Dressing Lord Jagannatha in Silk: Cloth, Clothes, and Status1

Particular cloths in Orissa, such as a silk ikat with verses from the Gitagovinda, function in specific, highly codified ways within a ritual domain at the Jagannatha temple in Puri (Fig. 1). Within the complex network at this great religious institution, cloth denotes status for the hereditary temple sevakas, or servants, of Lord Jagannatha, who number in the thousands. The important capacity of cloth to denote status in Indian culture has been articulated in a number of recent publications.2 My investigation, however, focuses on the circulation of cloth in various ritual and social arenas related to the Jagannatha temple, underscoring a dynamic process of status negotiation, contestation, or enhancement. I am concerned not only with the sevakas, but with a larger ensemble of people: artisans and devotees of the Jagannatha temple — spectators and participants, who, in turn, present and receive gifts of cloth. The public spectacle of the Rathyatra inverts the temple norms, erasing social and sectarian boundaries, by allowing all to gaze on the divine body of Lord Jagannatha and to witness rituals generally excluded from all but temple officiants who, with the exception of a small group of female temple dancers, are all male.3 The inclusiveness of this procession reminds one of the syncretic nature of Jagannatha himself: a deity whose tribal origins have been assimilated into mainstream Hinduism as an incarnation of Vishnu. Tribal groups in Orissa, especially the Kondh who inhabit the hilly tracts of Phulbani district, worship numerous goddesses who may be represented by wooden posts or pillars. The mediation between religious and cultural systems is explicitly acknowledged by Jagannatha’s iconography- rather than anthropomorphic, he retains a wooden, pillar-like form- and by the presence of both temple Brahmanical priests and tribal daitas who preside over different spheres of Jagannatha’s life. By drawing on both historical documents and contemporary practices, I will argue that ritual, social, and political domains, like status, do not remain discrete or static but intersect through a series of shifting power relations