The Car festival was delayed by a week. On the 21st June 1822, the town of Pooree was filled with pilgrims. All the European ladies and gentlemen assembled close to the Cars of Juggernaut were aiding in pulling a rope which suddenly yielded having been slacker than others. These men fell on the ground unheeded by the shouting mob. Four were instantly crushed to the atoms, the fifth had a leg dreadfully mangled and the sixth fell between two wheels and escaped unhurt. The practice which formerly prevailed of enticing the pilgrims to sacrifice their lives by voluntarily throwing themselves under the wheels had happily ceased and nothing of that kind was attempted." Andrew Stirling, who came to Orissa as Secretary to the Commissioners in 1818 visited the Car festivals on four occasions. He saw only two instances of self-- immolation.
The victims had long been suffering from some excruciating complaints and chose this method of ridding themselves of the burden of life in preference to other modes of suicide.
But two cases were enough. Peggs persuaded his friends John Poynder (That devoted friend to humanity'- The present state of British connection with idolatry with India and Ceylon and particularly of the established Govt. donation for the support of the temple of Juggernaut by Peggs p. 35) to move resolution to prevent" all rites and ceremonies in India involving the destruction of life " in the meeting of the Court of Directors held in March 1827. The Honourable Proprietor Polynder condemned Suttee and read 'the details relative to sacrifices at Juggernaut' ( Asiatic Review, January-June 1827). The resolution was passed in spite of the opposition of some of the Directors.
Lord Bentinck carried out the direction of the Court of Pro-prietors and abolished Suttee in 1829. For the abolition of Suttee, James Peggs, Cuttack Missionary, was indirectly responsible. The Editorial article in the Morning Herald, London, dated 25 September 1830 thanked the government for the suppression of the Suttee. "But the Moloch of Hindostan the obscene and cruel Juggernaut still demands and receives like the Cretan monster, his periodical allowances of victims and our Anglo-Indian Government legalizes its atrocities by making it subject of a tax.
Dr. M.D. Short who had served in Orissa, replied in the Asiatic Reviewthat the surplus of the pilgrim tax after meeeting the expenditure of the temple was utilised by Government which maintained the Christian Church. "The Christian ministers receive the wages of idolatry". Dr. Short pointed out that cases of voluntary sacrifice had become exceedingly rare. "I am inclined to think that there are more suicides in this country than arising out of religious fanaticism in our Indian possessions.
Car festival took place on 1 July 1833. Owing to the failure of crops due to a dreadful storm in 1832 ("A more extensive calamity seldom visited the earth" Henry Ricketts, Collector Balasore to Commissioner, 26 April 1832. Twenty six thousand people perished in the Balasore District) acute distress prevailed. Not more than fifty thousand pilgrims attended the festival. Cholera broke out in virulent form.
During the Car festival in 1840, three cases of death under the wheels of the car of Jagannath were reported. These were cases either of suicide or accident (Mill Commissioner to Sudder Board of Revenue 5 August 1840)
Rev. Wilkinson of Ganjam witnessed the Car festival of 1841. "This time there was almost cessation of rain. The attendance was small and by far the greater portion of the pilgrims were widows.
Rev. Amos Sutton of Cuttack wrote "I have attended the Ruth Jattra in 1842. I was going to say that I have heard of no sacrifice this year. But few years elapse without there being one or two. In 1841, no less than thirteen lives were sacrificed. Most of them were accidents, but I am told not all. This year a European who witnessed the festival at Kinderaparah south-east of Cuttack says that he saw five persons thrown down just by his side and crushed beneath the trumpery car. So it is not the old Block alone who has his victims. True, they were thrown down in the scuffle but it is not difficult to avoid such scuffle, if parties are disposed.
Rev. Lacey, Sutton's colleague also attended the Car festival in 1842. "The influx of the pilgrim is great in consequence of the pilgrim tax being abolished. Had there not been a grievous famine affecting the province so as to prevent the Ooreas from attending the pilgrimage, there would have been 400,000 instead of 200,000 pilgrims. |
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