The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c17.s1.326

Language: English

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The subject was next taken up by Mr. J. W. Laidlay in 1848. When translating into English M. M. Remusat, Klaproth and Landresse's French version of the *Fbe Koue Ki* he noticed a passage which have a very vivid description of a car festival which the Buddhists celebrated in Khotan. It runs thus : 'On the first day of the fourth moon (i. e., on the 1st of Āṣāḍha ), they sweep and water all the streets of the town and they adorn and set in order the roads and the squares. They spread tapestry and hangings before the gate of the city. All is ornamented and magnificently arranged. The king, the queen and many elegant ladies are stationed at this place. The monks of *Kiu ma ti*, being those devoted to the study of the *great translation*, are most honoured by the king, and take, therefore, the lead in the Procession of Images. At the distance of three or four *li* from the town is constructed a four-wheeled car for the Images, about three *toises* (about 30 feet in height) in the form of a movable pavilion, adorned with the seven precious things, with hangings and curtains and coverlets of silk. The Image is placed in the middle; on either side are two Phousa (Bodhisattva); while around and behind are the images of the gods. All are carved in silver and in gold, with precious stones suspended in the air.

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When the Image is one hundred paces from the gate, the king despoils him of his diadem, dresses in new garments, and, advancing barefoot, and holding in his hands perfumes and flowers, issues from the town, accompanied by his retinue to march in front of the Image. He prostrates himself at its feet, and adores it, scattering flowers and burning incense. At the moment when the Image enters the town, the ladies and the young damsels in the pavilion above the gate, scatter from all sides a profusion of every variety of flowers, so that the car is completely concealed with them'⁸². The pilgrim noticed a similar festival at Patna at nearly the same time of the year, i.e., on the eighth day of the fourth moon of the month of Āṣāḍha, which in the Court Almanac of Pekin is called 'the holy birthday of Buddha'. Regarding it he says, 'every year in celebration of the eighth day of the moon Mao⁸³, they prepare four-wheeled cars on which they erect bamboo stages, supported by spears, so that they form a pillar two *chang* high, having the appearance of a tower. They cover it with a carpet of white felt, upon which they place the images of all the celestial divinities, which they decorate with gold and silver and coloured glass. Above they spread an awning of embroidered work; at the four corners are little chapels, having each a Buddha seated, with Bodhisattvas standing beside him. There may be about twenty cars, all differing from each other in their ornament and importance.

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On this day all the streets are thronged with the assembled population. Theartical representations are exhibited, gymnastic sports and concerts of music'⁸⁴. Commenting on the first of these two passages, Mr. Laidlay says, 'The reader cannot fail to be struck with the very close resemblance betwixt the Buddha procession here described [136] and that of Jagannātha, of which indeed it requires no great stretch of the imagination to suppose it to be the model and prototype. The time of the year at which the ceremony took place, corresponds very closely ... ... with that of the Ratha Jātrā and the duration of the festival was about the same. The principal image with its supporters on either hand seems the very counterpart of Jagannātha, Balarāma and Subhadrā; and when we further bear in mind that the famous temple at Puri is supposed to stand on the site of an ancient Buddhist Caitya; that the annual festival is accompanied by that singular anomaly, the *suspension of all caste* for the time being'; (the suspension is permanent and not for the time the ceremony lasts) 'and lastly, that the image contains the *supposed relics* of Kṛṣṇa,—a feature entirely abhorrent from Hinduism, but eminently characteristic of Buddhism,—I think we can scarcely doubt that the procession of Jagannātha had its origin in the observances of the latter faith'⁸⁵.

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In his notes on the second passage he adds, 'in the ordinary native pictures of the *avatāras* of Viṣṇu, the ninth *avatāra*, (Bauddha avatāra) is represented by a figure of Jagannātha. I have failed to ascertain from pandits any explanation of this. In the *Viṣṇu Purāṇa*, Viṣṇu is represented as becoming incarnate in the person of Buddha, for purposes of illusion; a convenient artifice of the Brahmans to dispose of all difficulties attending the popularly admitted supernatural character of Śākya; but this does not explain the circumstance of Jagannātha being regarded as typifying the Bauddha avatāra. The circumstance would seem to indicate an under-current of popular tradition which had survived the changes of national religion and all the efforts of the priesthood to suppress it'⁸⁶.