Jagannath of Puri

Jagannath Cult and the Car Festival of Puri, Orissa.

- Shukla & Sudhanshu Mohanty

The Car Festival of Puri in Orissa state of India is celebrated with a boisterous frenzy rare in the subcontinent. The three Km journey of the three deities atop their respective raths symbolise the annual journey of Jagannath to see for himself the state of his 'praja' (subjects).

The festival is the most important and auspicious for Oriya people. It is a unique festival in being a unifier of all Oriya people of all socio-cultural divisions of Oriya society. Calling it a Secular festival would be most apt.

This annual fare is joined by the curious, scholar, the heathen and the agnostic, Buddhist and Jain from all over the country mingle with a devotion bordering of being possessed, revealing the hold of Lord Jagannath over the collective sub-conscious of Orissa and beyond. (Car = chariot, rath).

The history of Jagannath is lost in antiquity and mixed with innumerable myths. From being an Adivasi deity of the Gonds to an appendage of the hindu pantheon is a long journey, philosophically and otherwise. But the only manifestation from which to draw conclusions about the origins of Lord Jagannatha, etymological-ly `The Lord of the Universe', is the Rath Yatra- the main event of the Car Festival..

Story 1

Krishna's body floated from Dwarika-on-Arabian Sea to Puri and turned into wood. This was used to sculpt the idols of Jagannath, Balabhadra (elder brother) and Subhadra (sister). A variation to this story from Sarala Das' Mahabharata mentions Indra instructing Jara Savara and Lalita, his wife, to keep this a secret. Jara Savara obeyed and worshipped the sacred object in the denseness of forest. On learning of this, King Indradyumna, son of Galamadhava of Somavamsa sent Yadu, a gauda brahmin, to locate the sacred object. Yadu located it. Then the King descended on Puri and build the three images and installed them in a new temple.

In the legends Kind Indradyumna figures as the first builder of Jagannath Temple.

Story 2

The history of Jagannath goes back to pre-christianity days, when it was perhaps worshipped as a brahminical deity, the wooden image being changed every twelve years. Later it passed into the hands of ruling Savaras, and then to the Bhaumas of Assam who ruled Orissa in the 8th century AD. The Buddhist Bhaumas carved three images - tri ratna - from the sacred wood and named it Nilachala, after the famous Kamakhya of Guwahati in Assam. Later, Yayati I of the Somavamsi dynasty built a spectacular temple at the site, and made Puri one of the great religious centres. These two temples lay deep in the mother earth somewhere around Puri, waiting to be dug out by archaeologists/explorers.

The present temple was build by Choda-ganga-deva of Ganga dynasty in the 12th century AD.While Orissa continued to remain unaffected by the muslim invasion and conquests, it remained and independent kingdom up to 1568 AD. The devout, harassed in other holy Hindu shrines, came to Puri and added to its mystique.

Around this time there was a fusion of many streams of religions around the cult of Jagannath. Saivism, Vaishnavism and Shakti-ism, the three branches of hinduism, joined with some earlier tribal cults, buddhist and jain strains. This gave rise to syncretism seen in art, literature and sculpture of the age, as is evident from the Saura shrine at Konark's Sun Temple, and, at the Lingaraj Temple in Bhuvaneshwar - a mix of Vishnu and Siva.

During the Ganga era Jagannath cult evolved greatly, catalyzed by the interactions with medieval visitors like Sankara, Ramanand, Ramanuja, Madhava Tirtha, Narahari Tirtha, Kabir, Nanak and Chaitanya, to a state of catholicity.

After the wheel of time having turned inexorably, Jagannath cult, which had passed through the stages of birth, growth and bloom, reached at the inevitable stages stagnation and degeneration during the period of Suryavamsis. This may have been exacerbated during the muslim occupation of Orissa. Gitagovinda sung by deva-dasis in the presence of Jagannath sprouted erotic overtones, something not present earlier. By this time, the spirit of Jagannatha had already become part and parcel of the Oriya ethos, the spirit behind their sub-civilisation.

Though the Rath Yatra is celebrated on the second day of bright half of Asada lunar month (July-August), when Sun is traversing the sign of Cancer and a day old moon posited in Dhanishta asterism of the sign of Capricorn, the rituals actually begin in summer months, when proxy images of the three deities are taken in procession. Then they are bathed and quarantined for a fortnight - due to illness.

Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra are placed in their respective Raths(cars) called Nandighosh, Taladwaja and Devadalan of 45. 44 and 43 feet height. The size and number of wheels of the raths also of descending order, with Lord Jagannatha's Nandighosh having 16 wheels of 7 feet diameter.

These chariots are pulled along the wide avenue Bada Danda. The deities are offered 'bhoga' and placed on their chariots (rath/car) amidst much fanfare. Now another spectacle of 'chera-pahanra' by the Raja of Puri. He sweeps the platforms of the chariots with a gold handled broom.

The 'chera-pahanra' is an act in obeisance to Jagannath for answering his forbears' call for redeeming his family dignity. The legend has it that King Purushottama was not given the hand of the princess of Kanchi when her father saw Purushottama perform an act done traditionally by sweepers. King Purushottama attacked Kanchi with the help of Jagannatha and Balabhadra to capture the princess. The mission accomplished, Purushottama asked his minister to marry her off to a sweeper in revenge. The minister confronted the king when he was performing chera-pahanra, and asked the princess to garland the king. The princess was offered to a sweeper!

After chera-pahanra, the 'rath-dahuka' standing on the rath shout out obscenities to the devotees below to show their strength and pull the raths. The creaking and roar of its wheels, devotees loud frenzy mixed with the stream of unprintable form a cacophony, to which is added the sounds of coconuts, fruits money, jewellery and other valuables thrown by the devotees onto the chariots in devotion.

Jagannath's Nandighosh rath stops briefly at 'mausi-ma' temple before proceeding to Gundicha Temple. Though the 3 kilometer yatra normally should take a few hours, sometimes it may take a few days!

Gundicha Temple, too, is steeped in popular legend. The temple is dedicated to the consort of Indra-dyumn. As the legend goes, the sacred log was found. But the king's expert craftsmen broke their tools on touching the log. Now, an old carpenter, Ananta Maharana, offered to undertake the assignment on the condition that he be locked up inside the temple with the log for 21 days.

The carpenter set to work. But the queen suspected Ananta's expertise and got the temple gates opened before twenty one days. And they saw the image strewn about in various stages of incompleteness. Sans hands, sans legs! The carpenter had vanished. So the three images came to be worshipped in semi finished form. Popular belief is that the carpenter was Vishnu.

Seeing the milling crowds, some of whom accidently got run over by the rath, was taken by the british to be human sacrifice. This and the relentless move forward of the rath, that did not stop to save the victims made its presence in English lexicons, the word 'juggernaut' - meaning unrelenting remorseless force.

'Naba Kalebara' is celebrated once in 12 years when newly carved deities replace the old ones. The wood for the new deities is selected when one of the chosen group of brahmins is informed in a dream about the location of the tree. After elaborate rituals of identifying a 'shankh', 'chakra' and 'gada' signs on the trunk, the tree is chosen.

Further rituals follow till the new idols are installed.