyre), a subject frequently documented by European chroniclers and historians in the 19th century to represent 'primitive' or 'socially regressive' aspects of Indian culture. It reflects the colonial-era preoccupation with categorizing and critiquing the social structures of colonized peoples as found in broad, encyclopedic world histories like Ridpath's.