The custom of Sati

[Full title: Other Religious Beliefs and Customs (during the Pallava period): Sati]

It is interesting to know that the earliest sculptural evidence of this period throws light on the custom of sati from a number of panels (fig. 58) found from places such as Munnur, Manimangalam, Tenneri, Madhurantakam, Uttaramerur (Merkat/ti Amman temple), Ukkal and Brahmadesam. These panels portray in a single line images of Brahma, Siva in the form of a linga, Parvati, Vishnu in his Narasimha aspect, Lakshmi in the form of a Srivatsa with a human head, Subrahmanya and an abstract figure carved on a lotus–in the form of a shaft with a split at the top crowned by fire or palm like representation. The abstract figure was identified by R. Nagaswamy as representing the lady, who committed sati. These panels on stylistic grounds were dated by scholars such as Nagaswamy to 7^th–8^th century A.D., and thus it speaks of the prevalence of this practice in this period. The arrangement of deities in these panels found from various places was not always uniform. For example, the sculptural panel from the Chandesvara shrine in the Siva temple at Madhurantakam is interesting and varied, when compared with the above panels. The panel starts with three standing images identified as Brahma, Vishnu with Srivatsa (Lakshmi-narayana) and Ardhanarisiva, by a Siva linga and Parvati with a standing image of Subrahmanya in the middle and finally by an image of Ganapati and Jyestha-devi. This is followed by the depiction of an abstract deity representing the lady who committed Sati, followed by an image of couple, standing with their arms in anjali pose. Thus, these panels indicative of sati expounds itself of the prevelance of worshipping multitude deities and the catholicity of the times.