Joining the Leader in Death Phenomenon Essay

1. Introduction History is replete with incidences of group or mass self inflicted deaths following the demise of powerful leaders. In such instances followers, in varying numbers, chose to die, of their own will, either after or on foreseeing the death of their leader. While group or mass deaths of this nature have occurred at historically different times in dissimilar cultures and globally diverse locations, and have been appropriately recorded in historical documents, the evolution of anthropological studies in the last century has led to significant research into the subject. Researchers have delved into the traditions, social customs, mores, behavioral motivators and demotivators of people of different civilizations and regions to locate commonality and establish reasons for this kind of uncommon, if not deviant behavior. These studies have become increasingly relevant in the current social and religious scenario where instances of mass suicides have occurred in cults, involving hundreds of members, who, along with their leaders, have chosen to die painful and self inflicted deaths for illogical, inexplicable and emotional reasons. The Jonestown suicides of 1978 and the deaths of the members of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God in 2000 were particularly tragic and gruesome episodes, in which hundreds of people along with their leaders, died. It is evident that such irrational tendencies still exist, even in advanced western societies. Anthropologists and historians firmly believe that serious and detailed investigation into such incidents, with particular emphasis upon the then prevailing social, environmental, political, economic, and historical conditions, could well provide clues to the reasons behind such uncommon behavior and help in preventing such tragedies in future. (Wessinger, 2000) This paper aims to examine the historical precedents of such incidents and takes up one particular incident for detailed social and anthropological analysis. 2. Historical Overview Psychiatrists commonly think of potentially suicidal people to be unhappy about their current physical and emotional situation and undecided about the path to be followed to resolve the crisis. Suicide is resorted to as a simple and easy solution to their problems and plays the role of a convenient exit. Individual suicides accompanied or preceded by such reasoning is exceedingly common, and though tragic, is, in a number of societies, a routine occurrence among disturbed and underprivileged people. Its incidence, in the developed nations, is still high in certain segments like mentally ill individuals, prisoners, prostitutes, drug addicts and HIV patients. Mass or group suicides following the death or defeat of a leader, while being far more uncommon than individual suicides, have, nevertheless occurred on a number of occasions, more particularly so in specific cultures. While historical instances of groups of people joining their leaders in death, have occurred periodically there is very little to connect these disparate incidents apart from defeat and dishonor in war and, in the case of women, the desire to avoid consequent rape and molestation. During the closing years of the 2nd century BCE, the Teutons, after a series of bloody battles were defeated by the Roman General Gaius Marius, (in 102 BCE), near Aix-en-Provence, and their leader Teutobod captured. The captured women, thinking their king dead and certain of being ravaged by Roman soldiers committed suicide. Ironically the Teutons were the cause of a similar episode in 1336 at the siege of Pilena. The defenders, besieged by the marauding Teutons, joined their leader, Duke Marqueris in death when they realized that the battle was lost. The defenders set the castle on fire and committed mass suicide along with their leader rather than be captured by the invaders. (Purkiss, 1996) In India, both men and women of the warrior classes of the Indian region of Rajasthan have traditionally adopted to commit suicide after the death of their leader. Women, especially, the wives and concubines of the king have, until recent times followed the ancient tradition of immolating themselves on the funeral pyre of their husbands. The custom, known as Sati, while illegal, is still followed in particularly backward areas of the region. Chittor, now an abandoned fortress in West India became famous because of three separate incidents in which hundreds of men and women killed themselves after the death of their leader. Chittor has been overcome thrice and each time the outcome was Jauhar, when women along with their children immolated themselves on huge funeral pyres on the death or capture of their leader, while the men, wearing ochre robes attacked the enemy and faced certain death. Alauddin Khilji overpowered Chittor in 1303 A. D. , overcome by an obsessive longing to own the regal beauty, queen Padmini. Myth has it, that he saw her face in the reflection of a mirror and was struck by her gripping exquisiteness. The queen, along with her attendants, however chose to follow her dead king rather than accept the invaders proposition jumped on to a huge funeral pyre lit in the middle of the castle and burned to death. In 1533 A. D. , during the rule of Bikramjeet, Bahadur Shah, the Sultan of Gujarat, attacked Chittor and once more Karnavati, the then queen, along with more than a hundred women preferred to die following the death of the ruler. The final episode occurred more than 30 years later when the Mughal emperor Akbar attacked the fortress. In Rajasthan such incidences of joining the leader in death had certain particular features. Episodes necessarily commenced with the siege of a force by an invading army and ended in mass death only if the invading army was successful. Once it was certain that the war was lost and the king was dead or would certainly die the warriors and their wives decided to end their lives, the men through suicidal attacks on the enemy and the women by leaping into enormous funeral pyres. The women were led in this effort by the queen of the fortress. It is important to understand that this practice was restricted only to the warrior classes and did not extend to the priests, the traders, the farmers or the other classes. Tales of invading armies entering deserted and lifeless stories are apocryphal and baseless as warriors and their families did not account for more than a quarter of the total population of a city. It also needs to be pointed out that acts like these had very little mythical precedent and ancient Hindu scriptures, like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, do not contain any such incidents. Incidentally the opposite appears to be more true and there are various instances in the Ramayana of the wife of the King choosing to marry the invader after the defeat and death of her husband. (Harlan, 2003) This paper attempts to recreate the social and cultural scenario within the fort when Queen Padmini and hundreds of other men and women chose to die after the death of the King Rawal Ratan and the fall of Chittor. The following section on Chittor is written in the present tense and from the perspective of an active observer of the complete episode. 3. Chittor a. Society Chittor, today, (in the early fourteenth century), is one of the many Hindu kingdoms that dot the desert plains of Rajasthan in the North West region of the Indian subcontinent. Orthodox Hinduism, over the first ten centuries of period that commenced after the birth of Jesus Christ, has succeeded in eliminating Buddhism from the land of its birth only to see it replaced by an aggressive Islam beating at its doors with unabated fury. Waves of Islamic soldiers have lashed at the borders of the Indian states for the last five hundred years until the establishment of Islamic rule at Delhi. Despite Islamic sovereignty a number of small Hindu kingdoms continue to exist, mostly in the west and south, often waging protracted battles with the rulers of Delhi. While a certain amount of integration between Hindus and Muslims has taken place with time, it is still too early for any such constructive rapprochement to occur in Chittor. Years of siege, first from an ever expanding Buddhism, and then from a militant Islam, has made structured Hindu society insular, orthodox and inward looking. The caste system has become rigid and religious laws and rules govern every aspect of society. Hindus are prohibited from marrying outside their castes and even the glimpse of a Muslim is considered sacrilege, requiring inflexible and strict penance. The Muslim practice of†purdah† has been adopted comprehensively by the Hindus, ironically to protect Hindu women from male Muslim eyes and women remain indoors most of the time. While every city has its share of courtesans, women do not work. They are deprived of economic or political power, being content to be glorified as mothers, sisters and wives. Society is structured into four main castes, the priests, warriors, traders and lower classes. Political and military power lies with the warriors and to a certain extent with the priesthood who are consulted by the kings and nobles before important decisions. The traders, despite their lower status, are economically powerful and kept in good humor by both the nobles and the priests. The warriors are bound by a strict code of honor, which in fact has been the main causal factor behind hundreds of members of the warrior community choosing to die after defeat in battle and the death of their leader. b. Politics and Religion Chittor, in the early years of the fourteenth century is one of the smaller Hindu kingdoms resisting the Islamic emperors occupying the throne at Delhi. The warrior classes of Chittor trace their lineage for centuries and, apart from being engaged in ongoing strife with the Delhi throne, constantly wag war against the other Hindu kings in the region. It is also not uncommon for Hindu kings to form alliances with the Muslim emperor and wage war against each other. The political scenario is extremely fluid, (much like medieval Europe), and with numerous kings and noble existing in uneasy alliances, war often breaks out over trivial reasons. While the official religion of the Delhi court is Islam, and correspondence is usually in Arabic, migration of traders, artisans and workers ensure that Hindus and Muslims coexist, albeit with a certain amount of resentment and antagonism. Sati, the practice of self immolation by women on the death of their husbands, is a common practice in Hindu states. The practice is prevalent more among the priestly and martial classes and is practically absent in the other castes and the aboriginals. The prevalence of Sati among the priests and warriors is due to the traditionally inferior status of women and their uselessness to society in the absence of child bearing potential. As such while wives are looked upon as necessary because of their capacity to bear children, widows are thought to be non contributing burdens. (Harlan, 2003) A widow’s unwanted status is also because of religious taboos that prevent her from participating in domestic chores as her touch, her voice, and even her appearance is thought unholy, impure and to be shunned and abhorred. The sanctification of virginity in brides also makes it practically impossible for them to remarry after the death of their husbands. As such the practice of immolation is an extreme but logical outcome of these circumstances. The priests and the warrior classes of Rajasthan have also perpetrated the tradition by providing it with a halo of honor and deifying women who chose to take this route. The episode that occurred in Chittor before my eyes in the early years of this century (the 1300s) and involved hundreds of men and women joining their leader in death needs to be analyzed in light of the existing social and political environment in order to obtain an appropriate perspective. c. Joining the Leader in Death The ruler of Chittor, Rana Rawal Ratan married the young Padmini, the daughter of a Rajasthani prince, when he was in his early teens, and she was yet to enter her adolescence. In accordance with existing tradition the bride continued to live in her paternal home until she reached puberty and Rawal Ratan brought her to Chittor with much fanfare on her fourteenth birthday. Padmini was an acknowledged beauty and became a much appreciated princess as she grew up, known in princely circles for her exquisite looks, aristocratic breeding and regal demeanor. When Rawal Ratan succeeded to the throne of Chittor in the closing years of the thirteenth century she took her place by his side in an extravagant ceremony attended by princes from all over India as well as nobles from the Delhi throne. It was this ceremony that led to further speculation and gossip about Queen Padmini and aroused the curiosity of Sultan Alauddin Khilji at Delhi. Rawal Ratan was known to be a fair and just king and, apart from his well known love for Padmini, was a patron of the arts. One of his court musicians, banished from Chittor because of his involvement in witchcraft, ingratiated himself with Alauddin Khilji, and persuading the Sultan of the ethereal beauty of the queen Padmini incited him to attack Chittor and take the queen for himself. On reaching Chittor, Alauddin found the fort to be heavily defended. Desperate to see the legendary queen he sent a missive to the King that he thought of Padmini as his sister and wished to make her acquaintance. While the unsuspecting king did not find any reason to doubt Alauddin’s intentions, the wiser queen refused to meet the sultan personally and instead agreed for him to see her reflection in a specially constructed mirror. The wily sultan came to the fort with his selected warriors, and after the meeting with the queen, managed to kidnap the king even as he was escorting them back to the gate. On the following day when the Chittor generals heard about the ransom demand, that of the hand of the queen for the sultan, in exchange for the safe release of the king, the Chittor generals went into a huddle, and with the assent of the queen, sent word that the queen would come to the sultan the next day along with a hundred and fifty attendants. At the crack of dawn the next morning a hundred and fifty palanquins, each carried by four strong men wound their way to Alauddin’s camp and stopped in front of the tent where the king was being held prisoner. As the sultan rejoiced a hundred and fifty armed men rushed out of the palanquins before his astonished eyes, freed the king and along with the bearers galloped back to Chittor on horses seized from the sultan’s stables. A furious Alauddin ordered his army to storm Chittor, Brutal resistance from the defenders of the fort led to the decision to lay siege to the fort, an operation that carried on for many months until dangerously low supplies forced the honor bound warriors to take a decision to storm the vastly larger sultan’s armies in what could only lead to certain death. The queen, who was party to all the confabulations, decided that as the army, led by her husband rode out to certain death, she, along with the wives of the warring soldiers and all the children would jump into a huge fire lit in the centre of the fort and end their lives, thus joining the king in death. Rawal Ratan and his warriors, though immensely saddened agreed to this to be the most fitting and honorable denouement. At the end of a brutal and bloody battle fought between the troops of the Delhi Sultanate and the suicidal warriors of Chittor, Alauddin entered the fort only to find the ashes of the queen and the wives of the warriors, a pyrrhic victory, if ever there was one. (Bose, 2000) 4. Conclusion The instance of Padmini, her female attendants and the wives of the warriors of Chittor, joining the leader in death has been chronicled a number of times by various historians for it to be reasonably accurate. While the case of male warriors following the leader into certain death has taken place on many occasions, instances of women dying en masse are rare, and occur because of specific historical and environmental reasons. Anthropologists feel that in most such cases the persona of the leader, his mesmeric hold over his followers, and the accompanying trauma and desolation felt at the death of the leader induce the followers to embrace death and join their leader. A number of instances, including the suicides of some of Hitler’s trusted generals, provide some evidence that the argument could hold some merit. In the case of Padmini while legend and myth continue to pay obeisance to her love for her husband, the mass deaths, especially of the attending ladies, necessarily needs to have a more significant historical and social reason. The decision to embrace mass death at the fall of the fort and the certain death of the king Rawal Ratan is most probably due to a number of reasons, chief among them being the prevalent practice of sati and the halo of honor that the act had acquired over the centuries. This halo of honor has to be seen in the light of the compulsions of Islamic rule in India during the medieval ages and is essentially logical and in accordance with social patterns and expectations. From the 13th century until the establishment of the British Empire, the position of women continued to remain insecure due to the arbitrary power structure associated with the feudal society, and the compulsions of perpetuating a male dominated inherently unequal society. Even though the Mughals tried to bring in a modicum of gender equality the subservient status of women continued to exist until the middle of the twentieth century. It was most probably this craving for honor, accompanied with a genuine fear of the treatment that the women would receive at the hands of the furious invading soldiers that tilted the scales in favor of the decision to embrace death to that of joining Alauddin’s harem. In any case the episode remains one of the more abiding instances of joining the leader in death phenomenon and continues to intrigue historians and anthropologists. Pages: 10 Word Count: 3000 References Bose, M. (Ed. ). (2000). 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