Jagannath Temple, Puri Quotes

“Bhubaneswar”

“Firuz Shah Tughlaq”

“Almost every form of Hindu faith is represented here.”

“Wikipedia: Jagannath Temple, Puri”

“This girl, this child, the native of a Christian land, worse than many a little heathen who says its prayers to Brahma and kneels before Juggernaut--this girl is--a liar!”

“Every Afghãn, who took part in the campaign, obtained as booty one or two gold images. Kãlã Pahãr destroyed the temple of Jagannãth in Puri which contained 700 idols made of gold, the biggest of which weighed 30 mãns.”

“When Firuz Tughluq invaded Orissa in 1359 and learned that the region's most important temple was that of Jagannath located inside the raja's fortress in Puri, he carried off the stone image of the god and installed it in Delhi 'in an ignominious position'.”

“[D]id they not at the same time forbid Christianity to be propagated in India, and did they not, in order to make money out of the pilgrims streaming to the temples of Orissa and Bengal, take up the trade in the murder and prostitution perpetrated in the temple of Juggernaut?”

“It was formerly believed that devotees had offered themselves as sacrifices, as in the case of fanatics supposed to have thrown themselves under the wheels of the Juggernaut (Indian Jagannath) car; but it is now held that the rare cases of such apparent self-sacrifice may have been accidents.”

“In this year also Sulaiman Kirrãnî, ruler of Bengal, who gave himself the tide of Hazrati Ãla, and had conquered die city of Katak-u-Banãras, that mine of heathenism, and having made the stronghold of Jagannãth into the home of Islãm, held sway from Kãmru to Orissa, attained the mercy of God.”

“India has had a spiritual freedom never known until lately to the West. Christianity when it came offering its spiritual philosophy of life imposed an iron dogma upon the European peoples. Those who could not accept this dogma, whatever it happened to be at the moment, paid so heavy a penalty that the legend of the Car of Juggernaut (Jagannath) is far truer of Europe than Asia."”

“The archaic iconography of the cult images on the one hand and their highest Hindu iconology on the other as well as the existence of former tribals (daitas) and Vedic Brahmins amongst its priests are by no means an antithesis, but a splendid regional synthesis of the local and the all-Indian tradition.' (...) 'The uninterrupted tribal-Hindu continuum finds its lasting manifestation in the Jagannath cult of Puri.'”

“Cakoda Pothi, a local Oriya chronicle stated, “there was a complete anarchy (arajaka) and nobody was there to care of gods and Brahmanas” (Kulke 2013: 69). ... The Riyazu-s-Salatin recorded, “During the commotion in Muhammad Taqi Khan’s time, the Rajah of Parsutam had removed Jagannath, the Hindu God, from the limits of the Subah of Odisah, and had guarded it on the summit of a hill across the Chilka lake” (Riyazu-s-Salatin 1902: 302-303).”

“By any standard, Ranjit Singh was a Hindu ruler: 'He worshipped as much in Hindu temples as he did in gurudwaras. When he was sick and about to die, he gave away cows for charity. What did he do with the diamond Kohi-noor? He did not want to give it to the Darbar Sahib at Amritsar which he built in marble and gold, but to Jagannath Puri as his farewell gift.... Why should he be making all these Hindu demands? Whatever the breakaway that had been achieved from Hinduism, this greatest of our monarchs bridged in 40 years.”

“The Riyazu-s-Salatin recorded that the wooden image (images?) of Jagannath (and Balabhadra and Subhadra?) were taken to Bengal and publicly burnt on the banks of the Hooghly. ...... As the Riyazu-s-Salatin stated, In consequence of the removal of the idol, there was a fallingoff to the tune of nine laks of rupees in the Imperial revenue, accruing from pilgrims ...Establishing friendly relations [with the new Governor, the] Rajah ... brought back Jagannath the Hindu God to Parsutam [Puri], and reestablished the worship of Jagannath at Puri (”

“A number of people including William Wilberforce, sought to refute these arguments by painting in black colors the horrible customs of the Hindus such as sati, infanticide, throwing the children into the Ganga, religious suicides, and above all idolatry. Vivid descriptions were given of the massacre of the innocent resulting from the car procession of Lord Jagannath at Puri, and the Baptists put down the number of annual victims at not less than 120,000. When challenged they had to admit that they did not actually count the dead bodies but arrived at the figure by an ingenious calculation.”

“The present temple of Jagannath at Puri was constructed by Anantavarman Codagangadeva of the Eastern Gangas (r. 1078-1147) (Panda 2013: 55-57). A devotee of Shiva Gokarnesvara, he also built the Jagannath temple, exalting a popular local cult. An inscription eulogized his achievement, ... What king can be named that could erect a temple to such a god as Purusottama. Whose feet are the three worlds, whose navel is the entire sky, whose ears the Cardinal points, whose eyes the sun and moon and whose head the heaven (above)? This task which had hitherto been neglected by previous kings was fulfilled by Gangesvara (Mubayi 2005: 18).”

“'The victorious standards set out from Jaunpur for the destruction of idols, slaughter of the enemies of Islam and hunt for elephants near Padamtalav. The Sultan saw Jajnagar which had been praised by all travellers'...'The troops which had been appointed for the destruction of places around Jajnagar, ended the conceit of the infidels by means of the sword and the spear. Wherever there were temples and idols in that area, they were trampled under the hoofs of the horses of Musalmans... After obtaining victory and sailing on the sea and destroying the temple of Jagannath and slaughtering the idolaters, the victorious standards started towards Delhi...''”

“The Lingaraja temple in Bhubaneswar, built in the eleventh century, has two classes of priests: Brahmins and a class called Badus who are ranked as Sudras and are said to be of tribal origin. Not only are Badus priests of this important temple; they also remain in the most intimate contact with the deity whose personal attendants they are. Only they are allowed to bathe the Lingaraja and adorn him and at festival time (...) only Badus may carry this movable image (...) the deity was originally under a mango tree (...) The Badus are described by the legend as tribals (sabaras) who originally inhabited the place and worshipped the linga under the tree.'”

“The Sultan left Banarasi [Cuttack] with the intention of pursuing the Rai of Jajnagar, who had fled to an island in the river News was then brought that in the jangal were seven elephants, and one old she-elephant, which was very fierce. The Sultan resolved upon endeavouring to capture these elephants before continuing the pursuit of the Rai.... After the hunt was over, the Sultan directed his attention to the Rai of Jajnagar, and entering the palace where he dwelt he found many fine buildings. It is reported that inside the Rais fort, there was a stone idol which the infidels called Jagannath, and to which they paid their devotions. Sultan Firoz, in emulation of Mahmud Subuktigin, having rooted up the idol, carried it away to Delhi where he placed it in an ignominious position.”