The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c17.s1.315

v2.c17.s1.315

Dr. Hunter, in his admirable work on Orissa, has discussed this subject at some length and has come to the conclusion that the charge against Jagannâtha is totally unfounded and grossly calumnious. And as his evidence, as that of a Christian gentleman and careful and critical observer, is likely to command in Eurpore greater respect, than what I can adduce from native sources, I shall quote it entire. He says : ‘In a closely packed eager throng of a hundred thousand men and women, many of them unaccustomed to exposure and hard labour, and all of them tugging and straining to the utmost under the blazing tropical sun, deaths must occasionally occur. There have doubtless been instances of pilgrims throwing themselves under the wheels in a frenzy of religious excitement. But such instances have always been rare and are now unknown. At one time several unhappy people were killed or injured every year, but they were almost invariably cases of accidental trampling. The few suicides that did occur were for the most part cases of diseased and miserable objects, who took this means to put themselves out of pain. The official returns now place this beyond doubt. Indeed, nothing could be more opposed to the spirit of Viṣṇu worship than self-immolation. Accidental death within the temple renders the whole place unclean. The ritual suddenly stops and the polluted offerings are hurried away from the sight of the offended god. According to Caitanya, the apostle of Jagannâtha, the destruction of the least of God’s creatures was a sin against the Creator. Self-immolation he would have regarded with horror. The copious religious literature of his sect frequently describes the Car Festival, but makes no mention of self-sacrifice, nor does it contain any passage that could be twisted into a sanction for it. Abul Fazl, the keen- Musalman observer, is equally silent, although from the context it is almost certain that, had he heard of the practices, he would have mentioned it. So far from encouraging self-immolation, the gentle doctrines of Jagannâtha tended to check the once universal cutsom of widow-buring. Even before the Government put a stop to it, our officials observed its comparative infrequency at Puri. It is expressly discountenanced in the writings of the Vaiṣṇavite reformers and is stigmatized by a celebrated disciple as “the fruitless union of beauty with a corpse”’⁷⁸.