126 C. W. ODLlNGj C.S.I., M.INST.C.E., ON OKISSA : 



established the worship of Yishnii, which has been the religion of 

 the reigning house of Orissa ever since. The existing temple of 

 Jaganath was built within fifty years of the establishment of the- 

 new dynasty. Jaganath, an incarnation of Vishnu, is emphatically 

 the god of the people. In the presence of the idol all are- 

 equal. The food that has been placed before the image of the 

 god can never cease to be pure. High and low eat together in 

 his temple. This common repast means little to us, it is not 

 possible for anyone, who has not lived in India, to realise the- 

 full meaning of this deparMire from the rules of caste, undey 

 which anyone partaking of food with, or which has been 

 prepared hj a person of an inferior caste, would be expelled 

 from the society of his fellows and only readmitted after severe- 

 and costly penances. Till readmitted he would be shunned by 

 his friends, the village barber would not shave him, the village 

 washerman would not wash for him, and his kindred would 

 disown him. The apostle of Jaganath preached another doctrine 

 and inculcated a different line of conduct. God's pity he said^ 

 knows neither family nor tribe. Not the learned in the four 

 Holy Scriptures is dear to me, but the lowly man who believes, 

 to him be given and from him be received, let him be reverenced 

 even as I am reverenced. 



I now turn to the Jaganath worship of the present day. 

 The temple consists of four halls, in the innermost of which sits 

 Jaganath with his brother Balabhadra and his sister Subhadra. 

 in jewelled state. The images are carved out of logs of wood, 

 fashioned in human form from the waist upwards ; goldeia 

 hands are on occasion fastened to the short stumps which 

 project from the shoulders of Jaganath ; the lack of hands, the 

 priests say, is because the lord of the world needs neither hand& 

 nor feet to work his purposes amongst men. The service of the 

 temple consists partly in daily ceremonies and partly in festivals- 

 at different times of the year. The offerings are bloodless, the 

 spilling of blood would pollute the temple and even an 

 accidental death makes the whole place unclean. The great 

 festival is the car festival, when Jaganath, in a car 45 feet high, 

 supported on a framework 37 feet square resting on 16 wheels, 

 is conveyed to his country house about a mile away. His 

 brother and sister, seated on smaller cars, accompany him. 

 The festival occurs late in June or else in July, and probably 

 owes its origin to a period long before the temple was built, as 

 a Chinese traveller gives an account of the procession of the 

 eacred tooth of Buddha, which applies almost exactly to the car 

 festival of the present day. It is to this festival that the faith- 



