For over 2000 years, Varanasi,
the 'eternal city', has been the religious capital of India. Built
on the banks of the sacred Ganges, it is said to combine the virtues
of all other places of pilgrimage and anyone who ends their days
here, regardless of creed and however great their misdeeds, is
transported straight to heaven. The easternmost city in Uttar
Pradesh, Varanasi is an important seat of learning, and is the home
of novelists, philosophers and grammarians. This has been reflected
in its role in the development of Hindi - the closest thing to a
national language in India.
Varanasi has over 100 bathing and burning ghats but the Manikarnika
Ghat is the most sacred of them all. This is the main burning ghat
and one of the most auspicious places that a Hindu can be cremated.
Corpses are handled by outcasts known as chandal, and they are
carried through the alleyways of the old city to the holy Ganges on
a bamboo stretcher swathed in cloth. You'll see huge piles of
firewood stacked along the top of the ghat, each log carefully
weighed on giant scales so that the price of cremation can be
calculated. There are no problems watching cremations, since at
Manikarnika death is simply business as usual, but leave your camera
at your hotel.
The best ghat to hang out at and absorb the riverside activity is
Dasaswamedh Ghat. Here you'll find a dense concentration of people
who come to the edge of the Ganges not only for a ritual bath, but
to do yoga, offer blessings, buy paan, sell flowers, get a massage,
play cricket, have a swim, get a shave, and do their karma good by
giving money to beggars. It's also the best place to arrange a boat
trip since there's plenty of competition among boatmen.
Apart from the many ghats lining the river, the city's other
highlights include the Golden Temple, built in a roofed quadrangle
with stunning gilded towers; shopping at markets famous for their
ornamental brasswork, lacquered toys, shawls, silks and sitars (yes,
Ravi Shankar does live here); losing yourself in the impossibly
narrow labyrinthine alleyways which snake back from the ghats;
visiting the nearby Buddhist centre of Sarnath; and taking the
compulsory dawn river trip slowly down the Ganges.
Varanasi is on the major tourist loop, about 580km (360mi) east of
Agra, and 780km (485mi) southeast of Delhi, and can be eached by
plane, bus or train.
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