The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c17.s1.326.3

v2.c17.s1.326.3

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.