DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.641#0134
THE HINDOO MYTHOLOGY. 127
ture respecting the number of victims annually sacrificed
on the altars of the Indian gods, as he is able:
Widows burnt"alive on the funeral pile, in Hindoosfhanu, . . . 5000
Pilgrims perishing on the roads and at sacred places*,.....4000
Persons drowning themselves in the Ganges, or buried or burnt alive, 500
Children immolated, including the daughters of the raju-pootiis, . . 500
Sick persons whose death is hastened on the banks of the Ganges *, 500
Total, 10,500
* ' Buddmck in Orissa, May 36th, 1806. We know that we are approach-
ing Juggernaut (and yet we are more than fifty miles from it) by the hu-
man bones which we have seen for some days strewed by the way. At
this place we have been joined by several large bodies of pilgrims, per-
haps 2000 in number, who have come from various parts of Northern
India. Some old persons are among them, who wish to die at Juggernaut.
Numbers of pilgrims die on the road; and their bodies generally remain
unburied. On a plain by the river, near the pilgrim's caravansera at
this place, there are more than a hundred skulls. The dogs, jackals, and
vultures, seem to live here on human prey.
' Juggernaut, 14th Jupe. I have seen Juggernaut, The scene at Budd-
ruck is but the vestibule to Juggernaut. No record of ancient or modem
history can give, I think, an adequate idea of this valley of death ; it may
be truly compared with the 'valley of Hinnom.' I have also visited the
sand plains by the sea, in some places whitened with the bones of the
pilgrims; and another place a little way out of the town, called by the
English the Golgotha, where the dead bodies are usually cast forth, and
where dogs and vultures are ever seen.
4 Juggernaut, 21s* June. I have beheld another distressing scene this
morning at the place of skulls ; a poor woman lying dead, or nearly dead,
and her two children by her, looking at the dogs and vultures which were
near. The people passed by without noticing the children. I asked
them where was their home. They said,' they had no home but where
their mother was.' O, there is no pity at Juggernaut! no tenderness of
heart in Moloch's kingdom.' Buchanan's Researches in India.
A person who has lived several years near the temple of Jugiinnat'hu,
in Orissa, in a letter to the author, says,' I cannot pronounce on the num-
bers who annually perish at Jugiinnat'hu, and on their way thither: in
some years they do not amount to more than 200 perhaps; but in others
they may exceed 2000.'
* A gentleman, whose opinion is of great weight, says, ' I believe this
•>stimate is far below the truth.'
ture respecting the number of victims annually sacrificed
on the altars of the Indian gods, as he is able:
Widows burnt"alive on the funeral pile, in Hindoosfhanu, . . . 5000
Pilgrims perishing on the roads and at sacred places*,.....4000
Persons drowning themselves in the Ganges, or buried or burnt alive, 500
Children immolated, including the daughters of the raju-pootiis, . . 500
Sick persons whose death is hastened on the banks of the Ganges *, 500
Total, 10,500
* ' Buddmck in Orissa, May 36th, 1806. We know that we are approach-
ing Juggernaut (and yet we are more than fifty miles from it) by the hu-
man bones which we have seen for some days strewed by the way. At
this place we have been joined by several large bodies of pilgrims, per-
haps 2000 in number, who have come from various parts of Northern
India. Some old persons are among them, who wish to die at Juggernaut.
Numbers of pilgrims die on the road; and their bodies generally remain
unburied. On a plain by the river, near the pilgrim's caravansera at
this place, there are more than a hundred skulls. The dogs, jackals, and
vultures, seem to live here on human prey.
' Juggernaut, 14th Jupe. I have seen Juggernaut, The scene at Budd-
ruck is but the vestibule to Juggernaut. No record of ancient or modem
history can give, I think, an adequate idea of this valley of death ; it may
be truly compared with the 'valley of Hinnom.' I have also visited the
sand plains by the sea, in some places whitened with the bones of the
pilgrims; and another place a little way out of the town, called by the
English the Golgotha, where the dead bodies are usually cast forth, and
where dogs and vultures are ever seen.
4 Juggernaut, 21s* June. I have beheld another distressing scene this
morning at the place of skulls ; a poor woman lying dead, or nearly dead,
and her two children by her, looking at the dogs and vultures which were
near. The people passed by without noticing the children. I asked
them where was their home. They said,' they had no home but where
their mother was.' O, there is no pity at Juggernaut! no tenderness of
heart in Moloch's kingdom.' Buchanan's Researches in India.
A person who has lived several years near the temple of Jugiinnat'hu,
in Orissa, in a letter to the author, says,' I cannot pronounce on the num-
bers who annually perish at Jugiinnat'hu, and on their way thither: in
some years they do not amount to more than 200 perhaps; but in others
they may exceed 2000.'
* A gentleman, whose opinion is of great weight, says, ' I believe this
•>stimate is far below the truth.'