Great Indian Religion

SR No.: 007305
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: G T Bettany
Publisher: Ward Lock Bowden and Co
Publication Year: 1892
Total Pages: 312
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 42 MB

Page 111

CONSECRATED FOOD.
99 latter being eighty feet square. In niches in the shrine are three large images of three of Vishnu's incarnations—the Boar, the Man-lion and the Dwarf. The principal images (p. 89), are those of Jagannath, painted black; of Balarama, his brother, white, and Subhadra, their sister, golden yellow. They are made of one *he images block of iron-wood, and are most uncouth representations of human bodies without hands or legs, the arms being stumps to which golden hands are fixed. The male images are about six feet high, the female four and a half feet. The clothing and ornaments of these images are changed several times a day, so that they appear very different at different hours, sometimes being dressed as Buddha, sometimes as Krishna, sometimes as Ganesa. Various stories are told to account for these ugly images, one being that God is so great that no figure can properly represent Him, consequently these ugly ones are made to inspire people with fear, that they may propitiate Him by gifts. Most probably they are modified forms of Buddhist images; there is an additional shapeless stump about six feet high, which is said to have the mark of a wheel on the top, representing the Buddhist wheel of the law. A certain relic is imbedded in the image of Jagannath, and is carefully transferred when new images are made; what it is, none but the priests know, and it is probably a Buddhist relic.
Numerous other gods or forms of the principal gods have images in or near the shrine. The chief images are only moved at the great festivals; but consecrated daily services of a complete character, as if they were human beings, are performed. At the four chief meals of the day large quantities of cooked food are brought into the temple and consecrated by being set in front of the idol. It is cooked by men of low caste, and eagerly eaten by pilgrims of all castes after consecration, or even taken home as a sacred treasure. On some days this food is supplied to 100,000 people, for payment, of course, so that the profits of the priests in charge are enormous. The great festivals at Puri are the Dol Jatra festival, a sort of spring carnival; the
food.