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In English, 'juggernaut' means an unstoppable, crushing force. It comes from Jagannath, a name for Krishna honoured in Puri, India, with an annual procession of huge wooden chariots. Medieval European travellers claimed devotees died willingly under the wheels, giving the word its dark meaning.

Etymological fact (juggernaut, from Jagannath)

LanguageHistory

The story behind the card

English borrowed the word in the 17th century from the Sanskrit and Odia name Jagannātha, from jagat, 'world', and nātha, 'lord'. Jagannath's great temple stands in Puri, on India's east coast, and every summer the Ratha Yatra ('chariot festival') still carries him and two sibling deities through the streets on towering wooden cars pulled by huge crowds. The story of worshippers throwing themselves under the wheels goes back to the Franciscan friar Odoric of Pordenone, who travelled in India in the 1320s, and was later repeated by British writers. A few deaths may have been deliberate, but many were accidents in the crush of the crowd, and the tales grew in the retelling. By 1826 Mary Shelley was already using the word figuratively.

Türkçe oku
İngilizcede “juggernaut”, önüne geleni ezip geçen, durdurulamaz güç demektir. Kelime, Krishna'nın adlarından biri olan Jagannath'tan gelir; Hindistan'ın Puri kentinde Jagannath her yıl dev ahşap arabalarla gezdirilir. Orta Çağ'da Avrupalı gezginler, inananların tekerleklerin altına isteyerek atıldığını yazdı; kelimenin karanlık anlamı buradan gelir.

İngilizce bu kelimeyi 17. yüzyılda, Sanskritçe ve Oriyaca Jagannātha adından aldı: jagat “dünya”, nātha “efendi” demektir. Jagannath'ın büyük tapınağı Hindistan'ın doğu kıyısındaki Puri'dedir. Her yaz düzenlenen Ratha Yatra (“araba bayramı”) sırasında Jagannath ve iki kardeş tanrı bugün de kalabalıkların çektiği, kat kat yüksek ahşap arabalarla sokaklarda gezdirilir. Tekerleklerin altına kendini atan inananlar hikâyesi, 1320'lerde Hindistan'ı gezen Fransisken rahip Pordenonelu Odoric'e kadar gider; daha sonra İngiliz yazarlar da bu hikâyeyi tekrarladı. Ölümlerin birkaçı kasıtlı olmuş olabilir, ama çoğu kalabalığın itişip kakışmasında yaşanan kazalardı; hikâyeler anlatıldıkça büyüdü. Mary Shelley kelimeyi 1826'da mecaz anlamıyla kullanıyordu bile.

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