D. 318. Vishnu is the Preserver of the Hindu trinity, and therefore in
an especial sense the god of the people; and sometimes 100,000 natives
gather at this shrine, bringing offerings to the value of nearly L40,000.
"The town has a population of twenty-two thousand, and it contains six
thousand lodging-houses for the pilgrims who visit it. The chief temple has
a hundred and twenty others in an enclosure, with a tower one hundred and
ninety-two feet high. Juggernaut's car, of which you have read, Mr.
Scarburn, is a sort of temple, thirty-five feet square, and forty-five feet
high, with wheels seven feet high. The car-festival is the chief of
twenty-four held every year, when the idol is dragged to the country house.
Though the distance is less than a mile, the sand is so deep in the roadway
that it requires several days to complete the journey.
"The idols in the temple are hideous-looking objects, with enormous eyes
and crescent-shaped mouths, the horns pointing upwards. But they are very
richly ornamented; for the idol has an income of over L30,000 from lands
and religious houses. It used to be currently reported and believed that
fanatical, crazy devotees cast themselves under the wheels of the car, and
were crushed to death, immolating themselves as an offering to the god. But
these statements have been strictly investigated, and branded as the
calumnies of English writers.
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