Pilgrim Tax and the Management of Sri Jagannath Temple
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Orissa Review June-July - 2007 Pilgrim Tax and the Management of Sri Jagannath Temple Dr. Janmejay Choudhruy After the establishment of British rule, the Midnapore was considered to be the most suitable administration of the Sri Jagannath temple at Puri person for this purpose. He was, therefore, received serious attention of the British because released. By the regulation IV of 1809, the of the importance of the temple. The British superintendence of the temple was vested in him sought to follow their general principle of non- on a hereditary basis.2 The Raja and his heirs were interference in religious matters required to conduct themselves with regard to the temple. The with "integrity, diligence and Maratha Subedar Bhatt Sathe propriety" for maintaining their had removed the raja of Khurda position as the superintendents from the superintendence of the of the temple on hereditary temple and thereafter the temple basis. was managed by the Maratha government. However, being a When, after the conquest of Christian government, the Orissa in 1803 the British British did not deem it proper government took over the to manage a Hindu temple. The management of the temple for Regulation IV of 1806 provided some years they made attempt that the affairs of the temple to assess the properties of should be managed by an Jagannath including the vast assembly of Pandits or learned landed properties endowed with Brahmins, appointed by the the mathas for the worship of the government on recommendation lord. Mr. C. Grome, the by the Collector of Pilgrim Tax, Collector of Puri, furnished a according to the recording to report in 1805 in which he gave the recorded rules and an account of lands under the established usages. Subsequently the regulation charge of the Mathadharis for the use of was amended to make provision for the election Jagannath.3 The British regularized the financial of the assembly of pandits by persons attached administration of the Jagannath temple. They to the temple. But the government felt that it would continued the Maratha practice of collecting be wiser to vest the management of temple in pilgrim tax, but made it more orderly, and decided one person on a hereditary basis.1 The Raja of to spend the money earned from this source on Khurda who was imprisoned in the fort of the repair of the temple and completion and repair 42 Orissa Review June-July - 2007 of the Jagannath road to Calcutta. They also accommodating the pilgrims and visitors at Puri provided better facilities for the pilgrims. Before there are a large number of licenced lodging the opening of the railways pilgrims had to track houses, hotels and Dharmasalas. The Pandas and hundreds of miles on foot on rough roads and Pratiharis of the Jagannath temple have a forest paths crossing many un-bridged rivers on reputation for hospitality and they take all possible the way. The fear of pestilence and highway care of the pilgrims during their stay at Puri. The robbery was always there and many unfortunate Pandas are paid by the pilgrims for the services pilgrims died on the way. After the opening of the rendered to them. Before the pilgrims depart from railways most of the pilgrims prefer to come by Puri another rite called Atika- Bandha is train, though every day many come to Puri by performed at Koili Baikuntha. During the Maratha bus and other conveyances. It was the usual rule pilgrims were persuaded to pay a round sum practice with the pilgrims of Jagannath to visit on to feed the Brahmins, ascetics and the beggars the way Biraja, Lingaraja and Sakhigopal. The with the Bhoga offered to Jagannath and the rush of pilgrims at Puri increases during important amount thus realized was appropriated by the festivals like Rath yatra, Dola yatra, Chandan yatra priests. If a pilgrim was not able to pay the whole and reaches it peak on Nabakalebar and Govinda amount on the spot then he was to write a Dwadasi. The number of up-country pilgrims is promissory note in his own hand to pay the more during Dola yatra, while during Jhulana yatra remaining amount later. Either the pilgrim was and Rasa festivals, the local pilgrims prevail. remitting the amount after reaching home or the Curious non-Hindu visitors who have no access Panda's agent was going to his place to collect it. to the temple often come during Rath yatra and Most of the Pandas were earning a fair income Snana yatra when the celebrated deities come out from the pilgrims, out of which, they were of the temple and can be seen from outside. A spending quite a good sum for employing the large number of pilgrims and visitors also pilgrim agents and the rest they were spending congregate at Puri during Durga puja and away on spendthrift habits. Christmas holidays. The income from the pilgrim tax formed an A time -honored relationship exists between important source of revenue to the government the pilgrims and the priests of Jagannath. The of Orissa. The Muslim rulers were supposed to Pandas and the Pratiharis of the temple usually have raised the enormous sum of 9,00,000(nine employ pilgrim agents to keep contact with their lakhs of sicca rupiya)per annum from this tax.4 pilgrims coming from different parts of the The pilgrim tax continued to be collected during country. These pilgrim agents or Jatri Pandas, the Maratha and the early British rule till it was some of whom serve pilgrims independently, are abolished in 1804. 5 The British government made not necessarily, all Brahmins. They used to visit elaborate arrangements for the collection of the remote corners of India with a view to recruit tax and stationed a collector of pilgrim tax at Puri. pilgrims before the important festivals and By the regulation of IV of 1809 6 the pilgrims, conducted their little flock all the way to Puri for depending upon their financial position and status, which they were known as batya (journey men) were divided into four categories, such as, Laljatri, or sathua (fellow travellers). Now-a-days as the Nimlal, Bhurung, and Punjtirthee. The pilgrims pilgrims travel by train and bus the agents are no coming from the south paid from rupees six to more required to accompany them from their rupees two at Lokanath Ghat. Certain categories homes but usually wait to receive them at of persons including Sanyasis and very poor important railway junctions and other pilgrim pilgrims were exempted from the tax. Total tax centers, and then conduct them to Puri. For collected in a period of sixteen months from 43 Orissa Review June-July - 2007 January 1st, 1806 to April 30th, 1807 is stated was "to support the natives in the undisturbed to have been Rs.2,05,608.7 From a statement of exercise of their religious rites and ceremonies and the revenue account's office of Fort William it is to preserve their places of worship inviolate".9 gathered that the total collection from the pilgrim The Baptist Missionary Society undertook the tax from 1805-6 to 1826-27 was sicca work at Puri in right carnest from1823 with the Rs.21,42,911-7 pies which came to an average belief that"a blow at idolatry here, will prove a of about 1 lakh of rupees per annum. Deducting blow at the root." William Bampton and then total charges of the temple for the above period, Sutton preached the gospels at Puri and the net receipts from tax was Rs.10,36,456-10- denounced the worship of Jagannath publicly 2 pies which was on an average of Rs.47,111- which only excited 'madness of the mob' and led 10 annas per annum. to violent opposition. It was not possible for them The pilgrim tax was generally used for the to influence so easily the faith of a people, molded interest of the temple rather than as a source of by age-old customs and religious feelings. revenue to the government. It was decided to Bampton died at Puri on 17 December 1830 and construct a better road over the old route from towards the end of 1832, Sutton left Puri after the northern border of Orissa to Puri particularly which the missionary station was not regularly for the advantage of the pilgrims. The Jagannath occupied. In the views of the missionaries, the road was finally reported to be completed in 1825. pilgrim tax was a great slur on the good name of In July 1825, Thomas Pakenham, the Collector the Christian government. It was 'inhuman, in of Cuttack, suggested the construction of rent- politic and un-Christian'.' The Baptist Missionary houses or 'Sarai' to mitigate the sufferings of the Society presented petitions to the House of pilgrims at convenient distances in the Jagannath Commons and the Court of Directors against road. But the proposal was not feasible 'British support of Hindoo idolatry.'They steadily immediately as the surplus from the pilgrim tax pursued the matter, and in course of a few years, their efforts were crowned with 'consideranle had been almost fully spent in the construction of 10 the Jagannath road. The authorities admitted their success.' limitations that the utmost effort of the government In 1831 Lord William Bentick, the was only a partial remedy for improving the Governor-General, did not agree at all with the conditions of pilgrimage. Still 'it is not the less views of the missionaries to abolish the pilgrim necessary, however, to do what humanity tax. In his minute of 25 March 1831, he said; requires.'8 The management of a Hindu temple "we deem it the bounden duty of a government by a Christian government was obnoxious in the ruling over a Hindu and Musalman community, ages of devout Christianity.