Editing Juggernaut (section)

==Overview==
The figurative use of the word is analogous to figurative uses of [[steamroller]] or [[battering ram]] to mean something overwhelming. Its ground in social behavior is similar to that of [[bandwagon effect|bandwagon]], but with overtones of devotional sacrifice. Its [[British English]] meaning of a large heavy truck<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/juggernaut |title=Definition of Juggernaut |dictionary=[[Merriam-Webster]] |access-date=7 April 2013}}</ref> or [[semi-trailer truck|articulated lorry]] dates from the second half of the twentieth century.<ref name=oed>{{Cite OED|Juggernaut}}</ref>

The word is derived from the [[Sanskrit]]/[[Odia language|Odia]] {{lang|sa-Latn|[[Jagannath|Jagannātha]]}} ([[Devanagari]] {{lang|sa|जगन्नाथ}}, [[Odia language|Odia]] {{lang|or|ଜଗନ୍ନାଥ}}) "world-lord", combining {{lang|sa-Latn|jagat}} ("world") and {{lang|sa-Latn|nātha}} ("lord"), which is one of the names of [[Krishna]] found in the [[Indian epic poetry|Sanskrit epics]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/juggernaut |title=djuggernaut |work=Dictionary.com |access-date=2007-12-31 |archive-date=2012-02-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120213094910/http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Juggernaut |url-status=live }}</ref>

The English loanword ''juggernaut'' in the sense of "a huge wagon bearing an image of a Hindu god" is from the seventeenth century, inspired by  the [[Jagannath Temple, Puri|Jagannatha Temple]] in [[Puri]], [[Odisha|Odisha (Orissa)]], which has the ''[[Ratha Yatra]]'' ("[[Temple car]] procession"), an annual procession of chariots carrying the ''[[murti]]s'' (images) of ''[[Jagannath|Jagannātha]]'', [[Subhadra]], and [[Balabhadra]]. 

The first European description of this festival is found in a thirteenth-century account by the [[Late Middle Ages|Late Medieval]] [[Order of Friars Minor|Franciscan]] friar and missionary [[Odoric of Pordenone]], who describes Hindus, as a religious [[human sacrifice|sacrifice]], casting themselves under the wheels of these huge chariots and being crushed to death. Odoric's description was later taken up and elaborated upon in the popular fourteenth-century ''[[Mandeville's Travels|Travels of John Mandeville]]''.<ref>Folker Reichert, [https://books.google.com/books?id=kKYBBQAAQBAJ&q=juggernaut&pg=PA353 ''Asien und Europa im Mittelalter''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404091220/https://books.google.com/books?id=kKYBBQAAQBAJ&q=juggernaut&pg=PA353 |date=2023-04-04 }}, p. 353; [[OED]], "Juggernaut":1</ref> Others have suggested more prosaically that the deaths, if any, were accidental and caused by the press of the crowd and the general commotion.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://hinduism.about.com/od/rathyatra/a/rathyatra.htm |title=Rath Yatra: The Chariot Festival of Puri, India<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=2010-07-13 |archive-date=2010-07-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100712201421/http://hinduism.about.com/od/rathyatra/a/rathyatra.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Contemporaneous reports from colonial [[Kolkata]] report witnessing intentional suicides at the processions which were either tacitly allowed or else ignored by clerics, despite the practice being prohibited by government policy. <ref> The mob cried out "Apse, apse" -- that they did it of their own accord; and, indeed, there was no appearance of an accident. Their bodies were far under the car, where they count scarcely have got unless they had laid themselves down in front. {{Cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1864/08/31/archives/affairs-in-india-the-great-juggernaut-saturnalia-the-sacrifice-of.html | title=AFFAIRS IN INDIA.; The Great Juggernaut Saturnalia. The Sacrifice of Human Victims. |access-date=2025-01-04 |archive-date=2024-12-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241229205825/https://www.nytimes.com/1864/08/31/archives/affairs-in-india-the-great-juggernaut-saturnalia-the-sacrifice-of.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

Many speakers and writers apply the term to a large machine, or collectively to a team or group of people working together (such as a highly successful sports team or corporation), or even a growing political movement led by a charismatic leader—and it often bears an association with being crushingly destructive towards all obstacles.