Greetings once again everybody, it’s time for another blog post! This time will be slightly different: the topic of today will be regarding a Hindu Deity, and how its name reached Europe with an meaning noticeably different from its original.
For centuries and centuries, in the modern Indian State of Odisha, there is a yearly event at a Hindu Temple dedicated to the god Jagannath, translated literally in English from its native Odia as Lord of the Universe. Jagannath is considered to be a representation of the deity Krishna for many Vaishnava (the major Hindu denomination), whereas to other Hindus the god is considered to be associated with Shiva.
The Ratha Yatra of Puri
The briefly aforementioned yearly event that takes place at the Jagannath Temple at Puri, Odisha State is known as Ratha Yatra (in English translated to Chariot Festival). During this event, a depiction of the Deity, along with depictions of his brother and sister, are brought from his Temple and carried upon massive wooden chariots, built for the occasion, to Gundicha Temple within the city, staying there for a week until returning. There are many similar Chariot Festivals in India, but this one is considered by far the biggest and most-known of them all.
Where does the term Juggernaut come from?
Now, where exactly the term Juggernaut comes from is rather simple; it is a rendition of this Deity’s native name, as written by the Scottish theologian Claudius Buchanan living in Kolkata in the 18th Century. His writings on the Deity were full of negativity as he used it as an example of backwardness that the rest of the world had to intervene to stop. However, he is far from the first person from Europe to have encountered worshippers of this God and of its Chariot Festival: The medieval Franciscan Friar Odoric of Pordenone, living in the 13-14th Centuries, during a journey in India, wrote of the Deity and most of all, his huge chariots on which Jagannath’s depiction is carried during the Festival. Odoric described the event as an immense crowd of people surrounding this chariot which, due to its bulk and enormity, was seen as something so big that nothing could ever stop its path, even if this meant crushing anything and anyone that stood in the way. These accounts fascinated the medieval Europeans. Descriptions of an unstoppable force that could not be reckoned with made it seem nearly out of this world, and as it was often associated with violence due to the descriptions of people deliberately throwing themselves under the wheels of the chariot as an expression of religious zeal, a fact to which has not been proved as truthful: when the British conquered India, they wrote that they had not witnessed such acts during the procession, despite clearly understanding that the Ratha Yatra Odoric of Pordenone described nearly five hundred years prior was the same they encountered.
In one way or another, the term Juggernaut stuck, and nowadays is used to describe a force of unstoppable and destructive nature, akin almost to a siege machine used to batter and pull down city walls; this further explains its use in military contexts to describe an advance of a “wonder weapon” that cannot be stopped or defeated but only avoided or captured. It was also used as a general term for the Deity, until an article in the Harper in 1878 went into further depth explaining the name’s difference and origin.
Conclusion
I decided to write this post as I found it interesting how a term ever so often used has its origin shrouded mostly in mystery, especially from a European and American point of view, and that has in some way fascinated Europeans for centuries as a prime example of an unstoppable, extremely powerful force. The chariots are indeed impressive; their wheels alone are at times nearly twice the height of the average human being, its top reaching above the roofs of houses… and not to mention the width of them, either! The awe of seeing one (even in pictures alone as I have, as I have never been to India -despite me discovering there is a Ratha Yatra in Rome too!-) is very much expected. Thank you for reading. Let me know what you think as well, I’d be interested to hear what you have to say as well, if you have seen this Temple before, or you have an interest in visiting it, learning more about India, and much more. Thank you once again, and have a lovely day!
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