ousness led to the creation of a profound sense of organic order in the field of plastic form and structure; this order was quite different from the Euclidian harmony of the West. We have also seen how this frequently led to the artificial inducement of ecstasy when the stability or health of the society was seriously threatened. Beyond a certain point such techniques are incapable of further development, and lead only to confusion, morbidity, or madness. Yet while India remained in a state of equilibrium and health, the intuitive, aesthetic sense of order nurtured a subtle and life-fulfilling culture (Lannoy, 1974, p. 76).
It would appear that the Hindu approach to life, ahistorical yet conservative in its repressive caste system, is suited to the practice of suttee, which is an ultimate expression of absorption in otherworldly matters and heedless of the attraction of the phenomenal world. Yet from the modern perspective, the practice of suttee calls into question any blanket assertion that the culture was or is exclusively life-fulfilling.
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