Thread by @HindooHistory

Martinsburg Herald, 1887

"DYING JUGGERNAUT"

"The Once Famous Indian God Has Had His Day"

"No More Fanatics Anxious for Death Beneath the Cruel Wheels-- Coolies Hired to Drag the Car Once Drawn by Devotees"

#HindooHistory #Juggernaut

"The announcement that the once famous festival of Juggernaut has so declined in popularity as to render it necessary for the priests to hire coolies to drag the car,is a measure to the extent to which the destructive solvent of western thought is being applied to eastern creeds"

"The car of the great god of Pooree was one of the most sacred of Brahmanic 'properties,' and the Rath Jattra a festival which, in importance, yielded to that of no other deity in the Hindoo Pantheon"

"From every part of the vast empire of Hindostan pilgrims flocked to share in it, and when the car of Juggernaut was dragged once a year from the temple in order to bathe the gods in the cold water of the tank..."

"a mile and a half distant,the wildest enthusiasm seized the vast multitude of devotees.Thousands rushed to seize the cables, and so eager were the volunteers for this holy service that the best and greatest men or Orissa struggled with each other to obtain a hold upon the ropes"

"To use the language of an old writer who witnessed the Rath Jattra in its palmy days, 'they are so greedy and eager to draw it that whosoever, by shouldering, crowding, shoving, heaving, thrusting, or in any insolent way..."

"'can but lay a hand upon the rope they think themselves blessed and happy. And when it is going along the city there are many that will offer themselves as a sacrifice to the idol..."

"'and desperately lie down on the ground that the chariot wheels may run over them, whereby they are killed outright. Some get broken arms, some broken legs, so that many are destroyed, and think to merit heaven'"

"At even a later date martyrs to Juggernaut, or Jagganath as he is more correctly termed, were not infrequent. When Francis Buchanan was in Pooree early int his century, he describes the harsh grating of the gigantic car as it moved along..."

''the obscene songs of the priests in honor of the god, and the fierce glances which the fanatics bestowed on the beef eating Englishmen, as a pilgrim announced himself ready to become a sacrifice to the idol"

"No one daring to caring to prevent the self-immolation, the man prostrated himself in the road before the tower as it moved along, lying on his face with his arms stretched forward."

"The multitude pressed around him, leaving the space clear, until he was crushed to death by the wheels of the ponderous structure. Then a wild cry of praise was raised, and as the god was seen to 'smile' at the libation of spouting blood ..."

"the devotees threw cowries and pieces of money on the body of the victim in approbation of the holy deed by which he had won immortality in the Hindoo Walhalla"

"It is suggestive of a strange revolution in Hindoo opinion to hear that not only are victims lacking, but that, instead of thousands struggling for the honor of a place at the drag ropes, laboring men, at so many annas per diem, have to be hired to perform the sacred function."

"The aw of the Indian people for 'the lord of the world' has been declining. For many years past the fame of the great god of Orissa has been on the wane..."

"and the time when a human sacrifice was deliberately offered up to the hideous idol is fast getting beyond the power of the very oldest of the old Indians"

"Admitting that the number of devotees this year is smaller owing to the loss of two pilgrims ships-- and the prophecy that a third will be wrecked before the year is out-- it is undeniable that Jaggannath is doomed..."

"and the wealth which is brought to the priest and the townspeople of Pooree is likely to vanish before many years elapse. Sometimes a poor decrepit wretch, weary of life or drugged by the priests with Indian hemp or opium, will wildly throw himself in front of the wheels"

"though he is usually dragged out by the police, who have orders to prevent any attempts at suicide"

"Saddest abasement of all, from the standpoint of Brahmanism, it happened a few years ago, for the first time in history, that, to the horror and chagrin of the priests, the car of Jagganath stood still in the streets of Pooree, while the pilgrims looked on in impious apathy"

"Yet no harm befell them, although a subsequent famine has been attributed to their sacrilegious carelessness. However, the result has been that, though worshipers still come to Pooree, they just as frequently prefer to save themselves the trouble of hauling the gods..."

"and as has happened on the present occasion, the priests, afraid of the idols never reaching the tank, have contracted with irreverential coolies to perform the job for a stipulated number of rupees"