Varanasi
Varanasi represents the India of your vision. Surprises await around every curve in one of the world’s most colorful and intriguing destinations. Varanasi is a city on the Ganga River in the Uttar Pradesh state of North India, 320 kilometers (200 miles) southeast of Lucknow and 121 kilometers (75 miles) east of Allahabad. It is India’s most important religious center, the holiest of the seven sacred cities (Sapta Puri) in Hinduism and Jainism, and has played a significant role in the development of Buddhism and Ravidassia. Varanasi is located along National Highway 2, which connects it to Kolkata, Kanpur, Agra, and Delhi. It is connected by the Varanasi Junction railway station and the Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport.
Varanasi is one of the 72 districts in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. This district contained 8 blocks and 1329 villages as of the 2011 census. Varanasi’s main languages are the Awadhi and Bhojpuri varieties of Hindi-Urdu. This is one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities, as well as one of Hinduism’s most sacred. Pilgrims visit the Ganges ghats to wash away their sins or to cremate their loved ones. It’s a very auspicious site to die since it provides moksha (freedom from the cycle of rebirth).
Varanasi flourished into a major industrial center, known for its muslin and silk fabrics, fragrances, ivory works, and art. Buddha is thought to have established Buddhism here in 528 BCE, when he delivered his first sermon, “The Setting in Motion of the Wheel of Dharma,” in nearby Sarnath. The city’s religious significance increased in the eighth century, when Adi Shankara established Shiva worship as an official sect of Varanasi. Throughout Muslim domination throughout the Middle Ages, the city remained an important hub of Hindu devotion, pilgrimage, mysticism, and poetry, adding to its status as a cultural and religious education center. Tulsidas created Ram Charit Manas, an epic poem on Rama’s life, in Varanasi. Varanasi also gave birth to several other prominent Bhakti personalities, including Kabir and Ravidas. Guru Nanak traveled to Varanasi for Maha Shivaratri in 1507, which had a significant influence in the establishment of Sikhism.
Most visitors agree that Varanasi is magical, but not for the faint of heart. Intimate rites of life and death are performed in public, and the sights, sounds, and scents on the ghats, not to mention the almost constant attention from touts, can be overwhelming. Nonetheless, the so-called City of Light may prove to be your favorite destination of all. Walking along the ghats and alleyways, or seeing the sunrise from a boat, can be amazing experiences.
Manikarnika Ghat, the major burning ghat, is considered the most auspicious place for a Hindu to be cremated. Outcasts known as doms handle dead bodies, which are brought through the passageways of the Old City to the sacred Ganges on a bamboo stretcher covered in cloth. The corpse is immersed in the Ganges before being cremated.
Huge heaps of firewood are heaped along the top of the ghat, and each log is painstakingly weighed on giant scales to determine the cost of cremation. Each variety of wood has its own price, with sandalwood the most expensive. There is an art to utilizing just enough wood to thoroughly incinerate a body. You can watch cremations, but always be respectful. Photographs are strictly banned. A priest, or more likely a guide, will almost certainly lead you to the upper level of a nearby building where you can see cremations take place, after which you will be asked for a gift (in dollars) towards the cost of wood. If you do not want to donate, do not follow them.
Above the steps, there is a tank called the Manikarnika Well. Parvati is claimed to have dropped her earring here, and Shiva dug the tank to find it, filling the pit with sweat. The Charanpaduka, a stone slab located between the well and the ghat, bears Vishnu’s footsteps. Privileged VIPs are cremated in the Charanpaduka, which also houses a temple devoted to Ganesh.
Varanasi, India’s sacred city, is sometimes known as Kashi or Benaras. Kashi, the city of Moksha for Hindus for ages, is noted for its fine-quality silks, ‘paan’ and Benares. Varanasi, the most popular pilgrimage site for Hindus, was once known as Hindu University and Avimukta. Varanasi is one of India’s seven holiest cities, as well as one of its Shakti Peethas and twelve Jyotir Linga locations. In Hinduism, it is claimed that those who die and are cremated here gain rapid escape from the cycle of births and rebirths.
Varanasi, known as Lord Shiva’s residence, is located on the banks of the Ganges River, which is believed to have the capacity to wash away all sins. As pundits here will tell you, whatever is sacrificed, recited, or donated in charity reaps a thousand times more fruit than good deeds committed elsewhere due to the power of that location. It is said that three nights of fasting in Varanasi can reap the benefits of hundreds of lifetimes of penance!
Varanasi is the oldest city in the world. Varanasi, known as the Temple City, is around 3000 years old. Varanasi has temples every few yards. Given the amount of temples in Varanasi, it’s difficult to believe that so many of them were razed during medieval times. The Jyotirlinga Visvanatha Temple, also known as the Golden Temple, was rebuilt in 1776 and dedicated to Lord Shiva. The Jnana Vapi well (meaning “Well of Wisdom”) is thought to have been dug by Lord Shiva himself. The stately Alamgir mosque is thought to have replaced one of the oldest ancient temples, known as the Bindu Madhava Temple. The sheer quantity of shrines, thirty-three hundred million, inspires awe and astonishment.
The Ganga Ghats (riverfront) are Varanasi’s most prominent pilgrimage site, as well as musical and educational establishments. The holy city of Kashi has a rich Yatra tradition, with the most sacred path being the Panchkoshi Parikrama, a fifty-mile path with a radius of five miles that passes by 108 shrines along the way, with Panchakoshi Temple serving as its major shrine. Nagara Pradakshina is another popular pilgrimage route that visits 72 shrines along the way. Varanasi has long been a thriving educational hub. For thousands of years, the sacred city has served as a symbol of spiritualism, philosophy, and mysticism, producing renowned saints and personalities such as Guatama Buddha, Mahavira, Kabir, Tulsi Das, Shankaracharya, Ramanuja, and Patanjali.
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