The great temple of the idol is situated in Orissa, rather more than three hundred miles southwest from Calcutta. It is a tall, pyramidal tower, some two hundred feet in height, built of a warm red sandstone, covered with the lime-cement called “chunam.” Being on the sea-coast, this tower is a most useful landmark to navigators in the Bay of Bengal.
Once in every year the great festival of Juggernaut takes place, and the huge idol-car is brought out for the procession. The car is an enormous edifice of wood, more than forty feet high, and thirty-five feet square. This mass of timber is supported on sixteen wheels, each more than six feet in diameter, some of the wheels being under the body of the car. The car itself is plentifully adorned with sculptures of the usual character, and it is conventionally supposed to be drawn by two great wooden horses, which are attached to it in readiness for the procession, and kept inside it during the rest of the year.
On the appointed day three idols are placed in the car. The central figure represents Krishna, and the others are his brother Bala Rama and his sister Sûbhadra. They are nothing but three enormous and hideous busts, not nearly so well carved as the tikis of New Zealand, and, in fact, much resemble the human figures scribbled on walls by little boys. Stout and long cables are attached to the car, by means of which the worshippers of the idol drag it along. The scene that takes place at the procession is most vividly described by Bruton:—
“In this chariot, on their great festal days, at night they place their wicked god, Jaggarnat; and all the Bramins, being in number nine thousand, attend this great idol, besides of ashmen and fackeeres (fakirs) some thousands, or more than a good many.
“The chariot is most richly adorned with most rich and costly ornaments; and the aforesaid wheels are placed very complete in a round circle, so artificially that every wheel doth its proper office without any impediment; for the chariot is aloft, and in the centre betwixt the wheels: they have also more than two thousand lights with them. And this chariot, with the idol, is also drawn with the greatest and best men of the town; and 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 this 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, as that many of them are so destroyed; and by this means they think to merit heaven.”
Another of the earlier writers on this subject states that many persons lie down in the track of the car a few hours before it starts, and, taking a powerful dose of opium, or “bhang,” i. e. Indian hemp, meet death while still unconscious.
In former days the annual assemblage at the temple of Juggernaut, which is to the Hindoos what Mecca is to the Mahommedans, was astonishing, a million and a half of pilgrims having been considered as the average number. Putting aside the comparative few who perished under the wheels of the great car (for, indeed, had the whole road been paved with human bodies, they would have been but a few), the number that died from privation and suffering was dreadful.
We know by many a sad experience how difficult it is to feed a large army, even with the great advantage of discipline on the part of the commissariat and the recipients. It is therefore easy to see how terrible must be the privation when a vast multitude, quadruple the number of any army that ever took the field, arrives simultaneously from all directions at a place where no arrangements have been made to supply them with provisions, and where, even if the locality could furnish the requisite food, the greater number of the pilgrims are totally without money, and therefore unable to pay for food. In those days the pilgrims perished by thousands, as much victims to Juggernaut as those who were crushed under his chariot wheels, and, indeed, suffering a far more lingering and painful death. Still, according to their belief, they died in the performance of their duty, and by that death had earned a high place in the paradise of the Hindoos.
Such was the case before the English raj was established in India. Since that time a gradual but steady diminution has taken place in the number of the pilgrims to Juggernaut’s temple; and we have lately seen a most astonishing and portentous event. Formerly, the vast crowd of worshippers pressed and crowded round the cables by which the car was drawn, trying to lay but a hand upon the sacred rope. Of late years the Brahmins have found fewer and fewer devotees for this purpose, and on one occasion, in spite of all their efforts, the ropes were deserted, and the car left stationary, to get along as it could.
As to the idol Juggernaut itself, Bruton gives a curious description of it, saying that it is in shape like a serpent with seven heads, and that on the cheeks of each head there are wings which open and shut and flap about as the car moves along.