Thread by @HindooHistory

The Delta Independent, 1908

"IDOLS OF THE HINDOOS"

"There Are Hundreds of Millions of Them in India"

"THE FAME OF JUGGERNAUT"

"This Idol Has Been Worshiped About Two Thousand Years, and His National Temple is on the Sands of Puri-- The Three Monster Cars"

#HindooHistory

"If I were asked to describe India the first remark that would spring from my lips would be, 'It is a land of idols.' It would be impossible to compute the number of idols that there must be at the present time in India."

"The Hindoos pretend to have 333,000,000 gods, and these are represented by innumerable idols, so that we are quite bewildered with the thought of taking the census of the idols of India"

"The population of the whole Indian empire is now about 300,000,000 and possibly the country contains ten times as many idols as people"

"Benares is the great center of the idol making business, though in all parts of India the trade flourishes. Potters the day through may be seen in the sacred city molding images of clay for temporary use."

"Sculptors also may be found producing representatives of the gods in stone or marble. Carpenters, moreover, make great wooden idols for the temples, and workers in metal... turn out more or less highly finished specimens in their respective metals"

"When speaking of idols it should be borne in mind that the images turned out by the potter, sculptor, carver or manufacturer are not considered sacred or fit to be worshiped until certain mystic words have been uttered over them by a priest"

"The ceremony of 'the giving of life,' as it is called, to the image is a very solemn affair, and when it is done the idol is regarded as holy and must ever afterward be approached and treated with the utmost reverence"

"Out of many millions of so called gods in India, all of whom are counted worthy of worship, three are regarded as specially sacred and form the Hindoo triad or trinity"

"They are respectively Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, Of those it is stated the second person of the trinity only has been represented on this earth by human incarnations. Through one or all of these gods the Hindoos believe they obtain salvation."

"Juggernaut is perhaps the most famous name among all the Hindoo idols, inasmuch as his fame has gone forth into every land. His temple is situated on the sandy shores of Orissa, washed by the wild waves of the bay of Bengal"

"The worship of Juggernaut dates back nearly 2,000 years, and Orissa has been the holy land of the Hindoos from that time till the present day"

"Sir WIlliam Hunter, who was one of the greatest authorities on things East Indian, says in a wonderfully graphic description of the temple of Juggernaut: 'On the inhospitable lands of Puri, a place of swamps and inundations...'"

"'the Hindoo religion and Hindoo superstition have stood at bay for eighteen centuries against the world'. Here is the national temple whither the people flock to worship from every province of India....'

"'There is the gate of heaven whither thousands of pilgrims come to die, lulled into this last sleep by the roar of the eternal ocean.'"

"Well, I saw on one occasion that marvelous sight, the dragging of the Juggernaut's car and the cars of his brother and sister. The three idols are inseparable, and ugly things they are, being nothing but huge logs of wood..."

"coarsely fashioned into human shape, but without arms or legs. Juggernaut's car stands forty-one feet high and has fourteen enormous wheels. The other two cars are just a little smaller."

"The great cars have to be dragged a certain distance-- half a mile or more from the temple-- and the god will not allow horses or elephants to undertake the work, but calls upon his faithful worshipers to do it themselves"

"Never shall I Forget the sight. The road was filled with tends of thousands of lookers-on, all wild with excitement, and the fanatics who held the ropes were dragging the cars along with frenzied zeal."

"Every now and then there would be a stop that the men might rest, I supposed, but instead of resting they took to jumping in the air and to whirling themselves around like dancing dervishes and shouting at the top of their breath: 'Victory! Victory to Juggernaut!'"

"Once on a time infatuated worshippers would throw themselves under the wheels of the mighty car that they might be crushed to death, counting it a privilege and a joy thus to perish"

"Some might do it today if the paternal British government did not provide against such catastrophes by taking all due precaution"