The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-11-14
JUCCERNAUT.
Strange Scenes at the "ReinCaTna-
ton" Of the HindOO Diety.
The Pilgrimage to Puri-The God"
Stuffed With Shavings and Elk
hibited Under Police Supervision.
Dragging the Car Along the Streets.


Dragging the Car Along the Streets.
From the New York Tribune.
There is, perhaps, no shrine in all the
heather world more famous than that of
Puri, in Orissa, commonly called Jugger-
naut, or Jaggarnaith. II gets the latter
name from the great image of Krishna,
called Jagarnatha, or liking of the
World" which occupies the splendid
temple, and which, at intervals of some
years, is ''reincarnated d" That is to say,
the image is placed on car and dragged
through the streets by hundreds of de-
yout Hindoos, while uncounted thousands
throng around in rapt alteration. Some
of the onlookers now and then get
crowded underneath the wheels of the
car, and some, in religious frenzy, volun-
tariiy have thrown themselves thither;
whence the popular legends concerning
these festivals. and the use of the name
Juggernaut as symbol of cruelty and
destruction. The present is the year of
the latest ''reincarnation' of the god, and
a vast multitude of pilgrims, devout or
curious, made their way to Puri in July
to witness the Festivals among them n
correspondent Of the London Times, who
writes of it as follows:
PILGRIMS ON THE ROAD.
Even in Calcutta the pilgrims were so
numerous as to fill up the ChitpOre and
Strand roads at night, but 1.-The India
General" and Macnell's ships took them
to Cuttack, and there the fifty-three-mile
walk commenced. All along the (good)
pucca road might be seen magnificent up
country men from Delhi, Barcilly, and
elsewhere, and as handsome down-coun-
try Telugu women, but the vast mass of
people were plain-looking and poor Ben
gals and Uryas. There We're few chill
dren. One could not help noticing that
the majority of the pilgrims were women.
The rains had set in and had swollen the
wide river just outside Cuttack, but I'M
der the wall of the commissioners com
pound we found country boats which
were poled across by means of five bam-
boos and so stelnmed the fierce current.
On the few logs forming the deck were
huddled twenty passengers, my cOun-
try-bred horse. little tab belonging 20
the Puri collectors Khidmetgar return
ing from Il months leave, three bullock
carts, and several beds. We got over the
quarter-mile rush in about twenty min
utes, and hurried on, as if to reach Puri
that night. Every mile we passed COM
panies of pilgrim women escorted by one
man, all resting after their Journey in the
early morning. After two days hard
going, we arrived in Puri safe and sound
but we were slightly afraid the effects Of
a drenching, which we all got q few miles
beyond Pipli. The rain came down in
torrents. During that hour, under a sa-
cred pipal tree we all felt that the whole
of the monsoon for four months had con-
centrated itself. Till that time / had a
firm belief in a thin macintosh; but the
rain came through, and | thought that
the men who had nothing on but loin
cloth were better off, because they could
dry themselves / could not get dry be-
cause of the perspiration through walking
hard after the rain had stopped.
THE HOLY CITY.
Puri is not like Mecca. There is no pos
sibility of pilgrim taking salable arti-
cles to Puri and bringing as Salable ones
to his home The pilgrim to Juggernaut
goes his thousand or fifty miles, as the
case may be, simply because he wants to
be eternally saved. If he catches sight of
Juggernaut he is saved forever more, and
he feels that even this life is henceforth
worth living if he can manage to be &C
cepted as a hauler of Juggernaut's car.
About eight miles away a pilgrim caught
sight of the handsome dome, say 200
feet high, and passing on the khabar
news to others, in minute or two
everyone could been seen pressing for
ward with the bright light of religious
enthusiasm in his eye, just as the Eng
lish clerical pilgrim use to ride on up
hill after hill, Straining his eye at the top
of each successive slope to catch sight Of
the gates of Zion; and when the drago-
man finally said. there is Jerusalem. "
the Churchman could not be restrained
from cantering faster and faster up to
the Jaffa, gate | say used to ride on
Now he gets into a railway carriage at
Jaffa and wakes up three hours afterward
at the word Jerusalem" The ordinary
Hindoo walks his solid fifty-three miles.
and perhaps hundreds more.
Some missionary counted US as we
streamed over the bridge into Puri, and
said that by , o'clock in the afternoon of
Saturday. July H. the day of reincarna-
ton, 1872 600 pilgrims had passed into the
town. We arrived on the Friday night,
and ] went round the lodging houses with
DR.. Banks, the civil surgeon. / freely
confess that | did not want to go. and
never having been in a Hindoo lodging
house (dharmsala) before, ] imagined all
sorts of filth. There used to be such even
in Puri, but now that DR.. Banl1r is chair
man of the municipality, and fines every
one, high and low for disobeying orders,
the lodging houses and private houses are
as clean as European bungalows. We
went into one with a beautiful covered
courtyard, and there certainly were 400
pilgrims in the courtyard and in the
cloisters, instead of 10, the number
written on the license, but the place had
no odor or heat. Others were the same
with twenty, seventy, sixty sleeping. 1
found every government official, from the
collector and the policeman downward on
the qui vive and shaving night and day to
get the festival over quietly and without
row or accident.
THE REINCARNATION.
Mr.. E. H. Walsh. collector had agreed
with Mr.. H. NJ Parish the D. S. Of po-
lice, and with NJ. S. Das, agent of the de-
vout Rani of Puri, that after Juggernaut,
Bolbodra and Subodra had been stuffed
with shavings and cloth, and so reincar-
mated they were to be shown to the people
on the 18th at noon; but none of these
gentlemen could enter the temple, as they
are members of the Church of England.
Mr.. Walshs father and father-in-law are
clergy. Mr.. Parish's father and father
in-law are also clergy. and, moreover, re-
tired indian cnaplains. AS all the above
officials could nOG go TO the mountain.
they made the mountain come TO them.
They caused the HindOo manager of the
temple TO come out, and he. of course,
salaamed TO the ground and said
'achchha" good y when told to start the
affair, but once inside the temple again he
did nothing. Az 10 D. m, he ordered the
great doors to be flung open,