Nav Sati

Celebrated during the months of March-April, the Nav Sati is organized with pomp and glory every year in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India.

Nav Sati is observed to honor the memory of those brave Rathore queens who committed sati on the pyres of their husbands or died in mass johars when they heard of their husbands' death in the battlefield.

The Bilara Tehsil of Jodhpur springs to life during the Nav Sati festivities that remembers all those queens and brave Rajputanis who died to keep their honor, pride and devotion. Thousands of women come from all over Rajasthan to be a part of the Nav Sati festival. Women take a dip in the Ban Ganga River before beginning to participate in the community rituals that mark the Nav Sati festival.

There are several legends associated with the custom of Sati and Rajput women in the medieval ages considered it as an honor to be able to immolate themselves on the pyres of the deceased husbands - a sign of eternal love, piety, purity and undying devotion.

Rajputs pray to Sati who is believed to be an incarnation of the Goddess Durga who sacrificed herself for her lord. Different forms of Sati, Sati Anusuya, Sati Savitri and Sati Nag Kanya are worshipped as symbols of purity and sacrifice by the Hindus in Rajasthan and India.