The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c17.s1.333

v2.c17.s1.333

The question, however, may be raised : are the similitudes such as necessarily to lead to the conclusion aimed at ? The most remarkable coincidence is the month ; but it might be quite accidental. The cars must be cars wherever fashioned, and, even as Hindu temples are similar to Buddhist temples, and yet the Images for whom they are intended are different, so the cars may be alike, and yet the festival may be different and in its origin quite independent of each other. Human nature is essentially the same everywhere and must under most circumstances manifest itself in very much the same way without any actual copying. Bearing this in mind I would not be satisfied that the Car Festival of Jagannātha was for certain a survival of the Procession of Images of the Buddhists, from the mere fact of their being similar. But the facts noticed in different parts of this essay all tend towards a different conclusion. The history of Puri (p. [107]) leaves no doubt in one’s mind of its once having been an important seat of Buddhism. The similitude of the images of Jagannātha, Balarāma and Subhadrā with the threefold Buddhist symbol (p. [126]) is such as cannot be accounted for except on the supposition of their being the same. The belief in the existence of some relic in the image of Jagannātha (p. [127]) suggests a purely Buddhist origin. The total suspension of caste rules (p. [128]) is, likewise, unquestionably due to other than Hindu faith. The belief that Jagannātha is no other than the Buddha incarnation of Viṣṇu, though not avowed in any Hindu work, is pretty current all over Orissa and Bengal ; and hundreds of thousands of pictures of the ten *avatāras* are annually sold in which Jagannātha is painted in the place of Buddha. Most of the pictures, painted on cloth, are produced in Puri itself, within three hundred yards of the sacred temple, and sold to the pious pilgrims who travel over hundreds of miles under the most trying circumstances, in the most inclement of seasons and carry them home as mementos of the Lord of the world. In Bengal it is the custom for every pilgrim returning from Puri, to send one of these pictures and a few grains of the dried cooked rice Mahāprasāda to his friends and relatives ; and so each pilgrim, according to his means, distributes from half a dozen to scores of them. In Calcutta large engravings of the ten *avatāras* are sold by thousands and in every one of them the place of Buddha is occupied by Jagannātha. And these facts leave no room for doubt that Jagannātha and some of his peculiar ceremonial observances are of Buddhist origin ; that the Car Festival marks the anniversary of Buddha’s [ 137 ] birthday ; that the heterodox ceremonies were adapted by the Hindu revivalists to prevent the masses, who were attached to them, from resenting innovations ; and that they have since maintained the prestige with which antiquity, tradition and custom invest all ceremonial and festive observances.