PURI

PURI, sometimes referred to as JUGGERNAUT, is a town on the south coast of Orissa. It is one of the holy places of India, with a temple dedicated to Vishnu, and containing an idol of him called Jagannâtha (or the Lord of
the World), which, in festival times, attracts thousands of pilgrims to worship at its shrine, on one of which occasions which is called Rath Yatra, the idol is dragged forth in a ponderous car by the pilgrims and back again, under the wheels of which, untill prohibited, many persons would throw themselves to be crushed to death in the hope of thereby attaining a state of eternal beatitude.