Chapter JOWAUR to JUGGURNAUT of J by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

Farry in Judea, at Syam.”—Cock’s Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 272.

[1639.—“The chief of the Kingdom is Iudia by some called Odia … the city of Iudia, the ordinary Residence of the Court is seated on the Menam.”—Mandelslo, Travels, E.T. ii. 122.

[1693.—“As for the City of Siam, the Siamese do call it Si-yo-thi-ya, the o of the syllable yo being closer than our (French) Diphthong au.”—La Loubère, Siam, E.T.i.7.]

1727.—“… all are sent to the City of Siam or Odia for the King’s Use.… The City stands on an Island in the River Memnon, which by Turnings and Windings, makes the distance from the Bar about 50 Leagues.”—A. Hamilton, ii. 160; [ed. 1744].

[1774.—“Ayuttaya with its districts Dvaravati, Yodaya and Kamanpaik.”—Insc. in Ind. Antiq. xxii. 4.

[1827.—“The powerful Lord … who dwells over every head in the city of the sacred and great kingdom of Si-a-yoo-tha-ya.”—Treaty between E.I.C. and King of Siam, in Wilson, Documents of the Burmese War, App. lxxvii.]

JUGBOOLAK, s. Marine Hind. for jack-block (Roebuck).

JUGGURNAUT, n.p. A corruption of the Skt. Jagannatha, ‘Lord of the Universe,’ a name of Krishna worsh ipped as Vishnu at the famous shrine of Puri in Orissa. The image so called is an amorphous idol, much like those worshipped in some of the South Sea Islands, and it has been plausibly suggested (we believe first by Gen. Cunningham) that it was in reality a Buddhist symbol, which has been adopted as an object of Brahmanical worship, and made to serve as the image of a god. The idol was, and is, annually dragged forth in procession on a monstrous car, and as masses of excited pilgrims crowded round to drag or accompany it, accidents occurred. Occasionally also persons, sometimes sufferers from painful disease, cast themselves before the advancing wheels. The testimony of Mr. Stirling, who was for some years Collector of Orissa in the second decade of the last century, and that of Sir W. W. Hunter, who states that he had gone through the MS. archives of the province since it became British, show that the popular impression in regard to the continued frequency of immolations on these occasions—a belief that has made Juggurnaut a standing metaphor—was greatly exaggerated. The belief indeed in the custom of such immolation had existed for centuries, and the rehearsal of these or other cognate religious suicides at one or other of the great temples of the Peninsula, founded partly on fact, and partly on popular report, finds a place in almost every old narrative relating to India. The really great mortality from hardship, exhaustion, and epidemic disease which frequently ravaged the crowds of pilgrims on such occasions, doubtless aided in keeping up the popular impressions in connection with the Juggurnaut festival.

[1311.—“Jagnár.” See under MADURA.]

c. 1321.—“Annually on the recurrence of the day when that 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 the church with loud singing of songs, and all kinds of music … and many pilgrims who have come to this feast cast themselves under the chariot, so that its wheels may go over them, saying that they desire to die for their god. And the car passes over them, and crushes them, and cuts them in sunder, and so they perish on the spot.”—Friar Odoric, in Cathay, &c. i. 83.

c. 1430.—“In Bizenegalia (see BISNAGAR) also, at a certain time of the year, this idol is carried through the city, placed between two chariots … accompanied by a great concourse of people. Many, carried away by the fervour of their faith, cast themselves on the ground before the wheels, in order that they may be crushed to death, —a mode of death which they say is very acceptable to their god.”—N. Conti, in India in XVth Cent., 28.

c. 1581.—“All for devotion attach themselves to the trace of the car, which is drawn in this manner by a vast number of people … and on the annual feast day of the Pagod this car is dragged by crowds of people through certain parts of the city (Negapatam), some of whom from devotion, or the desire to be thought to make a devoted end, cast themselves down under the wheels of the cars, and so perish, remaining all ground and crushed by the said cars.”—Gasparo Balbi, f. 84. The preceding passages refer to scenes in the south of the Peninsula.

c. 1590.—“In the town of Pursotem on the banks of the sea stands the temple of Jagnaut, near to which are the images of Kishen, his brother, and their sister, made of Sandal-wood, which are said to be 4,000 years old.… The Brahmins … at certain times carry the image in procession upon a carriage of sixteen wheels, which in the Hindooee language is called Rahth (see RUT); and they believe that whoever assists in drawing it along obtains remission of all his sins.”—Gladwin’s Ayeen, ii. 13–15; [ed. Jarrett, ii. 127].

[1616.—“The chief city called Jekanat.”—Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. ii. 538.]

1632.—“Vnto