SUTTEE IN ANCIENT AND MODERN INDIA 71 of the Rig -Veda, and the solution of the question de- pends largely upon how we are to interpret certain verses of the Funeral Hymn in the tenth book of that collection; but the practice is certainly alluded to in the great Indian epics, Mahabharata and Ramayana, and is frequently mentioned in the later Sanskrit lit- erature belonging to the classical period. On foreign authority, moreover, we can vouch for its existence as early as the fourth century before the Christian era, judging from the sources to which Diodoros Sikelos went back; and during all periods of India's history there is abundant material to show the prevalence of the custom throughout the land, as suttee is a subject regarding which much would naturally be written. 1 The abolition of the terrible practice was due to the action of the British government in 1829 - 1830, dur- ing the Indian administration of Lord Bentinck, whose name will always be connected with this beneficent act for the advancement of the cause of humanity in India, and with it likewise will be associated that of the native ruler, Raja Ram Mohun Roy, who lent his sup- port to the reform. Although forbidden by legislature, sporadic instances of the practice of suttee nevertheless occurred long afterwards, and as recently as November, 1905, the Indian newspapers of Lahore, in Northern Hindustan, reported the fact that a wretched woman in one of the outlying districts had thus perished in the flames a sacrifice to an ancient fanatical custom, 1 Consult, for example, the references in Yule, Hobson-Jobson, article " Suttee," and look up the allusions given by Lanman, Sanskrit Reader, p. 382.
