Editing Human sacrifice (section)

===Indian subcontinent===
[[File:Camunda5.JPG|thumb|upright|Fierce goddesses like [[Chamunda]] are recorded to have been offered human sacrifice.]]

In India, human sacrifice is mainly known as ''Narabali''. Here "nara" means human and "bali" means sacrifice. It takes place in some parts of India mostly to find lost treasure. In [[Maharashtra]], the government made it illegal to practice with the [[Anti-Superstition and Black Magic Act]]. Currently human sacrifice is very rare in modern India.<ref>{{cite news |title=Indian cult kills children for goddess |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=5 March 2006 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/mar/05/india.theobserver}}</ref> There have been at least three cases through 2003–2013 where men have been murdered allegedly in the name of human sacrifice.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2892333.stm | work=BBC News | first=Mahesh | last=Pandey | title=Priest 'makes human sacrifice' | date=27 March 2003}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.wishesh.com/kollywood/top-stories/27650-dalit-burnt-to-death-it%E2%80%99s-human-sacrifice,-says-family.html | title=Dalit burnt to death; it's human sacrifice, says family! &#124; Top Stories | date=27 March 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8624269.stm | work=BBC News | first=Subir | last=Bhaumik | title=India 'human sacrifice' suspected | date=16 April 2010}}</ref>
	
[[Thuggee]]s, or thugs, were an organized gang of professional [[Robbery|robbers]] and [[murder]]ers who traveled in groups across the [[Indian subcontinent]] for several hundred years.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bates |first1=Crispin |title=Human Sacrifice in Colonial Central India: Myth, Agency and Representation |date=January 2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=19–54 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273793676}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=The Thuggee |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/thuggee |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia.com}}</ref> They were first mentioned in [[Ziauddin Barani|Ẓiyā'-ud-Dīn Baranī's]] {{no wrap|''Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi''}} ({{langx|en|History of Fīrūz Shāh}}) dated around 1356.<ref name="thuggee-britannica">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Thug |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/thug |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica|date=2 February 2024 }}</ref> Thugs would join travellers and gain their confidence. This would allow them to then surprise and strangle them by tossing a handkerchief or noose around their necks. They would then rob the bodies of valuables and bury them. This led them to also be called ''Phansigar'' ({{langx|en|using a [[noose]]}}), a term more commonly used in southern India.<ref name="RussellLai1995">{{cite book |first1=R.V. |last1=Russell |first2=R.B.H. |last2=Lai |year=1995 |title=The tribes and castes of the central provinces of India |publisher=Asian Educational Services |isbn=978-81-206-0833-7 |page=559 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=76c1VSYnPE0C&pg=PA559 |access-date=19 April 2011}}</ref>

Regarding possible [[Vedic]] mention of human sacrifice, the prevailing 19th-century view, associated above all with [[Henry Colebrooke]], was that human sacrifice did not actually take place. Those verses which referred to ''[[purushamedha]]'' were meant to be read symbolically,<ref name="VD">{{Cite book |last1=van Kooij |first1=K.R. |last2=Houben |first2=Jan E.M. |year=1999 |title=Violence denied: Violence, non-violence and the rationalization of violence in South Asian cultural history |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden, NL |pages=117, 123, 129, 164, 212, 269 |isbn=90-04-11344-4}}</ref> or as a "priestly fantasy". However, [[Rajendralal Mitra]] published a defence of the thesis that human sacrifice, as had been practised in [[Bengal]], was a continuation of traditions dating back to Vedic periods.<ref name="Bremmer">{{cite book |author=Bremmer, J.N. |date=31 December 2007 |title=The Strange World of Human Sacrifice |publisher=Peeters Akademik |location=Leuven |page=159 |isbn=978-90-429-1843-6}}</ref> [[Hermann Oldenberg]] held to Colebrooke's view; but [[Jan Gonda]] underlined its disputed status.{{cn|date=July 2024}}
[[File:Thugs Strangling Traveller.jpg|thumb|180px|left|A group of [[Thuggee]]s strangling a traveller on a highway in India in the early 19th century.]]
Human and animal sacrifice became less common during the post-Vedic period, as ''ahimsa'' (non-violence) became part of mainstream religious thought. The [[Chandogya Upanishad]] (3.17.4) includes ahimsa in its list of virtues.<ref name="VD"/> The impact of Sramanic religions such as Buddhism and Jainism also became known in the Indian subcontinent.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

In the 7th century, [[Banabhatta]], in a description of the dedication of a temple of [[Chandi]]ka, describes a series of human sacrifices; similarly, in the 9th century, [[Haribhadra (Seng-ge Bzang-po)|Haribhadra]] describes the sacrifices to Chandika in [[Odisha]].<ref name="NC">{{Cite book|editor=Hastings, James |editor-link=James Hastings |title=Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, vol 9. |publisher=Kessenger Publishing |year=2003 |pages=15, 119 |isbn=0-7661-3680-9|title-link=Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics }}</ref> The town of [[Kuknur]] in North Karnataka there exists an ancient [[Kali]] temple, built around the 8-9th century CE, which has a history of human sacrifices.<ref name="NC"/>
Human sacrifice is reputed to have been performed on the altars of the [[Hatimura Temple]], a [[Shakti]] (Great Goddess) temple located at [[Silghat]], in the [[Nagaon]] district of [[Assam]]. It was built during the reign of king [[Pramatta Singha]] in 1667 ''[[Saka era|Sakabda]]'' (1745–1746 CE). It used to be an important center of [[Shaktism]] in ancient Assam. Its presiding goddess is [[Durga]] in her aspect of ''[[Mahisamardini]]'', slayer of the demon Mahisasura. It was also performed in the [[Tamresari Temple]] which was located in [[Sadiya]] under the [[Chutiya kingdom|Chutia kings]].{{cn|date=July 2024}}
[[File:Suttee. Wellcome V0041335.jpg|thumb|[[Sati (practice)|Suttee]]-Wife burning with her dead husband]]
Open human sacrifices were carried out in connection with the worship of Shakti until approximately the early modern period, and in [[Bengal]] perhaps as late as the early 19th century.<ref name="Lipner"/><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=atapur |first=Alex Perry |date=22 July 2002 |title=Killing for 'Mother' Kali |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,322673,00.html |access-date=14 January 2024 |magazine=Time |language=en-US |issn=0040-781X}}</ref> Although not accepted by larger section of [[Hindu culture]]{{citation needed|date=January 2024}} certain Tantric cults performed human sacrifice until around the same time, both actual and symbolic; it was a highly ritualised act, and on occasion took many months to complete.<ref name="Lipner">{{Cite book|author=Lipner, Julius |title=Hindus: their religious beliefs and practices |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |year=1994 |pages=185, 236 |isbn=0-415-05181-9|author-link=Julius J. Lipner }}</ref> An occasional ritual murder, to Kali, periodically appears in the contemporary press.<ref>{{Cite news |last=McDougall |first=Dan |date=5 March 2006 |title=Indian cult kills children for goddess |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/mar/05/india.theobserver |access-date=14 January 2024 |work=The Observer |language=en-GB |issn=0029-7712}}</ref>

The free or forced burning of widows, in a Vedic practise known as [[Sati (practise)|Sati]], was noted during Alexander's invasion, of 327 BCE. A practice that was codified during the Gupta empire, and later prohibited, in Bengal via [[Bengal Sati Regulation, 1829]], later across India, the last explicit legislation, in India, being the [[Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=23 April 2023 |title=Sati: How the fight to ban burning of widows in India was won |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-65311042 |access-date=14 January 2024 |language=en-GB}}</ref>