Manu and others, such as 'the bride be richly adorned to celebrate marriage' were ceremonial dress and jewelry along with gifts that were her property, not property demanded by or meant for the groom; Lochtefeld further notes that bridal adornment is not currently considered as dowry in most people's mind. Historical and epigraphical evidence from ancient India suggests dowry was not the standard practice in ancient Hindu society. Arrian of Alexander the Great's conquest era, in his first book, mentions a lack of dowry, or infrequent enough to be noticed by Arrian. Arrian's second book similarly notes, About 1200 years after Arrian's visit, Al-Biruni a Persian scholar who went and lived in India for 16 years in 11th century CE, wrote, Widowhood and remarriage Widows were traditionally expected to pursue a spiritual, ascetic life, particularly the higher castes such as Brahmins. There were restrictions on remarriage as well. The Hindu widows were not allowed to wear jewellery, they had to consume tasteless food, and they had to wear a white coarse saree without choli or blouse covering their breasts. Such restrictions are now strictly observed only by a small minority of widows, yet the belief continues that "a good wife predeceases her husband". During the debate before the passage of the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act, 1856, some communities asserted that it was their ancient custom that prohibited widow remarriage. Hindu scholars and colonial British authorities rejected this argument, states Lucy Carroll, because the alleged custom prohibiting widow remarriage was "far from ancient", and was already in practice among the Hindu communities such as the Rajbansi whose members had petitioned for the prohibition of widow remarriage. Thus, it failed the "customary law" protections under the British colonial era laws. However, this issue lingered in colonial courts for decades, because of the related issue of property left by the deceased husband, and whether the widow keeps or forfeits all rights to deceased Hindu husband's estate and thereby transfers the property from the deceased husband to her new husband. While Hindu community did not object to widow remarriage, it contested the property rights and transfer of property from her earlier husband's family to the later husband's family, particularly after the death of the remarried widow, in the 20th-century. Sati Sati is an obsolete Indian funeral custom where a widow immolated herself on her husband's pyre, or committed suicide in another fashion shortly after