Chaitanya Mahåprabhu and his Influence on the Jagannåtha Cult: Journal of Vaishnava Studies

Abstract

The magnificent eleventh-century Jagannåtha temple in Puri, Orissa, on the Eastern coast of India, attracts one of the largest numbers of Hindu pilgrims every year, making it one among the most visited religious shrines in the country. Each year in June, the town and temple be­come the scene for India’s biggest religious festival, Ratha-yåtrå, a chariot pa­rade in which the images from the temple are loaded on massive wooden carts and pulled by pilgrims along the main road to a smaller temple a few miles away and then back. Jagannåtha (literally “the Lord of the universe”) is the main deity of the temple—his name gives us the English word “juggernaut,” which means “massive and unstoppable.