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JUGGERNAUT

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 545 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JUGGERNAUT , a corruption of Sans. JAGANNATHA, " See also:

Lord of the See also:World," the name under which the See also:Hindu See also:god See also:Vishnu is worshipped at See also:Puri in See also:Orissa. The See also:legend runs that the sacred See also:blue-See also:stone See also:image of Jagannatha was worshipped in the solitude of the See also:jungle by an outcast, a Savara mountaineer, called Basu. The See also:king of See also:Malwa, Indradyumna, had despatched Brahmans to all quarters of the See also:peninsula, and at last discovered Basu. Thereafter the image was taken to Puri, and a See also:temple, begun in 1174, was completed fourteen years later at a cost of upwards of See also:half a million See also:sterling. The site had been associated for centuries before and after the See also:Christian era with See also:Buddhism, and the famous See also:Car festival is probably based on the Tooth festival of the Buddhists, of which the See also:Chinese See also:pilgrim Fa-Hien gives an See also:account. The See also:present temple is a pyramidal See also:building, 192 ft. high, crowned with the mystic See also:wheel and See also:flag of Vishnu. Its inner enclosure, nearly 400 ft. by 300 ft., contains a number of small temples and shrines. The See also:main temple has four main rooms—the See also:hall of offerings, the dancing hall, the See also:audience chamber, and the See also:shrine itself—the two latter being each 8o ft. square. The three See also:principal images are those of Vishnu, his See also:brother and his See also:sister, See also:grotesque wooden figures roughly hewn. Elaborate services are daily celebrated all the See also:year See also:round, the images are dressed and redressed, and four meals a See also:day are served to them. The attendants on the god are divided into 36 orders and 97 classes.

See also:

Special servants are assigned the tasks of putting the god to See also:bed, of dressing and bathing him. The See also:annual See also:rent-See also:roll of the temple was put at 68,000 by See also:Sir W. W. See also:Hunter; but the pilgrims' offerings, which See also:form the bulk of the income, are quite unknown and have been said to reach as much as £1oo,000 in one year. Ranjit Singh bequeathed the Koh-i-nor to Jagannath. There are four See also:chief festivals, of which the famous Car festival is the most important. The terrible stories of pilgrims crushed to See also:death in the god's See also:honour have made the phrase " Car of Juggernaut " synonymous with the merciless See also:sacrifice of human lives, but these have been shown to be baseless calumnies. The See also:worship of Vishnu is See also:innocent of all bloody See also:rites, and a drop of See also:blood even accidentally spilt in the god's presence is held to pollute the officiating priests, the See also:people, and the consecrated See also:food. The Car festival takes See also:place in See also:June or See also:July, and the feature of its celebration is the See also:drawing of the god from the temple to his " See also:country-See also:house," a distance of less than a mile. The car is 45 ft. in height and 35 ft. square, and is supported on 16 wheels of 7 ft. in See also:diameter. Vishnu's brother and sister have See also:separate cars, slightly smaller. To these cars See also:ropes are attached, and thousands of eager pilgrims See also:vie with each other to have the honour of dragging the god.

Though the distance is so See also:

short the See also:journey lasts several days, owing to the deep See also:sand in which the wheels sink. During the festival serious accidents have often happened. Sir W. W. Hunter in the Gazetteer of See also:India writes: " In a closely packed, eager throng of a See also:hundred thousand men and See also:women under the blazing tropical See also:sun, deaths must occasionally occur. There have doubtless been instances of pilgrims throwing themselves under the wheels in a frenzy of religious excitement, but such instances have always been rare, and are now unknown. The few suicides that did occur were, for the most See also:part, cases of diseased and miserable See also:objects who took this means to put themselves out of See also:pain. The See also:official returns now place this beyond doubt. Nothing could be more opposed to the spirit of Vishnu-worship than self-immolation. Accidental death within the temple renders the whole place unclean. According to Chaitanya, the apostle of Jagannath, the destruction of the least of God's creatures is a See also:sin against the Creator." See also Sir W. W.

Hunter's Orissa (1872); and See also:

District Gazetteer of Puri (1908).

End of Article: JUGGERNAUT

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