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Re: Help - jagannatha/juggernaut
sclay@connix.com (Sheryl Clay) wrote:
>So I'm stumped as to why a word meaning total destruction would be derived from an association
>with Visnu. Is there something about Visnu, or "jagannatha" that I am missing?
>
The word "juggernaut" entered the English language as a result of the colonial
English witnessing the vast temple festival in Puri, Orissa. The temple of
Jagannatha in Puri has a festival in which three huge temple cars (and they are
really huge) are taken in procession through the city streets from one temple
to another. The temple cars are pulled by men. A man trapped under the wheels
of the car would definitely be crushed to death, both by the mass of the temple
car and the vast crowd of humanity that accompanies this procession. That is
the reason for "inexorable force" associated with the English word
"juggernaut". It has no philosophical meaning attached to the Sanskrit word
"jagannAtha" itself.
S. Vidyasankar
