In English, a widow burned alive on the funeral pyre of her dead husband is called a "suttee"; in Sanskrit and Hindi texts, she is a "sati" or "good woman." All over India are sati stones that ...

Suttee, banned by the British in 1829, is still deeply revered by some rural communities, where it is seen as the ultimate act of fidelity.

Siva, the many-ratured and versatile god of destruction, is doing a land-office business in Jodhpur these days. Ever since the Hindu widow Sugan Kunwar Singh flung herself sacrificially—and ...