An Eighteenth-Century Account of Sati: John Zephaniah Holwell's "Religious Tenets of the Gentoos' and "Voluntary Sacrifice' (1767)

Writing in the period 1765-79, John Zephaniah Holwell, temporary governor of Bengal, was one of the first British writers to attempt a scholarly engagement with Hinduism. Despite being an important source for several Enlightenment writers, his work has been misrepresented by current scholarship. In particular, his account of voluntary sacrifice', or sati, has been misunderstood as an example of eighteenth-century rationalism. This article will correct this by situating the account in a much fuller appreciation of Holwell's project', which can be broadly understood as an attempt to reconcile his own heterodox Christianity with what he termed Gentoo' doctrines. It will show how Holwell's insistence on the essential truth of metempsychosis' reveals an account of sati that is far more invested in presenting a particular reading of Indian religious principles than has hitherto been appreciated. This analysis challenges certain assumptions in the historiography of eighteenth-century European encounters with India, with a particular emphasis on intellectual culture.