<P> Sati or suttee is an obsolete funeral custom where a widow immolates herself on her husband's pyre or commits suicide in another fashion shortly after her husband's death . </P> <P> Mention of the practice can be dated back to the 1st century BC, while evidence of practice by widows of kings only appears beginning between the 5th and 9th centuries AD . The practice is considered to have originated within the warrior aristocracy in India, gradually gaining in popularity from the 10th century AD and spreading to other groups from the 12th through 18th century AD . The practice was particularly prevalent among some Hindu communities, observed in aristocratic Sikh families, and has been attested to outside South Asia in a number of localities in Southeast Asia, such as in Indonesia and Vietnam . </P>

In india woman once burned at husband's pyre