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Historical view of a widow burning in East India. Widow burning, also called sati, is a femicide in Hindu religious communities in which women are burned. Widow burnings were most common in India, but they also occurred in Bali and Nepal. In a widow burning in India, the widow is burned at the stake with her husband's body. Some of the women who cremated with their husbands' bodies were held in high esteem after their deaths and some were worshiped as gods. Her family also gained high esteem. Originally, wives of princely families who died in battle killed themselves in this way, possibly to avoid falling into enemy hands. The burning of widows, initially intended as suicide, was demanded in many sections of the population over the course of time. Widow burning was particularly common among the Kshatriya castes, such as the Rajputs of northern India, where it still occurs today. Wood engraving after a drawing of Arthur Wanjura by Heinrich Merté (German painter and illustrator, 1838 - 1917), published in 1885.