Do you like to burn your wife alive?
Few reliable records exist of the practice before the time of the Gupta empire, approximately 400 AD. After about this time, instances of sati began to be marked by inscribed memorial stones. The earliest of these are found in Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, though the largest collections date from several centuries later, and are found in Rajasthan. These stones, called devli, or sati-stones, became shrines to the dead woman, who was treated as an object of reverence and worship. They are most common in western
Muslims made attempts to save Hindu women!
In the
Humayun issued a royal fiat against sati, which he later withdrew.
Guru Nanak, the first Guru of the Sikhs spoke out against the practice of sati.
On 4 December 1829, the practice was formally banned in the Bengal Presidency lands, by the then governor, Lord William Bentinck
Following the outcry after the Sati of Roop Kanwar,[44] the Indian Government enacted the Rajasthan Sati Prevention Ordinance, 1987 on October 1, 1987[45] and later passed the Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987.[6]
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sati_(practice)