Jagannatha, NOT Juggernaut!
The word Jagannatha,
a conjunction of jagat (the world) and nath (master), means Lord of the World,
and is one of the many names of Vishnu, the Supreme Godhead for the Hindus.
However, it specifically refers to the presiding deity of Srimandira, Puri.
The English
word juggernaut is derived from Jagannatha, but has acquired an unfortunate
negative connotation contrary to Jagannatha’s religious significance for Odias
and Hindus.
Merriam-Webster
provides the history of the word: “In the early 14th century,
Franciscan missionary Friar Odoric brought to Europe the story of an enormous
carriage that carried an image of Hindu god Vishnu (whose title was Jagannath,
literally, “lord of the world”) through the streets of India in religious
processions. Odoric reported that some worshippers deliberately allowed
themselves to be crushed beneath the vehicle’s wheels as a sacrifice to Vishnu.
That story was probably an exaggeration or misinterpretation of actual events,
but it spread throughout Europe anyway. The tale caught the imagination of the
English listeners, and by the 19th century, they were using juggernaut
to refer to any massive vehicle (such as a steam locomotive) or to any other
enormous entity with powerful crushing capabilities.”
The first
European description of the festival is by Friar Odoric (c. 1321).
(https://www.etymonline.com/word/juggernaut)
First known
use of juggernaut was in 1841 in the sense of a large heavy vehicle.
Thus,
Jagannatha, a most compassionate deity for His devotees, was misinterpreted by
the English and the Europeans as a malevolent, cruel, blood-thirsty god.
Tagore's Poem
The same
event, Ratha Yatra, reminded Tagore of the Upanishadic concept of nirakara
Brahma, with the idol as a proximate visualisation of the Supreme Godhead for
the masses;
(Original Bengali verse)
রথযাত্রা লোকারণ্য মহা ধুমধাম
ভক্তেরা লুটায়ে পথে করিছে প্রণাম।
রথ ভাবে আমি দেব পথ ভাবে আমি,
মূর্তি ভাবে আমি দেব–হাসে অন্তর্যামী।
(English
transliteration)
Rathayatra
lokaranya maha dhumdham
Bhaktera
lutaye pathe kariche pranam
Rath bhave
ami dev Path bhave ami,
Murti bhave
ami dev hase Antaryami.
(Translation
by this blogger):
Rathayatra,
the grand spectacle, proceeds
Amidst a
vast congregation,
Devotees
offer prostrate salutations on the road;
The chariot
thinks, “I am God,”
So does the
path,
The idol,
too, thinks, “I am God,”
One who
knows everything from within, the Supreme Spirit, smiles!
Manoj Das
Manoj Das mentions in ‘Legends of Jagannath’ (Myths, Legends, Concepts and Literary Antiquities of India by Manoj Das, a Sahitya Akademi publication) that when he was aged four or so his mother used to recite this little verse from Tagore. “The verse woke me up to the truth, with a pleasant jolt, that the Divine, the Antaryami, was something much more sublime than even the image we adore. This left such a deep impression on my subconscious that even today, the moment I look at the deity, I feel that he was smiling and asking how far I had succeeded in knowing the Antaryami behind the mask!”
Sarkari Stumble!
Surprisingly,
a few years ago, the Government of Odisha had marketed Odisha as an attractive investment
destination by using the word juggernaut in full-page ads in national
dailies and in prime-time television. Clearly, the ad agency, and the state
government officials had not bothered to check the history of the word
juggernaut, and were unaware of its negative connotation!
Ocean of Mercy
Jagannatha is spelt with an ‘a’ at the
end of the name, because that is how the name is pronounced in Odia, with a
rounded ‘tha’ (Ja-ga-nnA-tha). The British could not pronounce the deity’s
name, and hence called him Juggernaut, and assigned a meaning far removed from
what Jagannatha means for the Odias and Hindu; not a capricious but a
compassionate god, not a killer god but Krupasindhu, Ocean of Mercy, sakha (friend), sahodara (brother), and atmiya
(kin).
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