Jagannath: A System of Fraternity

We Oriyas are proud of such a peculiar concept which is not merely a God, a religion, a vague belief, a blind faith, a dogma, or a sheer abstraction. It is something other than all these. Scholars have studied this concept from archaeological, mythical, legendary, literary and historical aspects. Attempts are now being made to investigate this concept from anthropomorphical, philosophical, ecological and socio-economic standpoints. But the more serious the research, the more mysterious it is. In this present paper, I am trying to give a rational and objective analysis of the concept “Jagannath.”

At the outset Jagannath appears to me as nothing but a phenomenon. A very pertinent question strikes my mind–what sort of phenomenon is it? Is it not a socio-cultural phenomenon? To formulate such types of questions, we need concepts. By concepts we have to analyse the phenomenon. Where do we get these concepts? These concepts are taken from the past history of science. They suggest a possible picture of the phenomenon. Sometimes, these concepts stand as a hindrance in our way, for they may act as the collection of prejudices. These concepts are supplied to us by tradition. Hence, we ought to study a cumulative scientific tradition.

Now the next question is to what extent we are bound by the tradition in the selection of problems. If the phenomenon “Jagannath”, which is under our investigation is a problem, then we have to go to that tradition out of which this phenomenon has emerged. It is needless to say in the selection of such type of problems, tradition and historical developments do play an essential role.

We may discover mathematical structures in natural phenomenon for new understanding. When we study a phenomenon, we must make use of theory and of theoretical concepts. We can’t separate the empirical process of observations from the mathematical constructs and its concepts eliminating it from the speculative and magical part. The concepts and the mathematical constructs are simply taken from experience. While studying Jagannath we not only view it from the empirical facts of observation but from a scientific outlook.

The influence of tradition is perhaps the strongest in shaping or passing on the concepts by which we try to get hold of the phenomenon. No man would like tooverlook the very tradition out of which the phenomenon “Jagannath” has evolved and has been interpreted by many scholars and institutionalised by various rulers.

I do not like to give a mere traditional interpretation of Jagannath which has gathered much moss in the process of time. In order to investigate the given phenomenon, we need language. We need words, since the words are the verbal expressions of the concepts. If we go to the root, the primitive man did not know the language to express. We have got to enquire into the process of communion in the existing community so as to convey each other’s experience and feelings. In a state of science, when fundamental concepts are to be changed, tradition is both a pre-condition and a casual effect.

Jagannath, the phenomenon, owes its origin to the then existing way of life. Its origin and antiquity are yet unknown, Historical records are inadequate to determine the exact beginning of this replica. Yet it has shaped a way of life of a people in a geographical area with a historical sharing.

Jagannath is an assimilated phenomenon of the various currents and cross-currents, challenges and responses on a cosmological level when law governs the universe. “Rutena satyam prakasayet.” In fact, Jagannathism admits no strict laws, and follows no orthodox rituals of its own. Rather, it welcomes and embraces the varieties of tests, temperaments, religious beliefs and practices, although it itself is not a religion in the strict sense of the term. Even an atheist can’t escape this phenomenon. Without a preacher, a scripture, a band of blind followers, how can it be regarded as a religion?

It is the elan vital ¹ the life force of a particular aboriginal tribe, evolving out of a quest of the mortals to realise the immortal. Hence, it is an adventure in ideation which has survived the stress and storms of conflicting concepts and as thus represents a synthesis and a harmony which sought a beauty in diversity and equity in inequality. This Jagannath concept embodies in itself the highest ideals of “beauty”, “truth” and “good” in a synthetic form.

A block of wood represents a constructional conception of an ideation or a container for the contents. History records how this block of wood could be installed in the present temple of Sri Jagannath at Puri. It is none of my business to illustrate here the legends and myths centring around this mysterious phenomenon. Rather, I would like to insist on a particular question, how could this aboriginal deity (if at all we call it a deity) be transformed and transmuted into a Universal God? How could this so-called “phallus” be accepted as a significant symbol of “Prema” and “Maitri?” Surprisingly enough, there is no comparison of this crude figure with any of the existing anthropomorphic God or Goddess in the Hindu pantheon. Men by nature are fashioned as per the biological conditions, environmental resistance, the cultural envelope and individual experience. The more primitive the society, the more true the man’s nature.

Moreover, belief systems act no less profoundly on the mankind. But Jagannath is not a mere make-belief. It is much more than that. Just as the very presence of the doctor relieves pain of the patient to some extent, even so the bare awareness of this symbol inspires a tribe, a nation and thus enlightens a particular culture.

Man after all, achieves his present status through the medium of his culture. A man without culture is like a shell without pearl. Jagannath is the seat of the Oriyan eclectic culture. It is in fact, the cultural base of the entire humanity. Even in the age of this cultural crisis, when the whole world is frightened because of the unexpected future shock, owing to the over-exploitation of science and technology, Jagannathism can stand as a mountain of love and affection, a perpetual altar of universal brotherhood, a symbol of synthesis or reconciliation.

Jagannath is a symbol, pure and simple. After all, we are all born out of symbols. Symbolism is the only way of expression. Jagannath thus is a conception born out of the people who lived a particular way of life. It is a symbol of Divinity. It shares with the sufferings of the mankind. It undergoes modifications as per the need of the common man. It is in essence the vanity, the pride of the common man. During the car festival, this living symbol comes out of the dark chamber and turns to be humane. People all over the world are simply charmed at the magnanimity of a log of wood and are mad after pulling the car indiscriminatingly. This is at least a clear cut example of people’s involvement, the participation of the common man with that of the Universal Man. Likewise, examples can be multiplied.

Jagannath is treated as a social “Being” almost with the problems of a man. But he experiences within himself the manifestations of vice and virtue, the positive and negative, the concrete and the abstract and ultimately all reasonings are sublimated. He is not a deity like all other deities to be pleased with Mantra, Yantra and Tantra merely. There is no such hard principle to worship this concept. One can enter into his shrine casually, just as one consumes a pop of the cigar or visits a friend.

Jagannath is the emblem of platonic love. He loves all and He is loved by all, without any condition excepting of course the contract that if one really does his work without any attachment. He protects all that we have, and He fulfils all that we desire. This seems to be a human contract, a bond of mutual understanding and expression of pure love, nothing more, nothing less. He is a man (Purusha) and the greatest of all (purushottama).

Moreover, Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra construed a logical trio, since this “trinity” is an admixture of three different colours, viz., white, yellow and black, representing the colour chart of mankind in general. If one takes a very close snap, he can alone understand how these concepts are fused together. In fact, there is blending and fusion of the one into the other.  The entire human race can be conceived of from a single unified whole. One simply becomes a colour blind, when he looks at these two lidless circular eyes.

History has rightly taught us that “liberty,” “equality” and “justice” are quite inadequate to humanise humanity. Possibly, Fraternity is the only alternative left out for us. It is indeed a clarion call to the whole world. It is the basis of all fellow-feeling and friendship. In the absence of fraternity, all such things are hypocrisy. Fraternity alone assures the individual’s dignity. Individual’s dignity depends on one’s identity. And in the philosophy of Jagannathism, one is at least cocksure of his own identity and dignity, since it is the most catholic system not only in spirit but in practice.

Thus the very inception of Jagannath is endowed with the concept of Maitri. Maitri is a tool, the best possible medium to achieve this phenomenon. Maitri is not a make-belief. It is a reality–a logical “must.” Would it not be possible to dream of a one-world by means of this concept of Maitri? If all sorts of differences and discriminations between man and man be ruled out by the smallest particle of “Nirmalya” in the institution of Jagannath, then why can’t it be experimented on a wider landscape? Is it not more worthwhile to try and fail, than not to try at all?

The idea of brotherhood is not new. What is new to us is the realisation that it is an essential pre-condition for our survival. A sense of proper humanism may be restored, if we feed to that pre-condition. Otherwise, the term “Universal brotherhood” is a mockery, a sheer fanaticism. In such an age of high culture, what we need is better understanding, valour in war, reduction of want but not expansion of want and universal love and tolerance in peace. Scientific materialism is not enough. It must bear a stamp of spiritualism.

“Spirituality need not be contradictory to intellectuality. Anti-intellectualism degenerates into barbarity, as history has amply proved. Transcending intellectuality need not mean negating it, it has to be subsumed to be transcended.”

Jagannathism, in my opinion, may be the last recourse at this critical juncture, when the detenent powers are ready to face each other with global strategy. Thus it is not a system of fraternity by courtesy. It itself is a system.

¹ (a) Late Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s question on the foundation day of Paradeep Port of Orissa, 1st January, 1962. When he asked, “a people once who carried their culture with their commodity beyond sea, where is gone that vitality?”
(b) Col. Burton’s report to British Parliament in January, 1873, vide, Sambalpur District Gazetteer. “The Oriyans combined in Mahaprasad brotherhood which makes it difficult for the Government to maintain law and order.”