Description

The Jagannath Temple, located in Puri, Orissa (Odisha), on the coast about 80 km south of Cuttack, is perhaps the most internationally famous religious site in India. Its construction was commenced by King Chodaganga Deva of the Eastern Ganga Dynasty in 1112 CE and it was finished during the 12th century by his grandson, Ananga Bhimadeva. A masterpiece of Oriya architecture, it occupies a massive rectangular compound of 37 km sq., headlined by the 65 m-high Nila Chakra tower.

The temple is dedicated to the Hindu deity Jagannatha (‘Lord of the Universe’; formerly known in English as ‘Juggernaut’), who often appears as part of triad along with his (and Krishna’s) brother, Balabhadra, and sister, Subhadra. The Jagannath Temple is most famed for hosting the largest annual celebration (in June or July) of the Ratha Yatra (‘Chariot Festival’), a 9-day-long event which attracts hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from all across India. There, the Bhil Sabar Tribal priests lead worshippers in elaborate ceremonies highlighted by the procession of three colossal custom-built chariots.

In former times, every year during the Ratha Yatra at Jagannath several worshippers were crushed under the wheels of the chariots. The circumstances of these deaths were always disputed, as some believed that they were the result of suicide or self-sacrifice, ritual killings (i.e., worshippers were thrown against their will under the chariot as a form of tribute to the gods); or, whether the deaths were simply accidents due the melee of thousands of people moving in a confined space.

The sensational and ‘extreme’ and nature of the Jagannath Ratha Yatra had long captured the fascination of Indians, and since the times of the Friulian Franciscan Odoric of Pordenone, the first Westerner to visit Jagannath in the eary 14th century, it had become a popular subject of lore across Europe.

In 1803, Britain conquered Orissa, which brought the Jagannath Tempe, and the Ratha Yatra to a new level of international prominence. The supposed ‘barbarity’ of the deaths at the chariot festival were used by over-zealous Christian missionaries in India as means by which to discredit the Hindu faith in general, painting it as a cruel, violent, pagan cult. They did this from a place of ignorance, and their words were often no better than vitriolic nonsense. That being said, their sensational claims proved incredibly influential in Europe and even within India, where even some Hindus, who revered the sacred and enlightened elements of the Ratha Yatra, found how it was allegedly manifested at Jagannath to be a touch too intense for their liking.

The furore over the festival deaths at Jagannath continued unabated, even as the frequency of fatalities apparently dramatically decreased from 1825 onwards.

According to the academic Ujjan Gosh, the supposed causes of death as viewed by the British during the first decades of their rule in Orissa followed three distinct phases. During the first half of 19th century, missionaries such as Claudius Buchanan and James Peggs, maintained that the deaths under the wheels of the chariots were due to cases of ritualistic human sacrifice. From around 1850 to the mid-1860s, many British authors held that the deaths were suicides (the author of the present work ascribes to this theory), while from that time onwards the prevalent belief held the fatalities were merely accidents.

Mixed up onto into all was the fact that the Jagannath Temple was long the centre of tremendous wealth, as it received hundreds of thousands of rupees in annual donations and held vast property holdings well beyond the temple compound, while its treasury contained vast troves of art, gold and precious gems. The British colonial regime, not to mention some Hindus, came to resent what they say as the “corrupt” over-concentration and misappropriation of wealth by the temple’s priests.

Moreover, the British regime was always hesitant to interfere in the affairs of the Jagannath Temple and its Ratha Yatra, as doing so risked offending millions of Hindus and creating mass unrest.

To the point, the temple and the rumours surrounding it were a cause of international fear and fascination. The Ratha Yatra was so prominent in British culture, that it spawned the English word ‘Juggernaut’, defined as a merciless, destructive, and unstoppable force.

While the first use of the term in this manner is attributed to Claudius Buchanan, it gained widespread acceptance, appearing in popular literature by the likes of Shelley, Dickens and Robert Louis Stevenson.

The Present Work in Focus

The present work is one of the most valuable and intriguing historical accounts of the Jagannath Temple, its Ratha Yatra and the nature, history and economy of the surrounding region, being especially remarkable as it was written by a Hindu. The author, Brij Kishore Ghose was the Head Clerk for the Southern Division of the Zillah of Cuttack, a very senior post in the British colonial bureaucracy (Puri is in said zillah, a ‘zillah’ being a taxation district in the still-used Mughal terminology). Employed in government service in the region since the mid-1820s, he also worked variously as a “Magistrate, [Tax] Collector and Salt Agent”. While we otherwise cannot find much information on Ghose, he was described by a British contemporary as being “an intelligent Hindu of great merit” (Laurie, p. 29), and indeed he must have been a man of exceptional talent, as Indians then rarely rose to such a rank in the British colonial system.

The quality of Ghose’s writing, while laced with strong rhetoric, is indicative of someone of great intellect and broad knowledge. He maintains a visceral dislike for the Jagannath Temple priesthood, which he seems as hopelessly corrupt and he believes that many of the pilgrims who come to the temple’s festivals are being exploited, deluded by superstition. However, he holds that he is still a good and devout Hindu, as he merely wants to save his faith from what he considers to be moral lapses and excesses.

Importantly, beyond Ghose’s rhetoric, he provides much highly valuable intelligence on the Jagannath Temple and Puri that could only come from a senior government official with access to privileged information. A keen observer of his surroundings and personally knowledgeable of Hindu ritual, he provides captivating yet precise descriptions of the temple’s appearance and the elaborate events that occurred within its precinct, with a sensitivity lacking in accounts written by Westerners. He also conveys intriguing facts and statistics found nowhere else, making the book a must-read source for anyone interested in Jagannath, if not the nature of Hindu pilgrimage and ritual in 19th century India in general. Accordingly, it has been heavily quoted in literature, both during its day, as well as in recent times.

The present work was published in Cuttack, the main city and then capital of Orissa, by the Orissa Mission Press, a small provincial outfit founded in 1838, that was then under the direction of William Brooks.

Ghose in his ‘Preface’ reveals himself to be one of the ‘Hindu critics’ of the goings on at the Jagannath Temple. Charging right out the gate, he states:

“The motives which have induced me to undertake the collation of the work are, at which to afford some useful and interesting information to Gentlemen and Natives. To the former, I hope it will also afford pleasure, as to assist them in becoming acquainted with the customs and affairs the temple of Jugunnath; and to the latter, it will very likely open a source from which they may become better acquainted with the uses of the temple, and the delusion under which the voluptuous pundahs, or priests of Pooree, persuade the Hindoos, either to undertake a pilgrimage from immense distance, or send their families and relatives, to visit the great god – Jugunnath.” (p. iii)

Yet, Ghose notes that his critical tone is motivated only by a desire to advance the “welfare of the British government, and the salvation of Hindoostan” (p. iv).

He opines that the Jagannath Temple is at the heart of “a regular and complete system of superstition, strengthened and upheld by everything that can excite the reverence, and secure the attachment of the people” (p. iv)

The author continues:

“The Temples consecrated to the deities in Poree are magnificent; and adorned not only with rich offerings, but with the most elaborate works in painting and sculpture with the artists highest in estimation were capable of executing. The rites and ceremonies of their worship are pompous and splendid; and the performance of them not only mingles in all the transactions of common life, but constitutes, in the opinion of the worshippers, an essential part of their existence. The priests, who preside over all its functions, are elevated above every other order of men, by an origin deemed not only more noble, but acknowledged to be sacred.” (pp. iv-v)

In ‘Part I – History of Pooree’ (pp. 1 – 34), the author vividly describes the city of Puri (which then had 80,000 inhabitants), noting its history, appearance, commerce and residents, the receipts of tax collection and the astounding wealth of the local ‘Muths’ (abbots) of the temples in very specific terms (including a statistical table). He takes the opportunity to remark bitingly that the Muths “appropriate” the Jagannath Temple’s endowment to “illegal purposes” and that “the intentions and wishes of the [temple’s] donors are seldom carried out”. (pp. 8-9)

Ghose then moves on to engagingly discuss the history and customs of Jagannath Temple in considerable detail, including noting the roles of 97 different officials at the complex (pp. 11-6), while providing a meticulous physical description of the facility.

Ghose provides a rhetorically scathing, yet technically valuable, description of the idols at the Ratha Yatra festival:

“They are bulky, hideous, wooden busts. The elder brother Bulbhudder, is six feet in height, the younger, Jagannath, five feet; and their sister, Subhudra, four feet. They are fashioned into a curious resemblance of the human head, resting on a sort of pedestal. The eyes of Jagannath are round, and those of Bulbhudder and Subhudra, oval. They are painted black, white, and yellow respectively; their faces are exceedingly large, and their bodies are decorated with a dress of different coloured cloths. The two brothers have arms projecting horizontally forward from the ears. The sister is entirely devoid of even that approximation to the human form.” (pp. 19-20)

In 1840, for political and economic reasons, the British colonial regime decided to withdraw from directly interfering in the Jagannath Temple’s affairs. They abolished the pilgrimage tax and appointed the Rajah of Koodah as the superintendent of temple (p. 21). The author then provides a chart of the annual expenses of the temple, which totaled over 31,000 Rupees (then an awesome sum), with just over half of that dedicated exclusively to mounting the Ratha Yatra. (pp. 25-6)

Ghose then proceeds the give a listing of 172 rooms and objects in the Jagannath Temple. (pp. 29-34)

‘Part II’ (pp. 35-50) features fascinating descriptions of the many annual festivals held at the Jagannath Temple, with some curious events including the “Dwarf Birth Festival” and the “Warm Clothing Festival”. Of course, Ghose highlights the Ratha Yatra, describing its three giant chariots:

“The car of Jagannath is forty-five feet in height; it has sixteen wheels of seven feet diameter, and a platform thirty-five feet square. The ruth of Bulbhudra is forty-four feet high: it has fourteen wheels of six and a half feet diameter, and a platform thirty-four feet square. The car of Subhudra is forty-two feet high: it has twelve wheels of six feet diameter, and a platform thirty-three feet square. A small rail about eight inches in height nearly surrounds the platform of each ruth: an opening is left of a few feet in front of the idol.” (p. 39).

Ghose lists the annual expenses for building and operating the three festival chariots, which amounted to over 1,453 Rupees. (pp. 42-3)

In ‘Part III’ (pp. 51-61), the author describes the other temples and sites in the Puri area, while noting that 210,325 pilgrims were officially recorded as visiting the Jagannath Temple for the Ratha Yatra during the fiscal year of 1846-7.

‘Part IV’ (pp. 62-6) features a description of the Southern District of Cuttack, dicussing its geography, local potentates and economy, etc. There is also a ‘List of the Genealogy of the Orissa Rajahs, as taken from the Native Almanac’ (p. 67-8), which record the local rulers since 1478 AD. This is followed by a description of travel routes to Puri and an account of the local British colonial administration (of which Ghose was a principal).

The work is rounded out by a very useful ‘Glossary of Native Languages used in the History of Pooree, alphabetically Arranged’ (pp. 77-82).

It is interesting to read a contemporary British colonial account of the present work, from the The Calcutta Review (vol. 10 (1848), p. 206-7), which accurately reflects how it was received by British readers at the time, reflecting their biased view of the Jagannath Temple and its supposed rituals:

“We had likewise the good fortune to hear of an intelligent Hindu, by name, Brij Kishore Ghose, who had, for a considerable time, been collecting and condensing materials for “A History of Púri,” & c. These materials are now before us in the shape of a work, or rather pamphlet – which, considering the limited means of the establishment, does the Orissan Mission Press considerable credit – and the appearance of which is an event of some importance in the annals of Indian literature. Here is the round, unvarnished truth told by a native – himself not a Christian – regarding a vast abyss of corruption, near which he has resided for four and twenty years; – and the work of this “tell-tale” Hindu will, we feel confident – if it meets with the circulation it deserves – do more good than the most powerful invectives against the immoralities and impurities attendant upon idolatry. The heresies of Jagannáth, we now fully believe to be sincerely exposed to view by this extraordinary authority, who, regardless of the dissentient voice of his Hindu brethren, has lifted the veil, – drawn up the curtain and represented a drama of evil spirits, – and calculated to a fraction the iniquity and misery pertaining to the worship of the delusive Lord of the World. Thankful, then, ought we to be to the author – for India’s sake – that he has given us good reason to exclaim, in the emphatic language of the Tempest – “Hell is empty / And all the devils are here!”

 

A Note on Rarity

The present work is very rare, consistent with provincial ephemeral Indian imprints of the era, which tended to be issued in only small print runs and which have a very low survival rate.

We can locate only 4 institutional examples, held by the British Library; SOAS University of London; University of Edinburgh; and the University of Minnesota. Moreover, we cannot trace any sales records for any other examples.

References: OCLC: 29939401; British Library: 4506.bb.6.; SOAS University of London: CWML B.3 /13; University of Edinburgh: QP.291/6.; University of Minnesota: DS486.P8 G46x 1848; Jagannātha Prasāda DĀSA, Puri Paintings: The Chitrakara and His Work (2005), p. 53; Ujaan GHOSH, “Chariots of the Gods: The Many Histories of Jagannath, ‘Juggernaut,’ and the Rathayatra in the Nineteenth Century”, History of Religions, vol. 58, no. 1 (2018), pp. 64–88, esp. p. 85; William Ferguson Beatson LAURIE, The Idol-shrine: Or, The Origin, History, and Worship of the Great Temple of Jagannáth (London: Smith, Elder, and Company, 1851), p. 29; L.S.S. O’MALLEY, Bengal District Gazetteers: Puri (Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Book Depot, 1908), p. 99; Biswamoy PATI, Situating Social History: Orissa, 1800-1997 (2001), p. 59; Dasarathi SWARO, The Christian Missionaries in Orissa: Their Impact on Nineteenth Century Society (1990), p. 255; The Calcutta Review, vol. 10 (1848), p. 206-7; Gaya Charan TRIPATHI, Communication with God: The Daily Pūjā Ceremony in the Jagannātha Temple (2004), p. 482.