sb. Also 7 Jaggarnat, Jagannat, -ernot, 8 Jagernaut, (-arynat), 8–9 Jaganaut, 9 Jaggernaut, Jaga-Naut, (Jaghernaut, Jugunnath). [a. Hindī Jagannāth:—Skr. Jagannātha ‘lord of the world,’ f. jagat world + nātha lord, protector. (The short a in Hindī is = v, whence the Eng. spelling Jugger-, with u and er.)]
1. Hindu Myth. A title of Kṛishṇa, the eighth avatar of Vishṇu; spec., the uncouth idol of this deity at Pūrī in Orissa, annually dragged in procession on an enormous car, under the wheels of which many devotees are said to have formerly thrown themselves to be crushed. Also attrib.
The first European account of the Juggernaut festival, and its attendant immolations, is that by Friar Odoric, c. 1321. See Yule, Cathay and the Way thither, 28.
1638. W. Bruton, in Hakluyt, Voy. (1812), V. 56–7. Vnto this Pagod … doe belong 9,000 Brammines or Priests, which doe dayly offer Sacrifice vnto their great God Iaggarnat…. And when it [the chariot] is going along the City, there are many that will offer themselves a sacrifice to this Idoll.
1682. Hedges, Diary, 16 July, I. 30. We lay by all last night till 10 o’clock this morning, ye Captain being desirous to see ye Jagernot Pagodas.
1727. A. Hamilton, New Acc. E. Ind., I. 384. Jagarynat … his Effigie is often carried abroad in Procession, mounted on a Coach four Stories high.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 555. In this province stands the idolatrous temple of Jaganaut.
1814. Asiat. Jrnl. (Y.). Juggernaut made some progress on the 19th, and has travelled daily ever since.
1825. A. Stirling, in Asiat. Res., XV. 324. That excess of fanaticism which formerly prompted the pilgrims to court death by throwing themselves in crowds under the wheels of the car of Jagannáth, has happily long ceased.
1827. Poynter, in Asiat. Jrnl., XXIII. 702/1. About the year 1790, no fewer than twenty-eight Hindoos were crushed to death … under the wheels of Juggernaut.
1878. N. Amer. Rev., CXXVII. 342. The temple and worship of Jagannath.
2. fig. An institution, practice or notion to which persons blindly devote themselves, or are ruthlessly sacrificed. Also Juggernaut car in same sense.
1854. Warter, Last of Old Squires, iv. 32–3. A neighbouring People were crushed beneath the worse than Jaggernaut Car of wild and fierce Democracy, and kingly Glory was put out.
1865. Longf., in Life (1891), III. 66. The locomotive is the American Juggernaut; I am glad you were not made one of its victims.
1865. ‘Ouida,’ Strathmore, I. vi. 89. Society falls down before the Juggernaut of a Triumph.
1873. J. Forster, Dickens, II. xix. 415. Poor Johnny Tetterby staggering under his Moloch of an infant, the Juggernaut that crushes all his enjoyments.
1878. Edison, in N. Amer. Rev., CXXVI. 536. Details … will wholly disappear before that remorseless Juggernaut—‘the needs of man.’
1883. Standard, 3 Sept., 4/6 (Stanf.). Practical politics, that Revolutionary Juggernaut that grinds us all under its car.
Hence Juggernaut v. trans., to crush to death as a victim; Juggernautish, Juggernautal adjs., of the nature or character of Juggernaut.
1819. Abeillard & Heloisa, 340. Glad should we be to put the bridle On ev’ry Jaggernautish idol.
1830. Examiner, 10 Oct., 651/1. After Mr. Huskisson had been Juggernauted.
1860. All Year Round, No. 47. 492. I escape with difficulty being Juggernauted to death by the ponderous wheels of the ox-waggons.
1888. Amélie Rives, in Harper’s Mag., Jan., 190/1. An asthmatic pug sought a Juggernautal fate between the ponderous wagon wheels.
