Stunning Holy City On The Ganges
Uttar Pradesh, India
Varanasi, Benares and Kashi, the city, one of the oldest continually inhabited city’s in the world, has had many names over the years. An assault on the senses this amazing place has riverside steps leading down from dramatic palaces, ashrams and dharamsalas to the Mother Ganges. A visit to Varanasi is a truly life-changing experience for pilgrims and travellers alike.
Background
Taking its modern name from the twin rivers of the Varana to the north and the Asi to the south the city is still known throughout the country as Benares. The name Kashi, predates it though being traceable back three thousand years to describe the kingdom and city outside which the Buddha preached his first sermon; the "City of Light".
This is the city of Shiva: legend relates how, after his marriage to Parvati, Shiva left his Himalayan abode and came to reside in Varanasi with all the gods in attendance. Temporarily banished during the rule of the great king Divodasa, Shiva sent Brahma and Vishnu as his emissaries, but ultimately returned to his rightful abode.
This city has as a result of these associations been a pilgrimage spot for millennia. The town’s old city, Godaulia, is made up of an almost unfathomable network of ornate backstreets too narrow for vehicles. Tea stalls, dharamsalas (pilgrim rest-houses) ashrams (places of religious study), restaurants, travellers’ guesthouses and shops all jostle for position. The sound of chanting and bells mixes with the grunts of the holy cows who make their way slowly through the streets whilst the smoke from funeral pyres twists into the sky.
The ghats (steps leading down to the river) draw people at all times of the day, but especially at dawn when pujas are said as the sun rises on the opposite bank of the Ganges.
A day or two in Varanasi has most Western visitors asking questions of themselves and few places in the world can have had such a profound impact on millions of people over thousands of years.