Prajapati Daksha is the manasputra or son created from the mind of Brahma to seed creation. He was married to Prasuti, the daughter of Manu and Shatarupa. They had many daughters and the youngest of them is Sati. The word sati means truthful and virtuous in Sanskrit.
Sati was beautiful and charming. Since her childhood, she was fascinated by stories from Narada, the celestial bard who would narrate them to the children of the household. Stories related to Shiva fascinated her, and she became an ardent devotee. She wanted to marry only Shiva.
Sati left the luxuries of her father's palace and retired to a forest in the Himalayas to devote herself to austerities of a hermetic life and the worship of Shiva. She went into deep meditation and gave up food and water. Her clothes decayed; exposed to nature she braved the harshest weather conditions, snow, and rain. This abstinence gave her the name Uma and Aparna. Shiva ultimately pleased with her devotion agreed to marry her.
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| Sati Reasoning With Her Father Daksha |
Daksha abhorred Shiva’s ascetic life where he roamed in crematoriums, smeared his body with ash, friends with goblin and ghosts, was dirty, wild, and hardly wore any cloth or jewelry. He abhorred attachment and was not able to show love or have a family. Daksha was against this marriage. But he conceded to the adamant daughter and married her off. This day is celebrated as Mahashivratri. She left with her husband to stay in Kailash. Daksha could not reconcile to the fact that Shiva was his son-in-law and excommunicated them from the rest of the family.
Soon after, Daksha arranged a big yagna, a fire sacrifice. He invited all kings, noblemen, sages, gods, his other children. He intentionally did not extend the invite to Sati and Shiva. On learning about the gig event, Sati wanted to visit. After all, a family member doesn’t need an invitation. This would also be her first visit to her parent's house after her marriage. Shiva refused to go and asked her not to visit her father's palace. Shiva told her that she will be insulted and humiliated. Sati would not listen and decided to visit her father. Shiva sent a troop of his gana to escort her on the journey.
Daksha on seeing Sati come uninvited to the yagna, became furious and hurled insults. Sati tried to reason, tell him how happy she was and how good their marriage was. Daksha was in no mood and continued to hurl abuses at Shiva in front of all the guests. Many guests also joined their host in ridiculing Shiva.
Sati could take no more. She told her father that she would not keep the body her parents gave her. In a rage, she jumped into the fire of yagna. She cursed everyone present that their pride will be destroyed by her husband Shiva.
Hearing the news of Sati’s death, Shiva was filled with rage. He came to the palace and started his dance of destruction, rudra tandava. He tore two locks of his hair and threw them on the ground. From one lock arose Veerabhadra, Shiva's destructive incarnation and from the second lock of hair arose Bhadrakali, an extremely violent incarnation of the Supreme Goddess. They destroyed everything. Daksha’s head was decapitated and burnt in the fire pit of the yagna.
Read about the Tandav in https://acceleratetofly.blogspot.com/2021/12/tandav.html
Later, Shiva's anger cooled down, forgave Daksha and brought him back to life, but with a ram’s head. All others were restored. Daksha having spared of his life, offered oblations to Shiva.
Shiva, in deep grief, picked up the burned corpse of his beloved wife on his shoulder and wandered about the world. The unattached ascetic was now attached to the corpse. Vishnu restored calm and rid of Shiva's attachment by severing Sati's body into multiple pieces with his Sudarshan Chakra or divine discus. Sati's severed body parts fell in various places that we know as Shakti Peethas.
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| Shiva Carrying The Corpse Of Sati |
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| Suttee, by James Atkinson 1831 |
Suttee is a medieval Hindu practice in which a widow sacrificed herself by sitting atop her deceased husband's funeral pyre. This is an illegal practice and is banned in India. Although the story of the goddess Sati is that of a wife who dies by her own volition on fire, this is not a case of the practice of suttee. The goddess was not widowed, and the myth is quite unconnected with the justifications for the practice.