India Travel

The residence of the Maharaja of Varanasi, Ramnagar Fort looks down upon the Ganges not far south of the Asi Ghat. The best views of the fortifications -especially impressive in late afternoon - are to be had from the other side of the river, which is reached by a road heading south from the BHU area and over a rickety pontoon bridge. During the monsoon the bridge is dismantled and replaced by a ferry, still preferable to the long main road that crosses the main Malaviya bridge in the north before heading down the eastern bank of the river. It can also be reached by chartering a boat from Dashaswamedh Ghat.

Inside, the fort bears testimony to the wealth of the maharaja and his continuing influence. A dusty and poorly kept museum (daily 9am-noon & 2-5pm; Rs5) provides glimpses of a decadent past: horse-drawn carriages, old motor cars, palanquins, gilded and ornate silver howdahs (elephant seats), hookahs, costumes and old silk in a sorry state are all part of the collection, along with an armoury, a collection of minute ivory carvings, an astronomical clock and hunting trophies. Some visitors have reported having tea with the affable maharaja after chance encounters.

Across the courtyard, a section is devoted to the Ram Lila procession and festivities, held during Dussehra (Oct).Varanasi is renowned for its Ram Lila, during which episodes from the Ramayana are re-enacted throughout the city and the maharaja sponsors three weeks of elaborate celebrations.

The nineteenth-century Durga Temple - stained red with ochre, and known among foreign travellers as the Monkey Temple, thanks to its aggressive and irritable monkeys - stands within a walled enclosure 4km south of Godaulia, not far from Asi Ghat. It was built in a typical north Indian style, with an ornate shikhara, consisting of five segments symbolizing the elements, and supported by finely carved columns. The whole ensemble is best seen from across Durga bund, the adjoining tank. Permeated by a stark primeval atmosphere, it is devoted to Durga, the terrifying aspect of Shiva’s consort, Parvati, and the embodiment of shakti or female energy. A forked stake in the courtyard is used during festivals to behead sacrificial goats.

Non-Hindus are admitted to the courtyard, but not the inner sanctum, of the Durga temple, but access to the Tulsi Manas Temple alongside is unrestricted (daily 5am-noon & 3pm-midnight). Built in 1964 of white-streaked marble, its walls are inscribed with verses by the poet and author of the Ramcharitmanas, the Hindi equivalent of the great Sanskrit epic Ramayana,

A little further south, the Bharat Kala Bhavan museum (Mon-Sat: May & June 7.30am-12.30pm; July-April llam-4.30pm; Rs100, Rs10 extra with camera) has a fabulous collection of miniature paintings, sculpture, contemporary art and bronzes. Dedicated to the city ofVaranasi, a gallery with a stunning nineteenth-century map has a display of the recent Raj Ghat excavations and old etchings of the city. Along with Buddhist and Hindu sculpture and Moghu.1 glass, galleries are devoted to foreign artists who found inspiration in India such as Nicholas Roerich and Alice Boner. Jamini Roy, the Bengali renaissance painter 50 influenced by folk art, is also well represented.

Bharat Kala Bhavan forms part of BHU, the campus of which also holds the New Vishwanatha Temple (daily 4am-noon & 1—9pm), distinguished by its lofty white-marble shikhara. The brainchild of Pandit Malaviya, founder of the university and 3 great believer in an egalitarian and casteless Hindu revival, it was built by the Birlas, a wealthy Marwan industrial family. Although supposedly modelled on the original temple destroyed by Aurangzeb, the building displays characteristics of the new wave of temple architecture, amalgamating influences from various parts of India with a garish interior. Teashops, flower-sellers and other vendors in the small market outside the gates cater for a continuous flow of visitors.

About 3km northwest of Godaulia, outside the old city, the modern temple of Bharat Mata (Mother India), inaugurated by Mahatma Gandhi, is unusual id that it has a huge relief map in marble of the whole of the Indian subcontinent and the Tibetan plateau, with mountains, rivers and the holy tirthas all clearly visible. Pilgrims circumambulate the map before viewing it in its entirety from the second floor. The temple can be reached by rickshaw from Godaulia for around Rs7.

Varanasi holds a few other sites of interest, especially in the area south of Godaulia, just beyond Asi Ghat. The Durga Temple here, and the Bharat Kala Bhavan museum of Benares Hindu University (BHU) are easily accessible, while just across the river, Ramnagar and its impressive fort continue to play an important role in the life of the city.

At the heart of Varanasi, between Dashaswamedh Ghat and Godaulia to the south and west and Manikarnika Ghat on the river to the north, lies the old city (or Vishwanatha Khanda), a maze of ramshackle alleys. The whole area rewards exploration, with shrines and lingams tucked into every corner and buzzing with the activity of pilgrims, pandas and stalls selling offerings to the faithful. Watch for cow jams in the narrow lanes and if you get lost head for the river.

Approached through labyrinthine alleys and the Vishwanatha Gali (or Lane), the temple complex of Vishwanatha or Visheshwara, the “Lord of All", is popularly known as the Golden Temple, due to the massive gold plating on its shikhara (spire). Hidden behind a wall, the opulent complex is closed to non-Hindus, who have to make do with glimpses from adjacent buildings.

Vshwanatha’s history has been fraught. Sacked by successive Muslim rulers, temple was repeatedly rebuilt, until the grand edifice begun in 1585 by Todar Mal, a courtier of the tolerant Moghul Akbar, was finally destroyed by Auranezeb- Its simple white domes tower over the Jnana Vapi ("Wisdom well’’) immediately north, housed in an open arcaded hall built in 1828, where Shiva cooled his lingam after the construction of Vishwanatha. Adjacent to the temple guarded by armed police to protect it from Hindu fanatics, stands the Jnana Vapi Mosque, also known as the Great Mosque of Aurangzeb. Slightly north across the main road, the thirteenth-century Razia’s Mosque stands atop the rums of a stl” earlier Vishwanatha temple, destroyed under the Sultanate.

Close by- the temple of Annapurna Bhavani is dedicated to Shakti, the divine female energy. Manifest in many forms, including the awesome Kali and Durga with their weapons and gruesome garlands of skulls, here she is seen as the provider of sustenance and carries instead a cooking pot. A subsidiary shrine, open for just three days a year, houses a solid gold representation of Annapurna. Nearby is a stunning image, faced in silver against a black surround, of Shani or Saturn. Anyone whose fortunes fall under his shadow is stricken with bad luck - a fate devotees try to escape by worshipping here on Saturdays.

Beyond Lakshmanbala Ghat, with its commanding views of the river, lies one of the most dramatic and controversial ghats, Panchganga Ghat, dominated by Varanasi’s largest riverside building, the great Mosque of Alamgir, known locally as Bern Madhav-ka-Darera. With its minarets now much shortened, the mosque stands on the ruins of the Bindu Madhava, a Vishnu temple that extended from Panchganga to Rama Ghat before it was destroyed by Aurangzeb and replaced by the mosque. Panchganga also bears testimony to more favourable Hindu-Muslim relations, being the site of the initiation of the medieval saint of the Sufi-Sant tradition, Kabir, the son of a humble Muslim weaver who is venerated by Hindus and Muslims alike. Along the riverfront lies a curious array of three-sided cells, submerged during the rainy season, some with lingams, others with images ofVishnu, and some empty and used for meditation or yoga.

Above Trilochana Ghat, further north, is the holy ancient lingam of the three (fri)-eyed (lochana) Shiva. Beyond it, the river bypasses some ofVaranasi’s oldest precincts, now predominantly Muslim in character; the ghats themselves gradually become less impressive and are usually of the kaccha (clay-banked) variety.

At Adi Keshava Ghat (the “Original Vishnu"), on the outskirts of the city, the Varana flows into the Ganga. Unapproachable during the rainy season, when it is completely submerged, it marks the place where Vishnu supposedly landed as an emissary of Shiva, and stands on the original site of the city before it spread southwards; around Adi Keshava are a number of Ganesha shrines.

Bordering Manikarnika to the north is the picturesque Scindia Ghat, with m tilted Shiva temple lying partially submerged in the river, having fallen in as, result of the sheer weight of the ghat’s construction around 150 years ago Above the ghat, several ofVaranasi’s most influential shrines are hidden within the tight maze of alleyways of the area known as Siddha Kshetra (the “Field of Fulfilment"). Vireshvara, the Lord of all Heroes, is especially propitiated in prayer for a son; the Lord of Fire, Agni, was supposed to have been born here.

North of Lalita lies Varanasi’s pre-eminent cremation ground, Manikarnika Ghat. Such grounds are usually held to be inauspicious, and located on the fringes of cities, but the entire city of Shiva is regarded as Mahashmashana, the Great Cremation Ground for the corpse of the entire universe. The ghat is perpetually crowded with funeral parties, as well as the Doms, its Untouchable guardians, busy and preoccupied with facilitating final release for those lucky enough to pass away here. Seeing bodies being cremated so publicly has always exerted a great fascination for visitors to the city, but photography is strictly taboo; even having a camera visible may be construed as intent, and provoke hostility. Wood touts descend on tourists at the ghat explaining the finer metaphysical points of transmutation ("cremation is education") before subtly shifting to the practicalities of how much wood is needed to burn one body, the never-ending cycle of inflation and would you like to give a donation. The amounts written down in their “ledgers” are unbelievable.

Lying at the centre of the five tirthas, Manikarnika Ghat symbolizes both creation and destruction, epitomized by the juxtaposition of the sacred well of Manikarnika Kund, said to have been dug by Vishnu at the time of creation, and the hot, sandy ash-infused soil of cremation grounds where time comes to an end. In Hindu mythology, Manikarnika Kund predates the arrival of the Ganga and has its source deep in the Himalayas.Vishnu carved the kund with his discus, and filled it with perspiration from his exertions in creating the ^vorld. at the behest of Shiva. When Shiva quivered with delight, his earring fell ‘nto this pool, which as Manikarnika - “Jewelled Earring” - became the first tirtha in the world. Every year, after the floodwaters of the river have reced h to leave the pool caked in alluvial deposits, the kund is re-dug. Its surroundin are cleaned and painted with bright folk art depicting the presiding goddes Manikarni Devi.

Dashaswamedh Ghat, the second and busiest of the five tirthas on the Panchatirthi Yatra, lies past the plain, flat-roofed building that houses the shrine of Shitala. Extremely popular, even in the rainy season when devotees have to wade to the temple or take a boat, Shitala represents both benign and malevolent aspects - ease and succour as well as disease, particularly smallpox.

Dashaswamedh is Varanasi’s most popular and accessible bathing ghat, with rows of pandas sitting on wooden platforms under bamboo umbrellas, masseurs plying their trade and boatmen jostling for custom. Its name, “ten horse sacrifices", derives from a complex series of sacrifices performed by Brahma to test King Divodasa: Shiva and Parvati were sure the king’s resolve would fail, and he would be compelled to leave Kashi, thereby allowing them to return to their city. However, the sacrifices were so perfect that Brahma established the Brahmeshvara Ungam here. Since that time, Dashaswamedh has become one of the most celebrated tirthas on earth, where pilgrims can reap the benefits of the huge sacrifice merely by bathing.

Northwards along the river, Chauki Ghat is distinguished by an enormous tree that shelters small stone shrines to the nagas, water-snake deities, while at the unmistakeable Dhobi (Laundrymcns) Ghat, clothes are still rhythmically pulverized in pursuit of purity. Past smaller ghats such as Manasarovara Ghat, named after the holy lake in Tibet, and Narada Ghat, honouring the divine musician and sage, lies Chaumsathi Ghat, where impressive stone steps lead up to the small temple of the Chaumsathi (64) Yoginis. Images of Kali and Durga in its inner sanctum represent a stage in the emergence of the great goddess as a single representation of a number of female divinities. Overlooking the ghats here is Peshwa Amrit Rao’s majestic sandstone kaveii (mansion), built in 1807 and currently used for religious ceremonies and occasionally as an auditorium for concerts.