Puri: Jagannatha Temple: Relics

N. Ganesan naga_ganesan at HOTMAIL.COM
Fri Oct 30 13:43:31 UTC 1998


From:         Mary Storm <umadevi at SFO.COM>
Subject:      Re: Puri: Jagannatha Temple: Relics

<I just recently came across a 19th c. reference to relic bones in the
<Jagganatha Temple in Puri, which are supposedly associated with Krsna.
<Considering the pollution associated with death and the body in
Hinduism
<this would seem to be  highly unusual, not to say unlikely.
<Does anybody know anything about this Puri legend or any other Hindu
<veneration practices of  body relics ?

<Was Puri a Buddhist site at one time?

    For this query posed a while ago by Mary Storm, few responses
    came by. Recently, I found one interesting quote by
    Swami Vivekananda in his article, The Sages of India.
    He says Puri was a Buddhist site.

    From The complete works of Swami Vivekananda, vol. 3
    "There was a book written a year or two ago by a Russian
    who claimed to have found out a very curious life of
    Jesus Christ, and in one part of the book he says that
    Christ went to the temple of Jagannath to study with the
    Brahmins, but became disgusted with their exclusiveness
    and their idols, and so he went to the Lamas of Tibet
    instead, became perfect and went home. To any man who
    knows anything about Indian history, that very statement
    proves that the whole thing was fraud, because the temple
    of Jagannath is one old Buddhistic temple. We took this
    and others over and re-Hinduised them. We shall have to
    do many things like that yet ..."



Regards,
N. Ganesan

Aside:
Considering 'Hinduization of Buddhist temples' and the following
'Indigenous Aryans theory', Swamiji seems to be the forerunner in
anticipating Indian thinking of the late 20th century. - NG


Swami Vivekananda on Aryan Invasion Theory

  "Our archaeologists' dreams of India being full of dark-eyed
aborigines,
and
the bright Aryans came from - the Lord knows where. According to some,
they
came from Central Tibet; others will have it that they came from Central
Asia.
There are patriotic Englishmen who think that the Aryans were all red
haired.
Others, according to their idea, think that they were all black-haired.
If
the
writer happens to be a black-haired man, the Aryans were all
black-haired.
Of
late, there was an attempt made to prove that the Aryans lived on Swiss
lake.
I should not be sorry if they had been all drowned there, theory and
all.
Some
say now that they lived at the North Pole. Lord bless the Aryans and
their
habitations! As for as the truth of these theories, there is not one
word
in
our scriptures, not one, to prove that the Aryans came from anywhere
outside of
India, and in ancient India was included Afghanistan. There it ends..."

  "And the theory that the Shudra caste were all non-Aryans and they
were a
multitude, is equally illogical and irrational. It could not have been
possible
in those days that a few Aryans settled and lived there with a hundred
thousand
slaves at their command. The slaves would have eaten them up, made
chutney
of
them in five minutes. The only explanation is to be found in the
Mahabharat,
which says that in the beginning of the Satya Yoga there was only one
caste,
the Brahmins, and then by differences of occupations they went on
dividing
themselves into different castes, and that is the only true and rational
explanation that has been given. And in the coming Satya Yuga all other
castes
will have to go back to the same condition."
  (The Complete Work of Swami Vivekananda, Vol.III Page 293.)





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