Chapter JOWAUR to JUGGURNAUT of J by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

this Pagod or house of Sathen … doe belong 9,000 Brammines or Priests, which doe dayly offer sacrifice vnto their great God Iaggarnat, from which Idoll the City is so called.… And when it (the chariot of Iaggarnat) is going along the city, there are many that will offer themselves a sacrifice to this Idoll, and desperately lye downe on the ground, that the Chariott wheeles may runne over them, whereby they are killed outright; some get broken armes, some broken legges, so that many of them are destroyed, and by this meanes they thinke to merit Heauen.”—W. Bruton, in Hakl. v. 57.

1667.—“In the town of Jagannat, which is seated upon the Gulf of Bengala, and where is that famous Temple of the Idol of the same name, there is yearly celebrated a certain Feast.… The first day that they shew this Idol with Ceremony in the Temple, the Crowd is usually so great to see it, that there is not a year, but some of those poor Pilgrims, that come afar off, tired and harassed, are suffocated there; all the people blessing them for having been so happy.… And when this Hellish Triumphant Chariot marcheth, there are found (which is no Fable) persons so foolishly credulous and superstitious as to throw themselves with their bellies under those large and heavy wheels, which bruise them to death.…”—Bernier, a Letter to Mr. Chapelain, in Eng. ed. 1684, 97; [ed. Constable, 304 seq.].

[1669–79.—“In that great and Sumptuous Diabolicall Pagod, there Standeth theere gretest God Jn°. Gernaet, whence ye Pagod receued that name alsoe.”—MS. Asia, &c., by T. B. f. 12. Col. Temple adds: “Throughout the whole MS. Jagannath is repeatedly called Jn°. Gernaet, which obviously stands for the common transposition Janganath.]

1682.—“… We lay by last night till 10 o’clock this morning, ye Captain being desirous to see ye Jagernot Pagodas for his better satisfaction.…”—Hedges, Diary, July 16; [Hak. Soc. i. 30].

1727.—“His (Jagarynat’s) Effigy is often carried abroad in Procession, mounted on a Coach four stories high … they fasten small Ropes to the Cable, two or three Fathoms long, so that upwards of 2,000 People have room enough to draw the Coach, and some old Zealots, as it passes through the Street, fall flat on the Ground, to have the Honour to be crushed to Pieces by the Coach Wheels.”—A. Hamilton, i. 387; [ed. 1744].

1809.—

“A thousand pilgrims strain
Arm, shoulder, breast, and thigh, with might and main
, To drag that sacred wain
, And scarce can draw along the enormous load.
Prone fall the frantic votaries on the road
, And calling on the God
Their self-devoted bodies there they lay
To pave his chariot way.
On Jaga-Naut they call
, The ponderous car rolls on, and crushes all
, Through flesh and bones it ploughs its dreadful path.
Groans rise unheard; the dying cry.
And death, and agony
Are trodden under foot by yon mad throng,
Who follow close and thrust the deadly
wheels along.”

Curse of Kehama, xiv. 5.

1814.—“The sight here beggars all description. Though Juggernaut made some progress on the 19th, and has travelled daily ever since, he has not yet reached the place of his destination. His brother is ahead of him, and the lady in the rear. One woman has devoted herself under the wheels, and a shocking sight it was. Another also intended to devote herself, missed the wheels with her body, and had her arm broken. Three people lost their lives in the crowd.”—In Asiatic Journal—quoted in Beveridge, Hist. of India, ii. 54, without exacter reference.

c. 1818.—“That excess of fanaticism which formerly prompted the pilgrims to court death by throwing themselves in crowds under the wheels of the car of Jagannáth has happily long ceased to actuate the worshippers of the present day. During 4 years that I have witnessed the ceremony, three cases only of this revolting species of immolation have occurred, one of which I may observe is doubtful, and should probably be ascribed to accident; in the others the victims had long been suffering from some excruciating complaints, and chose this method of ridding themselves of the burthen of life in preference to other modes of suicide so prevalent with the lower orders under similar circumstances.”—A. Stirling, in As. Res. xv. 324.

1827.—March 28th in this year, Mr. Poynder, in the E. I. Court of Proprietors, stated that “about the year 1790 no fewer than 28 Hindus were crushed to death at Ishera on the Ganges, under the wheels of Juggurnaut.”—As. Journal, 1821, vol. xxiii. 702.

[1864.—“On the 7th July 1864, the editor of the Friend of India mentions that, a few days previously, he had seen, near Serampore, two persons crushed to death, and another frightfully lacerated, having thrown themselves under the wheels of a car during the Rath Jatra festival. It was afterwards stated that this occurrence was accidental.”—Chevers, Ind. Med. Jurispr. 665.]

1871.—“… poor Johnny Tetterby staggering under his Moloch of an infant, the Juggernaut that crushed all his enjoyments.”—Forster’s Life of Dickens,