Sunday, November 30, 2008

Brahma and Juggernaut.

"This girl, this child, the native of a Christian land, worse than many a little heathen who says its prayers to Brahma and kneels before Juggernaut--this girl is--a liar!" (Bronte 69).

Juggernaut and Brahma are both from the Hindu religion; Brahma is their god of creation (to be more precise, one of the three gods of creation, the others being Shiva and Vishnu). Juggernaut, from the Hindi word "Jagannath" or Sanskrit "Jagannatha," is the "lord of the world." Mr. Brocklehurst is here calling Hindis "heathens," thereby labeling his own religion, Christianity, superior and supreme. He also says here that to have any kind of religion, even if it is "heathen," is better than to be a liar, as he says Jane is.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/juggernaut

2 comments:

Hritika Pant said...

I'm an Indian and I love Jane Eyre, I had to look up juggernaut, it's amusing how people in that time, without any technology still knew about some of the Indian terms. Lol.. to insult other religion while praising your own is not considered religious in my religion. 😅 needless to say, I can't wait to see what happens with Mr. Butthurt

Digital marketing said...

Lol i googled this line as soon as I read it in the book and came across this site. I realised that's what Christianity is all about and same has been presented in the book through their thoughts.