To the sacrifice of widows mounting the pyre of sandalwood,doused with oil ,camphor and perfume,the head of there husband poised in there lap or clutching his turban close to there body when he has died far from home in some battlefield,can be added another form of feminine immolation voluntary .This is the JAUHAR or collective suicide of women from royal and princely families,in times of war.
Evoking the companions of these brave souls and praising the strength of spirit and the nobility of the woman,TOD notes in his Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan,where numerous litany of Satis and the Jauhars,tirelessly repeated “In each stage of life ,death is ready to claim her;by the poppy at its dawn ,by the flames in ripe years..”
In the year 1303 chittor witnessed its first Jauhar ,James Tod wrote..... “Through these abodes of silence,a rugged path leads to the sequestered spot in a deep cleft of the rock,where there is a living fountain called the Gao mooch or cow mouth under the shade of an umbrageous Burr tree this was the scene of the awful Jauhur ,on the occation of Ala-ud-din sacking chittor“. In the year 1535 ,then in 1568, the city once again fell fell into the hands of conquering muslims,becoming the stage of terrible slaughters as well as a place of mass cremations where wild flames raged from countless infernos.
Describing the Padmini Jauhar of 1303 Todd wrote”….The funeral pyre was lighted within the ‘great subterranean retreat’,in chambers impervious to the light of day ,and the defenders of chittor beheld in procession the queen ,their own wives and daughters ,to the number of several thousands.The fair Padmini closed the throng ,which was augmented by every female beauty or youth which could be Tartar Lust. They were conveyed to the cavern ,and the opening closed upon them ,leaving them to find security from dishonour in the devouring element.”
