Western Accounts of the Car Festival of Lord Jagannath

The account of the car festival was known to the European community through the description of the visitors presented to the western world. It goes without saying that much of the accounts was distorted, exaggerated and even misconstrued. The earliest account of the festival in 1321 A.D. from ‘Friar Odoric’ as quoted in ‘Hobson Jobson’ describes, “Annually on the recurrence of the day when that idol was made, the folk of the country come and take it down and put it on a fine chariot and then the king and the queen, and the whole body of the people, join together and draw it forth from the church with loud singing of songs and all kinds of music…and many pilgrims who have come to this feast cast themselves under the chariots so that the wheels may go over them saying that they desire to die for their God and the car passes over them, and crushes them and cuts them asunder and so they perish on the spot.” We also have accounts of the car festival as given by Gladwhims (1560 A.D.), William Bruton (1632-33 A.D.), Burnier (1667 A.D.) and Alexander Hamilton (1727 A.D.). We have also a poem composed on the car festival by Robert Sathe in 1809 A.D. but all these are grossly exaggerated and present absolutely distorted picture. In the poem, the poet says –

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 your mad throng
Who follow close and thrust the deadly wheels along.

The Puri Gazetteer of 1929 mentions about some such suicides under the wheels of chariot but the scenes described by the foreigners mentioned above, are far from the truth and are intended only to paint the Indians as an uncivilised nation. While describing the temple of Lord Jagannath, one of these foreigners, William Bruton, writes in 1632, “……..I went to view the city in some part, but specially that mighty Pagoda, Pagoda the mirror of all wickedness and idolatry; into this Pagoda or house of Satan (as it may rightly be called) belong nine thousand brahmins or priests who daily offer sacrifices into their great God Jagannath.” When he describes “the idol in the shape of a serpent with seven hoods and on the cheeks of each hood it hath the form of wings upon each cheek which shunt and flap as it is carried in a stately chariot.”, the reader reaches the conclusion that this quartermaster of the East India Company who came with a trading mission never came to Puri nor had the faintest idea of the deities or the Car festival. He wrote something to malign the Hindus and appease some of his petty masters.

The accounts of Alexander Hamilton (1708 A.D.) were not a bit better as he describes ‘Lord Jagannath’ as “the filthy image….worshipped by all heathens of both sexes, but barren women are his greatest devotees and bring him the best oblations.”

He has described the deity as a stone god who came swimming over the sea and some fishermen seeing him lying at high watermark went near him and to their great astonishment heard him speak in their own vernacular language. About Ratha Jātrā, Hamilton’s account is just what Sathe has described in his poem. According to Hamilton, some 2000 people drew the coach and some old zealots, as it passes through the street, fell flat on the ground to have the honour to be crushed to pieces by the coach’s wheels.

The accounts of foreigners have been dismissed by the Orissan scholars as incorrect and even disrespectful statements of Infidels.

The fact remains that the Hindus believe that a death under the wheel of the chariot brings them salvation and some people wanted to throw themselves to have a death like that. While some succeeded, others were rescued. History has it that Sanātan Goswami came from Vrindavan to see Lord Jagannath and Śrī Caitanya both. It was the period of the car festival and Sanātan was ailing. He decided to throw himself under the wheel of the chariot but was finally persuaded not to do so by his associates. This was brought to the notice of Śrī Caitanya and he took him to task for his misconception. As described by Kaviraj Goswami in his “Śrī Caitanya Caritāmṛta”, Śrī Caitanya told Sanātan :-

Sanātana dehatyāge Kriṣṇa nā pāiyā.
Koṭi deha Kṣaṇeke tabe chārite pāriyā
Dehatyāge Kriṣṇa nā pāi pāiye bhajane
Kriṣṇaprāptir upāya nāi bhakti bine
Dehatyāgadi ehi tamodharma,
Tamo rajo dharme Kriṣṇera nā pāiye thāna.

“Sanātan, listen to me, Kriṣṇa cannot be had through such a suicide. If he could be attained through suicide, I would commit it a million times. As a matter of fact, suicide does not help one attain Kriṣṇa, but bhajan or silent recitation/repetition of the holy name does. Without devotion nobody can have Him. Committing suicide is a ‘tamoguna’, dullness or ignorance. Activities which are branded as rajas and tamas do not lead us to Kriṣṇa anyway.”

We have mentioned that sacrificing one’s life under the wheels of the chariots was considered holy by some ignorant people but it is now a fact that people in their scores laid down their bodies before the chariots, and allowed the wheels to crush them. Some accidental deaths occured due to stampedes. Pilgrims, in their overzealous attitude to touch the rope or pull it for a couple of yards jostle forwards by the hundreds and in the process some fall down before the chariots and are crushed before the log used as the brake can be released. To avoid these occurrences, now a cordon of rope is thrown around the chariots to keep the pilgrims at a safe distance and a contingent of police personnel keep vigil under the guidance of superior officers.

(This article is an excerpt from the author’s writing from the book “Car Festival of Lord Jagannath Puri”, which was also edited by the author. The said book was released by the Honourable President of India on 25-07-1994 at Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi. It was dedicated To The People and Nation by the Honourable Governor of Orissa on 17-08-1994 at The Universe, Cuttack.)