After the conquest of Orissa, the East India Company wanted to make profit out of the tax on the pilgrims visiting the Jagannath temple. A new Jagannath road was constructed in 1810, which attracted pilgrims from all corners of India. Rich men went to Puri by carts and palanquins.Thither also trudged the persons afflicted with diseases, the aged and infirm, and the widows to whom the society was cruel. They sought salvation by witnessing the lord of the Universe during the Car festival at Puri, and "to die there perchance, being lulled to their last sleep by the roar of the eternal ocean". Monsoon broke out when they returned. Many of them died on their way back due to privation, hunger and fatigue. Cholera also decimated them. Nevertheless the number of pilgrims increased.
The Christian missionaries used to visit Puri during the Car festivals to vilify Jagannath and to persuade the pilgrims in distress to embrace Christianity. Their accounts are naturally biassed. Rev.Dr. Buchanon witnessed the Car festival on 18 June 1806. He writes :
I have witnessed a scene which I shall never forget. After the tower had proceeded some way, a pilgrim announced that he was ready to offer himself as a sacrifice to the idol. He laid himself down on the road as it was moving along, lying on his face with his arms stretched forward. The multitude pressed round him leaving the space clear. He was immediately crushed to death by the wheels of the tower. A shout of joy was raised to the god. He is said to smile when libation of blood is made. The people threw cowries on the body of the victim in approbation of the dead.
In 1821, Rev. James Peggs came to Cuttack to preach Christianity. Three children of Peggs died at Cuttack and he returned to England in 1826 almost as an invalid. For a quarter of century, Peggs, who styled himself as Cuttack Missionary, carried on ceaseless propaganda against Jagannath, which discouraged the Government to take effective steps to improve the administration of the Jagannath temple.
The Asiatic Journal (London) published a letter from a Cuttack correspondent in March 1822. On account of lateness of Ruth Jatra, the number of pilgrims fell in 1821. "Monsieur Jug was almost deserted and Messers Brahmin Pandit & Co. threatened to remove his worship to a more centrical situation in India in the neighbourhood of Moradabad.
The Asiatic Journal in January-June issue in 1824, published an account on the Car festival in 1822 by one correspondent from Cuttack.
Fifteen days after the Chaund Jattra, the grand festival of Ruth Jattra is celebrated : the usual tax is Rupees two for Government and six annas for the premium to the pundahs. Juggernaut's car is 38 feet high from the ground. The wood work is ornamented with images (all offensive representations have been lately removed from the cars and from the outer walls of the temple ) and painted. The car has a lofty dome covered with English woollens of the most gaudy colours.
On the 14th June 1822, the temple was opened for the worship of Juggernaut for the first time after his retirement. The concourse of the pilgrims is always very great and the British authorities have taken every precaution to guard against accidents; but as only the Hindoos are admitted within the temple it was necessary to trust the priest to prevent the ingress of too many pilgrims at once. Unfortunately they neglected the precaution. Men, women and children all rushed on the moment the gates were thrown open. When they reached the square building next to the grand tower, they had to descend three steps which were slippery from some holy food being spilt; eighteen women were thrown down at the foot of the steps and were trampled to death by the crowd in the rear before any assistance could be rendered. At last with great difficulty, the gates were again closed and the bodies were examined but it was too late. A singular difficulty occurred, the dead bodies of the strangers are touched by men of very low caste and the people of this dscription are not admitted into the temple. If corpses were carried through one of the gates, it would have been very bad omen for whoever might pass through afterwards. To obviate all these difficulties the dead bodies were removed with hooks and poles and thrown over the boundary walls like so many dogs. The relatives of the poor creatures were observed lamenting their untimely fall and must have felt shocked at the mode of removing them from the temple. |
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