johar

alternative jauhar · alternative juhar

1. historicaluncountableThe Rajput practice whereby women are sacrificed in a fire to avoid their being captured by an enemy.

   Soon, light from three large fires illuminated the darkness. This was johar: the Rajputs were collectively burning their families rather than have them captured and tortured.

   2003, Paul K Davis, Besieged, page 112

   2 more examples

   Probably the most famous immolation of women was the johar, or mass suicide, at Fort Chittor in the thirteenth century, when the Rajput women in the fort were burned to avoid being captured by a licentious Mogul invader.

   1993, Leigh Minturn, Sita's Daughters, page 230

   No flames here, though; the last ones were quenched over two hundred years ago when Rani Padmini and her women jumped into the johar fires the day Alauddin Khilji captured Chittor.

   1997, Kiran Nagarkar, Cuckold, HarperCollins, published 2013, page 10