Diodorus Siculus on One Indian Rite
Bongard-Levin Grigoriy M., Koshelenko Gennadiy A.
The authors analyse Diodorus’ account of self-immolation in 317 BC of a young widow of an Indian general killed in a battle between the army of Antigonus Monophthalmus and the coalition of satraps of the eastern regions of Alexander's former empire, with Eumenes in its head. Comparing Diodorus’ information with Indian sources one can see that he describes a well-known rite of sati, which survived almost to the present time. The authors prove that the information was borrowed by Diodorus from Hieronymus of Cardia. Other ancient writers mentioning the custom of self-immolation of widows in India confirm full reliability of Diodorus’ text in this respect. The value of Diodorus’ account consists in the fact that he gives the only detailed description of the rite in the ancient literature and puts it in historical prospective, showing the changes of social mentality. Special value of Hieronymus’ account rendered by Diodorus consists in the fact that it is the first full description of the rite, helping us to understand the evidence of Indian written tradition.