Advertisement
Published: April 11th 2012
Edit Blog Post
VARANASI AND SARNATH, UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA. Tuesday 3 April, 2012.
Varanasi is located on the River Ganges and its waterfront is dominated by the long flights of stone steps or Ghats that we had seen last night at the ceremony. Thousands of pilgrims and residents come to the ghats for their daily ablutions. Known to the devout as Kashi the Luminous - the City of Light, founded by Shiva, Varanasi is one of the oldest living cities in the world. It has maintained its religious heritage since the 6th century BC in one continuous tradition, and stands at the centre of the Hindu universe.
It is the focus of a religious geography that stretches from Kashmir in the Himalayan mountains to India's southern tip at Kanniyakumari, Puri to the east and Dwarka to the west. It is located on a ford on the river and is among the holiest of all tirthas ('crossing place'😉 These tirthas allow the devotee access to the divine, and enable the gods and goddesses to come down to earth. So, in short, it is a really, really, really important place if you are a Hindu.
We awoke before the crack of dawn in
order to meet our guide for the day in the hotel reception. Our guide, Ajay, was waiting and immediately led us down the hotel steps to the river bank where there was a young boy waiting for us with a rowing boat. The sun was still not up as we were rowed south along the river. There were hundreds of pilgrims on the river banks - and hundreds of boats full of tourists watching them. From the boat we had a much better view of the ghats which line the west bank. Above the concrete terraces there are 18th and 19th century pavilions, temples and palaces (of which our 'hotel' was one). There were people bathing in the filthy water among the floating debris preparing to pray and make offerings of the sacred water to the sun as it rose over the east bank.
There was a Brahmin priest offering Puja. Ajay informed us that they only send out one priest for the morning rituals (unlike the ceremony last night when there were quite a few). There was a group of young girls practising yoga and several people meditating among the piles of rubbish on the terraces.
We
couldn't believe that people were actually swimming in the water - it was so filthy. Ajay told us that Hindus believe that the Ganges is amrita - the elixir of life (more like elixir of death!) which brings purity to the living and salvation to the dead - they even take Ganges water back to their homes and put drops of it in their cooking. In reality the river is scummy with effluent (our hotel probably being one of the contributors - there is no sewage system), contains chemicals and heavy metals from factories upstream and human body parts from the cremations sites (more of these later). Whether Ganga water still has the power to absolve sin if sterilized is a contentious point among the faithful. Ajay told us that current thinking is that it is ok to boil it but that chemical treatment ruins it and causes it to lose its powers.
We continued southwards along the river until we reached Dhobi (Laundrymen's) Ghat. Here clothes are washed in the Ganga water and smashed against the stone terraces in pursuit of purity. M looked a bit concerned and asked Ajay where the hotels did their laundry. To her
relief Ajay replied that most of them had their own mechanical washing machines (the waste from which probably ends up in the Ganga water cocktail).
We continued south until we reached Manikarnika Ghat which is one of Varanasi's cremation sites. The entire city of Varanasi is regarded as the 'Great Cremation Ground for the corpses of the entire universe'. Anyone who dies in Varanasi attains instant moksha, or enlightenment. The elderly come here to live out their final days, finding shelter in the temples assisted by alms from the faithful. The ghat is looked after by Doms, the guardians from the Untouchable Caste busy keeping the 'eternal flame' burning (all funeral pyres are lit from this flame), and facilitating the final release for those lucky enough to pass away here. There were a couple of people sifting through the ashes and washing them in the river. Ajay explained that they were looking for bits of molten jewellery and any gemstones that may have been left on the corpses.
We turned around and headed north up the river. The sun was now rising over the east bank and cast a lovely orange glow over the river. We passed another
cremation site with piles and piles of wood stored outside ready for the next body to arrive. Ajay explained that the cost of a cremation here was dependent on how wealthy the family were. We came to a halt just north of this cremation site and disembarked the row boat.
Ajay then took us to a temple with a gold plated dome. We were not allowed inside as you had to be a Hindu. The place was more heavily guarded than Fort Knox. Apparently there is a dispute between the Hindu's and the Moslems in this area. The Moslem temple has been built on the site of the original Hindu temple and the Hindu's want it back. Its a very big deal - hence the heavy armoury and police. We continued on through the stinky alleys, dodging cows, dogs, people and two wheelers travelling at breakneck speeds, back to the hotel. Ajay left us here to have our breakfast (it was still only 7.30 am) he would retrun at 10.30 for our tour.
Ajay arrived on time and we walked back through the alleys to the waiting car and driver. We drove 10 kilometers north of Varanisi to
the ruins and temples at Sarnath which are a pilgramage centre for Buddhists. It was here, only 5 weeks after his enlightenment, that Buddha gave his first ever sermon. According to Buddhist belief this set in motion the Dharmachakra ('Wheel of Law'😉, a new cycle of rebirths and reincarnations eventually leading to ultimate enlightement for everybody. Hence it is a VIP (Very Important Place).
First we went to Mulagandha Temple, the prime place of worship for the Buddhist community. Built in 1931, the buidling contains some attractive frescoes and is said to contain the sacred relics of Sakyamuni Buddha. We then walked to the main archeological site which is dominated by the huge bulk of the Dhamekh Stupa.
The stupa is said to mark the place where Buddha delivered his first serman and was built in the 3rd century BC during the reign of Ashoka. M asked Ajay if it contained any relics. Apparently it is empty. Most of the site is in ruins but you can still see the remains of the main shrine where Ashoka is said to have meditated. Ajay left us alone to wander around the site.
The first important ruins on the
site were the remains of the Ashokan Pillar. These are the fragment of a 15.25 meter high monolithic pillar created by the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka (272-232) made of Chunar Sandstone. These remains bear the typical Mauryan type of polish. The cylindrical shaft is slightly tapering with a diameter of 0.71 meters at the base and 0.56 meters at the top. It was once surmounted by the famous four addorsed Lion Capital, which is an excellent example of the Mauryan Art, which we were to see later in the State Museum. This emblem still appears on Indian bank notes. The pillar bears 3 inscriptions, the earliest one is an edict of Ashoka in Brahmi Script where the King warns the monks and nuns against creating Schism in the Sangha. The second mentions the 40th year of the Kushana King Asvaghosha of Kaushamsi and the 3rd is an early Gupta Brahmi Script refering to the teachers of the Sammitiya Sect and of the Vastiputrak School. We took some photographs and continued looking around the grounds. We watched people sticking bits of gold leaf on the Stupa - then saw the sign that told you not to.
We were then taken to
a silk weaving factory. We saw how they wove silk in both the old fashioned way (with two people) and the modern way using a contraption with punched cards - rather like old fashioned computer punch paper tape. We had great trouble avoiding the hard sell at the end. We then went to the Bharat Kala Bhavan Museum where there were some great paintings. We returned to the hotel where over a Kingfisher D decided that Varinasi should have a new English name. We now call it Verynasty. And it is!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.1s; Tpl: 0.042s; cc: 7; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0471s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb