PURI, a town in Orissa, which gives its name to a revenue district of Bengal, lying between lat. 19° 27' 40" and 20° 16' 20" N., and long. 85° 0' 26" and 86° 28' E., with an area of 2472 square miles, and a population (in 1872) of 769,674 soula. The town of Puri is commonly known as Jaganath. It situated on the coast, in lat. 19° 48' 17" N., and long. 85° 51' 39' E., being separated from the sea by low s.audy ridges. In 1872 its population was 22,695. Puri, built upon its extreme south-eastern shore, and pro tected on the ono side by the surf, and on the other by swamps and inundations, is the corner of Orissa which has been most left to itself, and IIindu religion mid Hindu superstition have there stood at bay for eighteen centuries against the world. In the courts of Jaganath, and outattle the Lion Gate, 100,000 pilgrims every year par take of the prasada, food offered to tile idols.
Antiquaries are agreed that l'uri was an ancient seat of Buddhism, and that some relics of the old eultus have descended upon the comparatively modern Hindu deity Jaganath, ' the lord of the world.' Jaganath is only a later form of Krishna, who WAS an incantation of Vishnu. 0111:6 ft )enr the idol and its two companiona are draggFt1 about on huge cars. No less than 4200 men enjoy. rent free lands ujx:ai condition of performing tins ser vice. Thousands of pilgriuts eagerly lend their
aid. In the vast multitudes assembled on these occasions, accidents happen, as in all tumultuous gatheringa. Mr. StirlIng witnessod the festival on four occasions, and only three cases of self immolation occurred in them all; one of these cases was doubtful, and the other two victims had long suffered from excruciating- disorders. Another European, long resident in Puri, adds his testimony that 'the excess of fanaticism, which is stated in several missionary accounts to prompt pilgrims to court death by throwing themselves in crowds under the wheels of the car of Jaganath, has never existed or has long ceased.' Mr. Fer gusson, who visited Puri in 1838, saw 'the pilgrims hurrying to the spot, talking and laughing like people going to a fair in England, which in fact it is ;' but he found nothing to justify the highly wrought picture of the hundreds of dead and dying pilgrims that strew the road, and of their bones that whiten the plains.' He saw no victims crushed under the wheels, and none had been heard of for many years before that time.' The character of the idol is entirely averse to san guinary sacrifices of every kind.