Heroic Wives (Rituals, Stories, and The Virtues of Jain Wifehood

Hinduism, the term sati, although it is mainly used to refer to widow immolation, means "true woman''-a female hero. In Jainism satis appear as subjects of devotional hymns. This seems paradoxical, given that Jain spirituality teaches disengagement from worldly existence and Jain devotionalism is usually directed toward those souls who have reached perfect detachment. Being a good Jain woman involves negotiating between the mutually exclusive ideologies found in the South Asian discourse of devoted wifehood and in the Jain discourse of renunciation.