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Ratha Yatra: Jagannath and his Mobile Temple at Puri Her m a nn Ku l ke

1 Tarini at GhatgaonTarini The image of Tarini, a small stone with two prominent silver eyes, the lower part being covered by a cloth. She also wears a silver crown. Before the first renovation, she was surrounded by numerous clay horses and elephants. Formerly she only received uncooked food. These very rare photographs were taken in 1971, before the first enlargement of the temple by Herman Kulke.

Ghatgaon 1971, © C. Mallebrein.

The ratha yatra of Puri is India’s “car festival” par excellence and the three temple cars which carry Jagannath, the “Lord of the Universe”, and his divine elder brother Balabhadra and his sister Subhadra every year in the month of Asadha (June/July) from their monumental temple to Gundicha temple, their “summer residence”, are by far the most famous in India (fig. 1).

During ratha yatra, when “the Lord of the Universe” leaves his “jewelled lion throne” (ratna-simhasana) in the temple and appears to his devotees in Puri’s Grand Road (bara danda) (fig. 2), his chariot (ratha) transforms his temple into an open “divine palace”, drawn by his devotees. As with the great temple cars of South India, Puri’s rathas are impressive examples of mobile temple architecture in a double sense. Moving from the “Lions Gate” (simhadvara) in front of the Jagannath temple to the Gundicha temple, a distance of about 3 km, they extend the ritual and sacred space of the temple into major parts of the town, thus transforming Puri (=town) into a veritable temple city. As their consecration on the eve of the ratha yatra and their outer shape identify them as the true ‘temples’ during the car festival, the first English Pilgrim Tax Collector at Puri was therefore not surprised to observe in 1806: “During the Rath Yatra the God is seen in the streets and hardly a single pilgrim enters the Temple.”

But divine chariots are also “mobile” in a more metaphoric sense. Each ratha is drawn by several hundred devotees, who come from all social strata and includes pilgrims from all quarters of the Hindu world. The rathas and their divine occupants move many more thousands of devotees into a state of excitement. It is not only the appearance of the

god outside his temple which excites the pilgrims, it is also the crowd’s fascination with the movement of the rathas itself along Grand Road. The moment when Balabhadra’s ratha, the first of the three chariots, starts to move through the joint efforts of the devotees is the climax of the whole ratha yatra. (fig. 3) The pilgrims are further incited by the rhythmic sound of brass gongs, beaten by priests standing in two rows on each car. In the past, female temple servants (devadasi) accompanied the rathas and danced in front of the procession in praise of their “Lord of the Universe”. In the Kapila Samhita, a hagiographic text of the sixteenth century, Jagannath himself promises the pilgrims who attend his car festival liberation from all sins and the direct admission to his divine abode.

The earliest literary evidence for the existence of the car festival at Puri occurs in the period of the Somavamsa or legendary Kesari dynasty of the eight to tenth cenury, the first dynasty of Orissa to be connected by the accounts of the temple chronicle of Puri with the Jagannath cult. The Anargharaghava of Murari, a drama of the tenth or eleventh century, mentions the festival (yatra) of the god Purushottama (= Jagannath) at the eastern sea shore. Scholars agree that this description most likely refers to the Puri car

festival. The oldest iconographical evidence of the festival and its temple cars comes from the later Ganga period in the fourteenth century. An excellent frieze of a dilapidated temple at Dhanmandal in Northern Orissa depicts a sequence of three temple cars, each drawn by a large number of devotees. The best preserved relief contains a number of interesting iconographical details (fig. 4). It depicts a car with 12 wheels without spokes. On the platform of the car rises a mandapa hall, adorned with a typical Orissan arched doorway (torana) which forms the frame for the deity. The roof of the ratha has a pyramidal shape with four horizontal cornices and a typical ribbed finial crowned by a pot-shaped kalasastone. This frieze thus clearly shows that the early rathas of Puri were modelled after the pidha temple type known mainly from the frontal Jagamohan mandapa halls of the Orissan temples like the famous Lingaraja temple at Bhubaneswar (late 11th century). The frieze also depicts, before and behind the ratha, two umbrellas and standards which indicate the royal status of the deity on the car. These symbols of royalty are still carried before the Raja of Puri when he approaches the rathas.(fig. 5)

Today, the rathas of the three deities are distinguished by size, colour and the number of wheels. Jagannath’s ratha (Nandighosa) is 13.5 m high and is supported by 16 wheels; it is covered by red and yellow cloth ; Balabhadra’s ratha (Taladhvaja), adorned by red and green cloth, stands on 14 wheels and has a height of 13.2 m; Subhadra’s car (Darpadalana or Deviratha) in red and black is supported by 12 wheels, and is 12.9 m high. The wheels of all three cars have 16 spokes like their stone counterparts at the world famous sun temple of Konarak. A characteristic of the rathas of Puri is their decoration with large pieces of differently coloured cloth. In Puri the changeable sea wind modifies the contours of the cars. (fig. 6) Contrary to the earliest depiction on the Dhanmandal frieze, the present rathas of Puri resemble the rekha temple type of Orissan architecture. This type is characterised by the grand design of the curvilinear spire (sikhara) of the main temple tower, greatly enhanced by the vertical lines of strongly emphasised ribs. The resemblance is most evident on pictures which show the rathas in front of the Jagannath temple with their coloured cloth covering and their distinct vertical lines.

The annual construction of the cars lasts for two months and has to be completed exactly the day before the beginning of the ratha yatra (fig. 7). It takes place in nine successive strictly ritualised stages in the main street in front of the palace of the Raja of Puri. As the rathas symbolise the body of their divine residents, these stages of construction are accompanied by a large number of rituals, mostly performed by the royal priest (rajapurohit). Throughout this time 32 craftsmen are employed, who claim to be descendants of Visvakarma, the divine architect who constructed Jagannath’s first ratha in the mythological past. These craftsmen have for generations belonged to the same local castes of carpenters, woodcarvers, painters and blacksmiths and to a group of outcaste labourers. They are divided by a complicated double hierarchy: apart from the different status of their respective castes, they are split up by the different status of “their” rathas.

Those who construct the ratha of Balabhadra, the eldest brother of the divine trinity, hold within their caste the highest position, followed by the craftsmen of Jagannath’s Nandighosa and finally by the craftsmen of Subhadra’s Deviratha.

Among the major car festivals of India, Puri’s ratha yatra has two unique features.

Firstly, contrary to the practice particularly in South India, Puri’s cars are newly constructed each year and then, after the ratha yatra, demolished. Only their uppermost portion (kalasa), the nine small painted wood carvings (fig. 8) and the wooden horses attached to each car, are retained to be used again. Secondly, the Jagannath cult of Puri is more directly associated with kingship than most of India’s great places of pilgrimage; the kings of Orissa recognised Jagannath as king and overlord of Orissa since the early thirteenth century. Both these specific features of the Puri ratha festival had direct economic and political implications. Economically, they required the regular procurement of an enormous quantity of wood as well as iron and ropes, and their subsequent sale after the gods had returned to the main temple. Politically, it meant the absorption of the temple cars into the scope of royal legitimisation and, in some cases, even transformed them into a stage or arena of power struggle among the rulers of Orissa. It is therefore not surprising that already in the early fourteenth century the Purushottama Mahatmya warned that a damage of Jagannath’s ratha would lead to the annihilation of the whole kingdom.

The association of the kings of Orissa with the Jagannath cult became very close after the construction of the great temple (bada deula) by Anantavarman Chodaganga and his successors 12th century and in particular after king Anangabhima III recognised Jagannath as the sole state deity of Orissa in 1230 CE and claimed to rule as his “deputy” (rauta) under his supreme overlordship (samrajya). The close relation of the Gajapati kings to the Ratha Yatra under the Ganga dynasty is already reported by a European traveller , Frias Odoric, in the year 1321: Annually on the recurrence of the day when the Idol was made, the folk of the country come and take it down, and put it on a fine chariot; and then the King and Queen, and the whole body of the people, join together and draw it forth from church with loud singing of songs and all kinds of music.

The relationship of the Gajapati king with the Jagannath cult and the Ratha Yatra became even more intrinsic under the great Suryavamsi Gajapati Purushottama, the hero of the famous Kanchi Kaberi legend and the first king associated with the important ritual of cleaning the temple cars (chera pahamra). To this day, the car festival cannot start before the Raja of Puri or his representative has sprinkled (chera) the three cars with holy water (fig. 9). and cleaned (pahamra) them with a broom. In the Niti, a seventeenth century manuscript, we are even told that the raja, after finishing chera pahamra, put a silk-covered pillow on his head and symbolically pushed the cars from behind, thus starting the car festival. On the one hand, the chera pahamra ritual has to be understood as a sign of great devotion to Krishna with whom Jagannath had become completely identified. But on the other hand, it has also become the main source of legitimacy of the Gajapati kings of Orissa. Today, the grand ceremony remains the most important “royal duty” (rajaniti) which bears the proud name “Gajapati Maharaja Seva”. It makes the “Maharajas of Puri” indispensable to the festival even now, long after they have lost all their ancestral territory around Khurda (in 1804) and, in the 1970s, their remaining royal privileges at Puri.

The special relationship between the Gajapati kings of Orissa and the Jagannath cult of Puri culminated under the Rajas of Khurda who had been able to establish themselves as local successors to the “Imperial Gajapatis” after the latter’s extermination by Muslim armies in 1568 CE. Their legitimisation was mainly based on the renewal of the Jagannath cult in the years 1590-92 and - initially - on the recognition of Khurda’s semi-autonomous status by the Mughal emperor Akbar. But under his successor Jahangir, Khurda lost its privileged status after three devastating attacks under the Mughal governors of Orissa.

The first attack was led by Keso Das Maru, a Hindu Rajput in the service of Jahangir. A contemporary history of Mughal rule in eastern India contains a detailed description of Keso’s surprise attack on Puri in 1609 and makes an interesting reference to the use of temple cars for military purpose. Under the pretext of pilgrimage, Keso entered Puri during the car festival with a small band of followers in order to loot the famous temple treasure of Jagannath “worth more than 20-30 millions”. When the Raja of Khurda arrived with his army, Keso entrenched himself in the Jagannath temple. The Raja of Khurda “made five hundred to one thousand men ride on each ratha which was pulled by two to three thousand men; and pushed them on to the outer wall of the temple and put the inmates into a very serious plight.” But when the soldiers on the cars began to shoot, Keso Das and his men in the Jagannath temple returned the attack with burning sticks and arrows, setting fire to all the temple cars and killing hundreds of Khurda’s soldiers.

Although some details of this story are untrustworthy, there seems to be some truth behind it because the temple chronicle of Puri, too, mentions fierce fighting with “Kesomaru” during which the temple cars were completely destroyed.

After the Rajas of Khurda had lost their military and political power during these fights, they turned their attention to Puri and systematically enlarged their influence in, and control over, the Jagannath cult and its car festival during the peaceful reign of Emperor Shahjahan. Since then an intricate set of temple-palace relations has evolved, which became the main basis for Khurda’s influential position during its power struggle with the various feudatory states and the Muslim governors of Orissa. The car festivals played an important role in these struggles. With the exception of a few iconoclasts, the Muslim governors of Orissa, too, were genuinely interested in strengthening their control over the ratha yatra because of the pilgrim tax which formed a substantial part of their revenue. In 1633 William Bruton, an early British visitor of Puri even reported that during the car festival “one of the Mughal [officers was] sitting in the chariot, upon a convenient place, with a canopy to keep the sun from injuring him” , - obviously to control this most important yearly gathering of pilgrims in eastern India.

The Rajas of Khurda, on the other hand, used the car festival to maintain their influential position in Puri. The festival and its royal rituals afforded an excellent opportunity to display their role as successors to the Imperial Gajapatis and “First Servitors” of Lord Jagannath among the various Hindu rajas and princes in attendance.

For this purpose the Rajas of Khurda issued “royal letters” (chāmu citāu) to the feudatory rajas of Orissa granting them certain privileges in the Jagannath cult in order to gain their loyalty and political support. A particular honour and distinction during ratha yatra was the permission to serve Jagannath on the chariot with a camara fan with a golden handle. The feudatory rajas of Daspalla and Dhenkanal had the privilege to provide annually wood and iron for the construction of the chariots and ropes to pull them in lieu of taxes. But the position of the Khurda Rajas in the Jagannath cult was never uncontested. The Mughals tried to extract a maximum of pilgrim taxes and to weaken the Khurda Rajas politically.

However they never endangered their position as “first servitors” of Jagannath and main administrators of his temple as they, as non-Hindus, depended on the Rajas of Khurda to perform their “royal business” in Puri in a kind of joint venture.

This situation changed dramatically with the downfall of the Mughals and the conquest of Orissa by the Marathas of Nagpur. As Hindu rulers of Orissa from 1751-1803, they were suspicious of the Khurda Rajas and their claim to be the “sacred and secret” rulers of Orissa. Soon after their occupation of Orissa, they put Khurda’s feudatories under their own sway and deprived Khurda of its administration of the Jagannath temple. However, they never tried to finally appropriate Khurda’s rights and ritual symbols of its divine kingship during the car festival. This, however, was exactly what the

8 Goddess Birajai at Bankada Fort The stone figure depicting the goddess Birajai is one of the finest examples of early Orissan stone sculpture, dated to the 7th to 8th c. This form is called Carccika, a manifestation of the goddess Durga.

During the ritual, the goddess Birajai is beautifully dressed and decorated with red hibiscus flowers. She was the tutelary deity of the now extinct royal family of Bankada Fort. Birajai Mala, Khurda District. Photo 12.2.2001, © C. Mallebrein.

6 Goddess Markama The tribal goddess Markama, the tutelary deity of the local rulers at Bissamcuttack.

She is considered one of the most powerful goddesses in this region. Her priests (pāīks) change her appearance from time to time.

In 2003 numerous silver ornaments oval in shape decorated her face. She owns several swords kept in her small shrine. Bissamcuttack, Rayagada District. Photo 4.2.2003, © C. Mallebrein.

Raja of Parlakimedi, a feudatory state in South Orissa, tried in 1753, when the Marathas had not yet finally established their rule in Orissa. The Rajas of Parlakimedi, claming to be descendants of the erstwhile Imperial Gangas, had never accepted Khurda’s claim to Gajapati kingship. Raja Narayana Deva saw an opportunity to come forward with his claim to the Gajapati throne and visited the ratha yatra with a troop of 2000 followers and all the trappings of royalty. A palm-leaf of Puri’s temple archive relates the fascinating story: On that day [July 12th, 1753], Jagannatha Narayana Deo of Parlapatana (Parlakimedi) had come together with his brother to see the return festival [of the cars] from the Gundicha temple [to the main temple]. On his elephant there was a royal nagara drum, a flag-staff and also a royal seat. The elephant was placed in front of [Jagannatha’s] car and [the two brothers] ascended the ratha [from the back of the elephant] to have darsana (worship).

The presents offered by them were taken by the Daitapati priests. During the darsana of the Great Lord on the Nandighosa car a necklace fell from the holy body of the Lord.

Narayana Deva asked to be given the necklace but at this moment all priests hid the necklace, gave him tulasi (sacred leaf) and prasada (offerings) and sent [secretly] the divine necklace to the [Khurda] King. [On the next day] the cars reached the Lion’s Gate of the Temple towards the close of the night. Being dressed in royal robes, Narayana Deva and his brother sat on the ratha. On the same day all the priests had a confidential discussion because of the darsana [of the Raja and his brother] in full royal dress on the ratha and the possibility of their entering into the temple [in royal dress]. It was dawn before the discussion was over. Because these two people sitting on the car, demanding to be allowed to discharge the duties (upacara) of the King during the time of the ceremonial return [of the deities from the cars into the temple], this ceremony did not take place. Consequently [only] the three incense offerings (dhupa) were performed on the car and Narayana Deo went away. [On the next day] the deities stayed on the cars. After the three incense offerings had been performed [again], the ceremonial return of the deities to his temple began at

8 Goddess Birajai at Bankada Fort The stone figure depicting the goddess Birajai is one of the finest examples of early Orissan stone sculpture, dated to the 7th to 8th c. This form is called Carccika, a manifestation of the goddess Durga.

During the ritual, the goddess Birajai is beautifully dressed and decorated with red hibiscus flowers. She was the tutelary deity of the now extinct royal family of Bankada Fort. Birajai Mala, Khurda District. Photo 12.2.2001, © C. Mallebrein.

10.30 in the night. Wearing a royal turban and a belt Narayana Deva followed the Great Lord and walked majestically [into the temple].

Narayana Deva returned to the temple the next day in royal dress and, together with the Maratha General Mohana Singh, worshipped Lord Jagannath. But due to the passive resistance of the priests he failed to win acceptance as the legitimate Gajapati king.

The generous distribution of privileges to their feudatories by the Khurda Rajas during car festivals and the attempt of another raja to capture the ratha, show to what extent the temple cars could also become an arena of political contestation. Temporarily they combined the functions of palace and temple, and the message that rajas and priests announced through them was carried home by thousands of pilgrims even to the remotest villages.

During the conquest of Orissa in 1803 the East India Company was well aware of this importance of the Jagannatha cult and its car festival. In 1804, the British Commissioner at Cuttack visited the first car festival at Puri after the conquest and reported to his Governor General that during the car festival “the priests and pilgrims received me with shouts and clapping hands [and] the general impression both among the priests and the pilgrims is highly favourable to the British Government.” And he then drew the conclusion from his observation: “On all occasions when the subject of the valuable acquisition of the Province of Cuttack [= Orissa] is under consideration, the important possession of the Temple of Juggernaut must stand in a prominent point of view; in a political light its value is incalculable.” (fig. 10).

It is fascinating to read such statements of the early nineteenth century in our own age of a supposed “clash of civilisations”. But in this case, too, the “unholy alliance” of Liberals and the Evangelicals (as an early brand of Christian fundamentalists) and their joint fight against “British connection with idolatry in India” soon changed drastically the British attitude to Puri and its Jagannath cult. The first missionary to visit Puri was Claudius Buchanan in 1805. His dreadful accounts of the “Moloch of the heathen world” were a shock for the British public: “I made a journey to the Great Temple of Juggernaut which is to the Hindoos what Mekka is to the Mohammedans, the stronghold and fountain-head of their idolatry. [...] On the great day the idol was brought out [...] it had the character of crudelity and impurity. Men and women devoted themselves before the Moloch. I myself beheld the libations of human blood.” Although by 1822 A. Stirling, a young officer in Orissa and the first British author of a comprehensive depiction of Orissa, reported only three such incidents during the preceding four years of which one at least was an accident, the common belief in the frequency of these self-immolations and the propaganda of the missionaries against Juggernaut as “moloch” and “fountain-head of idolatry” made him “a standing metaphor, synonymous with anything to which persons blindly devote themselves, or are ruthlessly sacrificed.” It is therefore not surprising that missionaries hoped that “a blow at Idolatry here [at Puri], will prove a blow at the root [of Hinduism]” . In a series of fierce debates in the British Parliament during the 1840s the Evangelicals were finally successful in their fight against “British connections with idolatry in India”. The Home Government was forced to abolish the Pilgrim Tax, which the East India Company had been collecting at Puri in support of the Jagannath cult.

However, the Evangelicals were greatly mistaken in their hope that a blow at Juggernaut “will prove a blow at the root”. As an irony of history it was largely due to this campaign that Jagannath emerged as a unique symbol of the “Oriya Nationalism” in the course of Indian Freedom Movement. Even today, Jagannath and his grand ratha yatra form the very core of Oriya identity. And whereas in former times the great Gajapati kings threatened their opponents with the wrath of Jagannath, contemporary Chief Ministers of Orissa and their opponents regularly start their election campaigns with the blessing of the “Lord of the World” at Puri.

Surprisingly no special monograph exists yet on this greatest religious event in eastern India and its famous chariots; for the cult of Jagannath see K.C. Mishra 1971 and A. Eschmann, H. Kulke, G.C. Tripathi 1978; O.S. Majewski 1993; H. Kulke and B. Schnepel 2001.

The Nītī, a manual of the 17th century of Jagannatha’s ritual (nītī) contains a detailed description of the consecration (pratistha) ceremony. The manuscript is being edited by Prof. G.C. Tripathi.

James Hunter, Collector of Tax, Jugganaut 10.6.1806, to the President of the Board of Revenue, Fort William. (Jagannath Temple Correspondence, Vol. I, Orissa State Archives).

F. Apffel Marglin 1985, see also Niti, 85.

P. Mishra 2005.

A.B. Mohanty1969, 4; see also H. Kulke 1978a, 38.

See G.C. Tripathi 1978a, 38.

Now in front of the Orissa State Museum at Bhubaneswar.

R. Hardenberg’s comprehensive study on Nabakelebara, the great ritual of the renewal of the Puri’s wooden deities, contains a detailed description of the rathas, their construction and meaning. R. Hardenberg 2001 and 2009; for a detailed study of the relevant literary sources see G.C. Tripathi 1978b.

P. Māhātmya XXV, 64.

H. Kulke 1981.

Quoted in Hobson-Jobson 1968, 466.

G.N. Dash 1978a.

Nītī, 85.

L. Panda 1955 vol. III, 12. See also H. Kulke 1974, 76.

M.J. Borah 1936 vol. 1, 35-8.

Bibliography Acharya,P. 1961. “Bruton’s Account of Cuttack and Puri,” in: Orissa Historical Research Journal, vol.10, pp. 25-50.

OUP

Apffel Marglin, F. 1985. Wives of the God-King. The Rituals of the Devadasis of Puri, Delhi

Banerjee, I. 2001. Divine Affairs: Religion, Pilgrimage and the State in Colonial and Postcolonial India, Shimla: Institute of Advanced Studies.

Berkemer, G. 2007. “The King’s Two Kingdoms or How the Maharaja of Parlakimedi Finally Became the Ruler of Orissa”, in G. Pfeffer (d.), Periphery and Centre. Studies in Orissan History, Religion and Anthropology, New Delhi: Manohar, pp. 341-360.

Bernier, F. 1916. Travels in the Moghul Empire A.D. 1556-63. Translation by A. Constable, 2nd ed., London Borah, M.J. 1936. Bahāristān-i-Ghaybī. A History of the Moghul Wars in Assam, Cooch Behar, Bengal, Bihar and Orissa during the Reigns of Jahāngīr and Shāhjahān, by Nathan, M. transl.

by Borah, M. J. Gauhati.

Dash, G.N. 1978a. “The Evolution of Priestly Power: The Sūryavamśa Period”, in Eschmann, A. Kulke, H. Tripathi, G.C. 1978, pp.209-223.

—. 1978b. “Jagannātha and Oriya Nationalism“, in: A. Eschmann, H. Kulke, Tripathi, G.C. 1978, pp. 359-374.

Eschmann, A., Kulke, H., Tripathi, G.C. 1978. The Cult of Jagannath and the Regional Tradition of Orissa, New Delhi: Manohar.

65-92.

Hardenberg, R. 2001. “The Renewal of Jagannath”, in Kulke, H., Schnepel B. 2001, pp.

Hardenberg,R. 2009. The Renewal of Jagannatha’s Body. Ritual and Society in Coastal Orissa, New Delhi: Manak (First published in German 1999).

Hobson-Jobson, 1968 The Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, ed. by Yule, H. and Burnell, A.C. repr. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal.

Kulke, H.1974. “Kings without a Kingdom. The Rajas of Khurda and the Jagannatha Cult”, in: Southasia, vol. 4, 60-77.

Kulke, H. 1978a. “Early Royal Patronage of the Jagannath Cult”, in: Eschmann, A., Kulke, H., Tripathi, G.C. 1978, pp. 1339-157.

Kulke, H. 1978b. “Juggernaut under British Supremacy and the Resurgence of the Khurda Rajas as ‘Rajas of Puri’’’, in: Eschmann, A., Kulke, H., Tripathi, G.C. 1978, pp. 345-358.

Kulke, H. 1981. “King Anańgabhīma III, the Veritable Founder of the Gajapati Kingship and of the Jagannātha Trinity”, in: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland , pp. 26-39.

A.B. Mohanty 1969, 65. Mirza’s fantastic story reminds one of the description of the temple cars given by F. Bernier who travelled in lndia in the years 1656-68: “A superb wooden machine is constructed, such as I have seen in several other parts of the Indies, with I know not how many grotesque figures. This machine is set on fourteen or sixteen wheels like those of a gun-carriage, and drawn or pushed along by the united exertions of fifty or sixty persons.” F. Bernier 1916, 304.

Quoted from P. Acharya 1961, 46. See also P.T. Nair 1985.

H. Kulke 1992, 131-142.

Berkemer 2007.

Orissa State Museum, Temple Archive of the D. Karana, V, 1, 61V. J. Melville to Shawe (Priv. Secretary to Wellesley) 11.7.1804, Wellesley Papers, Add. Ms. 13611, quoted in H. Kulke1978b, 347. For detailed studies of Jagannath under British Supremacy see particularly I. Banerjee 2001 and Y. Mubayi 2005; see also P. Mukherjee 2000.

E.g. between 1827 and 1843 James Peggs, a former missionary at Puri, published five “petitions” to the Home Government as booklets, see for instance J. Peggs 1843.

Speech at Cambridge, 1.7.1810.

A. Stirling 1822, 324.

The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. In January 2006, Google contained 2.610.000 references to “Juggernaut” and 556.00 to “Juggernaut Bush”!

J. Peggs 1846, 371.

Friend of India. Journal of the Baptist Mission in India, called these connections “a perversion of British humanity, regularity and good faith”, Oct. 1825, 274.

G.N. Dash 1978b.

Kulke, H. 1992. “Ksetra and Ksatra. The Cult of Jagannātha of Puri and the ‘Royal Letters’ of the Rajas of Khurda”, in: Bakker, H. (ed.), The Sacred Centre as a Focus of Political Interest, Groningen: Forsten, E. pp. 131-142 Kulke, H. and Schnepel, B. 2001.“Jagannath and Orissan Studies: Accomplishments and Prospects, in: Kulke, H. Schnepel, B. (eds), Jagannath Revisited. Studying Society, Religion and the State in Orissa, Delhi: Manohar, pp. 1-24.

Mishra, K.C. 1971. The Cult of Jagannath, Calcutta: Mukhopadhyaya.

Mishra, P. 2005. Kapila Samhita. Text,English Translation and Critical Study, Delhi: New Bharatiya Book Corporation.

Mohanty, A.B. 1969. Madala Panji, Bhubaneswar: Utkal University. (First published 1944,Cuttack: Prachi Samiti).

Mubayi, Y. 2005. Altar of Power. The Temple and the State in the Land of Jagannatha, New Delhi: Manohar.

Nair, P.T. 1985. Bruton’s Visit to Lord Jagannatha 350 Years Ago, ed. by Thankappan Nair, P. Calcutta .

Mukherjee, P. 2000. Pilgrim Taxes and Temple Scandals. A Critical Study of the Important Jagannath Temple Records during British Rule, ed. by Gardener Cassels. N. Bangkok: Orchid Press.

Panda, L. 1955. Record of Rights of Shri Jagannath Temple, published in the Orissa Gazette (Extraordinary), Cuttack ,14.10.1955 Peggs, J. 1843. A Letter to the Right Honourable Sri Robert Peel Bart, First Lord of Her Majesty’s Treasure, on the State of British Connexion with Idolatry in India and Ceylon, and Particularly of “The Established Government Donations” for the Support of Juggernaut in Orissa, London.

Peggs. J. 1846. A History of the General Baptist Mission, London.

Starza Majewski, O. 1993. The Jagannath Temple at Puri: Its Architecture, Art and Cult, Leiden: Brill.

Stirling, A. 1822. “An Account, Geographical, Statistical and Historical, of Orissa Proper, or Cuttack” , in Asiatick Researches, vol.15, pp. 163-338 .

Tripathi, G.C. 1978a. “On the Concept of ‘Purușottama’ in the Āgamas“, in: Eschmann, A., Kulke, H. Tripathi, G.C. 1978, pp. 31-60.

Tripathi, G.C. 1978b. “Nabakalebara: The Unique Ceremony of the ‘Birth’ and the ‘Death’ of the ‘Lord of the World’”, in Eschmann, A., Kulke, H., Tripathi, G.C. 1978, pp. 223-265.