Jagan-natha

   In Vedic myth a vast idol, without legs, and having only stumps for arms, stated to contain the bones of Krisna, which stands at Puri in Orissa, India. The term Jagan-natha means ‘Lord of the World’, and festivals are held in his honour, particularly in Puri, where as many as two hundred thousand pilgrims assemble for the occasion. At the Ratha-yatra held in the month of Asarha, the temple car containing the images of Krisna and other gods is drawn through the town. In former times many devotees cast themselves beneath its ponderous wheels and were crushed to death. It is from this that the expression ‘beneath the wheels of the Juggernaut’ is derived.