Sati was a historical practice in which a widow gives the sacrifice of her life after the death of her husband by sitting atop his funeral pyre. During the Early Mughal period, it was connected with the Hindu Rajput people in Western India.

In the early 19th century, the East India Company was about to extend its rule in most of the parts of India, permitted this practice for some time. In the process, William Carey, who was a British Christian evangelist, took a count of 438 deaths within a radius of 48 kilometers due to this practice. He could not tolerate this kind of behavior for widows. In 1803, even though this practice was banned in Calcutta, still many people followed it. Between the years 1815 and 1818, the number of incidents due to Sati doubled from nearly 378 to 839. This practice was opposed by Hindu reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy as well. In 1829, William Carey with the support of Raja Ram Mohan Roy ultimately led the British Governor-General of India to come out with a law to abandon Sati. Bengal Sati Regulation was finally enacted in the year 1829, declaring the practice of burning or burying Hindu widows alive as a punishable act by criminal courts. This was followed by coming up with other laws which were not in favor of women like Female Infanticide, Remarriage for Indian widows, etc.

During the reign of the Mughals, initially, Humayun had tried to put a stop to this practice. After that, even Akbar tried to ban Sati. Women tried to follow this practice voluntarily, he ordered that no women should follow Sati without the permission of the Chief Police Officer.

The myth of the Goddess Sati is that the widow sacrifices her life by her own wish, however, this is not the true practice of Sati. The Goddess of Sati was not widowed, and the myth does not quite justify this practice.