A Sati stone MAHASALIKKAL or MASTIKAL

Sati or Sahagamana is an ancient Indian custom by which a wife burnt herself on the funeral pyre with the corpse of her husband. By so immolating herself it is beleived that she removes all the sins of her family and secures merit for it as well. There are many early instansces of this custom which is mentioned even in Mahabharata, and during Rajput period it became common for a number of women to burn themselves on the pyre. Sometimes even concubines and queens of bad repute did so to free themselves from their sins.

A Sati stone MAHASALIKKAL or MASTIKAL is a memorial stone set up over the place where a faithful wife had committed sati. Such stones show the hand of the sati decked in auspicious bangles suggestive of the fact that she is a woman with her husband alive i.e a sumangali and not a widow. The husband is sometimes shone above adoring the wife.