It is 4:30 am. The day is dawning on Varanasi. Little by little, as soon as the first sunlight pierces through the thick fog and illuminates the buildings of this VIIth century city, the crowds travel towards the river. From all over India, followers rush to Varanasi, a place where they want to be born, to live, and most of all to die. The sun shines softly on the still calm Ganges. Life awakens and the pilgrims advance onto the ghats, the endless stairs that lead to the Ganges. Much more than a river, it is the Goddess Ganga who descended to earth on the hair of the god Shiva to save mankind…It is impossible to understand through logic alone the importance of the Ganges for the Hindu people. One must spend hours by the river, and feel little by little the multiple vibrations of this sacred place in one’s heart and body. One must witness daybreak, soak in these rituals, observe without judgment. And from the same location, one must observe daylight give way to twilight.
The ghats
The city of Varanasi is most famous for its
ghats, which are embankments, covered in stone steps, allowing the devout Hindus to descend to the river to practice cleansing rituals and
pujas (religious celebrations). Bathing in the Ganges is supposed to wash away all your sins and allow you then to be free of the cycle of reincarnation. It is also on special
ghats, the most famous being Manikarnika, that cremations are held.
Life takes on another dimension in Varanasi. A unique atmosphere reigns as life and death rub shoulders at every corner, on every
ghat. Dying in Varanasi is every Hindu’s dream. The sacred character of the city, the purity of the Ganges’ water, and all the rituals surrounding death, allow the soul to escape the ‘infernal’ cycle of reincarnation and to directly attain Nirvana. Everywhere on the banks of the river, people await death, open air areas are reserved for cremations – these are important moments where every gesture and every word has its own importance. Gently, the flames consume the bodies before the ashes are thrown into the river.
Its history
The British renamed the city Benares after they conquered India. Muslims sought to destroy it. This immortal city gets its name from the two rivers that flow into the Ganges: the Varuna and the Asi. In the past, it has also been known as Kashi and Banaras (Benares, a distortion of Varanasi). The entire city is located on the left bank of the Ganges, facing the rising sun. The other bank is devoid of any construction.
An old myth suggests that Varanasi was built 2000 years before our era. According to historians, it is rather in the VIIth century before Christ that the first stones were laid, making Varanasi one of the oldest surviving urban centers. Today, however, there is very little trace of ancient monuments; just a few ruins are left. As the ultimate site of Hinduism and therefore of polytheism, it was pillared or destroyed many times by the Muslims. It was first destroyed in 1033 by Mahmud de Ghazni’s army. Its temples were destroyed and the materials reused to build mosques. The last wave of destruction was led by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, who renamed the city Mohammadabad (Mohammed City). In the colonial era, the city fell under British control in 1775. Despite its tumultuous history, this place will always keep its sacred character and its position as a key city of Hinduism.