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| Watercolor by Viji |
In
the Rigveda, this city is referred to as Kāśī or Kashi, the luminous city as an
eminent seat of learning. The name Kāśī is also mentioned in the Skanda Purana. In one verse, Shiva says, "The three worlds form one city of mine, and
Kāśī is my royal palace therein”. The name Kashi may be translated as
"City of Light". The earliest known archaeological
evidence suggests that settlement around Varanasi in the Ganga valley began in the 11th or 12th century BC, placing it among
the worlds oldest
continually inhabited cities. These archaeological
remains suggest that the Varanasi area was populated by Vedic people. However, the Atharvaveda (the oldest known text referencing the
city), which dates to approximately the same period, suggests that the area was
populated by indigenous tribes. It is possible that archaeological
evidence of these previous inhabitants has yet to be discovered. Buddha is
believed to have founded Buddhism here around 528 BC when he gave his first
sermon, "Turning the Wheel of Law", at nearby Sarnath. The city's
religious importance continued to grow in the 8th century, when Adi Shankara established the worship
of Shiva as an official sect of Varanasi. It is the holiest of the
seven sacred cities (Sapta Puri)
in Hinduism and Jainism and played an
important role in the development of Buddhism. Through the centuries, countless saints, sages and savants, philosophers, scholars and reformers, poets, writers and musicians have either lived in or visited the city from all over the world.
After my first visit I had told myself that I would
return to this place as I had felt something that I had never felt in any other
place before. Found some decent fares to Varanasi via Delhi by SpiceJet for
16,000 INR RT & booked immediately (unfortunately IndiGo announced direct
flight for cheaper fare couple of days after I booked :-( Consolation is that
they were starting this route from end of Feb & we wanted to complete our
trip by then) Finding a hotel though was little bit of a struggle as we were
particular about staying & spending most of our time on the Ghat (that too
close to the main Ghat between Manikarnika and Harishchandra Ghat), the top 2
from my choice of guest house/hotel (Rashmi & Ganapathi) were sold out. Finally found Palace
on the Steps on Rana Mahal Ghat for
a decent price of 2K for a room with full view of Ganga + breakfast. Off we went on our 5-day journey of experience
on 17th Feb.
Although not planned, two important dates happen to be
there in our window of stay in Varanasi, one was Sankashtahara Chathurthi on 18th
and the other was my mother’s shradha on 19th. Although we don’t perform any shradha related
rituals that day as we have done in Gaya, we thought of immersing her asthi that
we had kept with us in Allahabad Triveni Sangama on 19th.
Last time when we were in Kashi, we had visited
Saranath, Vishwanatha temple & done the famous boat ride on the Ganga near
the Ghats &, not to forget, all the sari shopping my sisters did! This time
around Viji & I wanted to just spend most of our time exploring Ghats and based
on some of my readings, I had also made a list of what to see depending on the
time.
Feb
17:
Luckily both the flights were on time (8:20AM flt from
Bengaluru & 1:20PM flt from Delhi), reached Kashi at 2:50PM. While waiting for our baggage, Viji was
chatting with a French tourist & when asked if it was her first visit
– She said she cannot even remember the count of how many times she has come
here and that she has written a 400pg book in French about Kashi. She was
excited that it was going to be translated to English. We were impressed.
I had booked the taxi from the Hotel since I was told this place is not easy to find coming from the airport as the last stretch to the hotel is by foot only for about 10min thro' close-set alleys/ghallis & is not a motor-able road. There is also an option for a longer walk to the temple street & then via the main Ghat “Dhashaswamedh Ghat “and then climb steep steps directly from the Rana Mahal Ghat (next to Munshi Ghat). It was good advice to book the taxi from the hotel as the ghallis we walked had too many left-right turns & very difficult to find it on our own and of course dirty and stinking. I recommend if you go there you give them the luggage & take the longer route via main Ghat, it is a much nicer& cleaner path.
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| Room with a view! |
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| Steep dark stairs leading to Ghat |
Our room was dome shaped with the balcony facing the mighty Ganga. A cute room indeed! It had the perfect view & at the perfect location! Hotel was in OK condition, maintenance could have been better. Best part was the location as we could see all the activities on the Ghat from our room balcony. After freshening up, went to their roof top restaurant which was very basic & had good Lemon ginger tea with a view of Ganga. Since temp was cool, this tea hit the spot. We had the company of some monkeys playing on the branches. This hotel has direct access to the Ghat via steep stairs. Some parts of the stairs are dark even during day …luckily we had carried flash light. Once you come down, the main Ghat/Dhashaswamedh Ghat is hardly 5min walk right after Ahalya Bai Ghat.
Here is some info about the Ghats…“There are nearly 100 Ghats. The famous and oldest Ghats of all these are the Dhashaswamedh, the Manikarnika and the Harishchandra Ghat. Some of the Ghats are made there by Hindu rulers, such as, Ahilya Bai Holkar of Malwa region, Peshwas of Gwalior, Man Singh of Amber, Jai Singh of Jaipur, Maharaja of Mysore . Most of the Ghats are bathing Ghats, while two are used as cremation sites. Many Ghats are associated with legends or mythologies while many Ghats are privately owned. The former Kashi Naresh owns Shivala or KaliGhat.”
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| Rana & Munshi Ghat |
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| Ganga Arathi |
We walked along the Ganga for a while admiring the architecture of the Ghats and later came back towards the main Ghat around sunset to watch the famous Kashi Ganga Arathi. This happens after sunset. It was not crowded. We were able to sit directly in front of the
performers/priests. The ambience and the ceremony itself are very different from Haridhwadhar Ganga Arathi ceremony. Rituals they perform here are very artistic & elaborate. Agni pooja is performed to the Shiva, Ganga, Surya (Sun), Agni (Fire) & to the whole universe. All the priests wear similar clothing & Arathi is done with such unison.
Looked like a group from photography club had come from overseas who were clicking away to glory every possible angle of the ceremony.
We also saw lot of people on boats – Ganga Arathi and sunset/rise boat rides are very popular in Kashi. What is interesting is that this Arathi happens in front of every Ghat and only thing that is different is the number of people doing it – varies from 12 to 1. Best is to watch this in front of the main Ghat. If interested to know more on Arathi, look up this site for good information http://www.varanasi.org.in/ganga-aarti We saw the same French tourist from the airport with the priests near the microphone & she was getting lot of attention from the temple folks.
After the ceremony we walked towards Rashmi Guest House for dinner to their roof top restaurant. Once we got there, we kept climbing stairs for ever – first it was about 25 or so steep steps to get to guesthouse and then 4 floors to the rooftop… after all this we could not even sit outdoors as it was windy and we felt cold after 5min there (about 12 C degrees) and preferred to dine indoors. We had North Indian dinner & it was good. This hotel seemed nice & clean but more expensive and river facing rooms were sold out. Hmm….like they say what goes up must come down…we had to climb down all those stairs and as we were going down, we came across few foreign tourists huffing and puffing their way up :-).
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| Moon |
On our
way back, saw the beautiful moon – perfect shape! Regular digital autofocus camera cannot do the justice. While walking back we had to hold our breath in many places due to
urine stink & almost felt like our esteemed men doing it wherever they see the
Ghat wall (wait a minute isn't it the dog which usually do this…oh, well!) . It
was a long day and we were tired. At the
reception, we checked the time of sun rise and set the alarm!
On the Ghat near the steps leading up to our hotel
there were some locals & tourists singing & playing guitar. We could see & hear from our premium balcony
seat. Nice ambience!!
Key information to keep in mind if you want to stay on
the Ghat, you have lot of climbing up and down as there are no elevators in any
of these place.
Feb
18:
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| Sunrise |
Woke up to the music of birds chirping. We were taken
aback to see so many boats full of tourist already doing their rounds on the
Ganga between Assi Ghat & Manikarnika Ghat while waiting for the sunrise
and saw continuous flashes from their cameras.
This place is truly a photographers and artists paradise I can say! First time I felt like owing a professional
camera as I realized so many interesting subjects & scenes in Kashi which
simply cannot be captured with my current camera :-(
But then how lucky I am to be here in person to see
& experience all this!!!
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| Siberian Birds |
What a sunrise it was! Adding to this beauty was the migratory birds from Siberia. Tourists were seen
enjoying feeding the birds while sailing on boats. Later, Viji got her note pad out to do some
sketch from the balcony while I was getting ready.
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| temple street |
We found out that breakfast in our hotel does not
start till 8:00 AM. It was only 7:15 and we wanted coffee so bad…we decided to
walk to the main temple street and have coffee at the south Indian place (Madhur
Milan Café) that was recommended by lonely planet…Seeing it from the outside,
we hesitated and later told ourselves, when in Rome… we ordered Idli and
Coffee. Hmm…don’t know how this got
recommended by lonely planet?? Here is
my succinct review -“Don't even think of going there”.
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| Earth belongs to everyone |
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| Market |
We walked around the main street that has the famous Kashi Vishwanatha temple via the veggie & fruit market. The market area seemed like a true democracy where planet belongs to all & everything: vendors, customers, fresh fruits & veggies, flowers, tourists (local & western), sadhus, beggars, cows, dogs, cats, urine, shit, cow dung, Benarasi pan splattered left, right & center, 2 wheelers,… you name it! We were hoping around a lot between pot holes & filth. An experience it was! By the time we came back it was 8:00, so we decided to
have at least a nice cup of tea at our hotel.
B’fast there is just bread & coffee/tea and eggs. Hygiene was not
good or should I say, don’t even look inside the kitchen.
There
were few Japanese guests having b’fast here. Funny they wear masks & walk
around but eat here :-)
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| Me at Ahalya Ghat |
We went to the Vishwanatha temple just to announce our self to Shiva :-) Although I had visited this temple in 2011, had forgotten that you cannot carry absolutely anything other than cash due to high security! I had with me cell phone & ipod (had forgotten to check my multi pocket sling bag, Viji was as usual smart and did not have anything). We had to trust and keep it with one of the vendors near the security entrance as I was lazy to walk back to the room & the thought of steep stairs :-) He said he will keep it if we buy pooja items from him for Rs. 100/-... Initially we did not intent to buy any pooja items but now we had to. We proceeded thro’ ghallis from the main temple entrance to 2nd layer of security at Gate 2 and that lady found earphones in one of the pockets of
my bag :-( so she asked me go
back… I tried to request and they got upset with me & the first security
guard as my earphones had escaped their first check.
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| Vishwanatha Temple |
I kept it with another vendor there hoping I
will remember him & the way to come
back here as the exit is in a different ghalli. Finally made it inside the
temple inner complex & stood in the line for dharshana. The ladies behind me started to push for
absolutely no reason as the line was not that bad/long… I started to get
annoyed. As usual Pandas started bothering us seeing the pooja items (I think) &
said they can take us around without any waiting in the line & we can pay
whatever we feel like paying. Although Viji was saying No, by now irritation
from the security guard frisking to the folks pushing had got to me… I told her
let us go so that we don’t have wait in line & be pushed.
We went with the Panda and little did I know what was to happen.
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| Ghalli leading to temple |
First we saw the main Shiva lingam and there we did not like the way
security personnel was man handling the devotees & pushing them if they
bend their head to floor to bow/pray.These
kinds of behavior really take away sanctity of a place I feel. Next we went near
the well where the original Jytorlinga was hidden by the priests to save it during
Aurangzeb attack /invasion and the place where Aurangzeb later built the mosque.
The area where there is well is the
demarked area between Mosque and the current temple structure built by
the Maratha monarch, Ahilya Bai Holkar in 1780. This is where things
got bad for us and this Panda turned out to be real trickster…first very
smartly he separated me and Viji and took me around the well near another Panda
& asked me to give the pooja items & Viji was diverted to a place near some
idols at the other end. Although I told him we are together, he said as we are only
sisters & not considered family for pooja purposes (only couples apparently
are considered as family for poojas) & the other Panda did some pooja on my
behalf (that is what he said). He explained to me instead of one waiting while
the other is being blessed, let us finish seeing other things that are of great
importance here… Suddenly the 2nd
Panda wanted me to pay Rs. 1000/-saying he did some special pooja because the
first panda said so & even said Viji has already paid for this special
pooja to the Panda she was talking to and now I have to pay. I was surprised that Viji paid and like a
fool I just paid – what a true sheep I had become (I am so ashamed of me as I
write this…) actually Viji had not paid. I feel like hitting myself when I
think of this even today. In the end we told
him he should be ashamed of himself & that he will be punished for being a
swindler & a cheater in Shiva’s place, he just stood there shameless with a
sheepish smile! I felt less stupid later when I found Viji although had argued but
ended up paying Rs. 500/-… better than me but she also got suckered!
So please be aware of these Pandas who are nothing but
cheats! I am so glad I am from South India where these kinds of things don’t
happen (at least I have never experienced as Poojas have ticket system in south).
Well! I guess I just experienced one of the ugly sides of Kashi!
It was funny when we got back someone told Viji
without knowing our experience, in Kashi if you get into the hands of Pandas
then that is the end of the story. Forgot to write about the things I had left with
vendors - I had to find my way back again thro’ security people as exit gates
are different, my stuff was intact and these vendors did not ask for any extra
money or anything, they have ethics unlike the Pandas! Ahh...glad to see the good side of humans here :-)
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| Ghalli near temple |
Next, we wanted to go inside the Mosque to see the old real temple remains which is used as structures inside the mosque. As I had recently read the Kannada book “Avarana” which details many things that happened here during Aurangzeb time, I really wanted to see this. First we were told by some guards, we have to go near Gate 4, when we went there, was told we need approval from the police.
We went to temple security police booth which was all the way on the other side. There initially we were told, we need to provide our passports, and we told them we are Indians. (It was stupid of him to ask since we both had big kunkum and Gandha mix that Pandas put on your forehead and foreigners are not allowed in this temple). He asked why as Hindus we want to go there and not just to the temple. Responded by saying, we just want to see - he then told us, women are not allowed. We asked him why did he not tell us this in the first place & ask for passport…he did not respond to that but said no general public is allowed inside! We could not find out the real reason for not allowing us – maybe we asked too many questions??
After all this, we were exhausted and wanted to have some good lunch and went to Khesari restaurant on Temple Street (recommended in lonely planet & trip adviser for Indian meals). Both the place & the food are pretty good. We had a good North Indian meal.
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| Chaos |
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| Electric wires or artwork? |
From here we proceeded to Kala Bhairava temple which is supposed to be the most ancient temple in Kashi. We decided to walk thro’ the ghallis (about 1.5km) & not take cycle rickshaw. Maneuvering thru the ghallis was interesting with many turns and some corners of course had garbage piles.One thing that catches your
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| More of the same |
attention/sight in Kashi when you walk around is the cobweb type electric wires hanging all over…some places I felt was downright scary to walk across. I wondered if there is any regulation for anything in this city. Looked as if most of the electric lines are illegal, god forbid if it is legal and this is how they draw wires to the buildings! An ancient living city with the ancient/old infrastructure and facilities, except for explosion in new population :-)
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| Kala Bhairava |
Unfortunately by the time we reached the temple, Garbha gudi was closed for the morning, we just walked around the temple complex which has the look & feel of a very old temple. There were couple of vendors inside the complex. We a saw a father - son team where father was busy selling items and son barely a teenager was busy chewing the pan and spitting. When we asked him if he is aware of the negative effects of pan…he proudly said, this is Benarasi pan & said it is very famous! He spoke as if it is mandated to chew pan, father complained that his son does not listen to their advice (well, what's new!). We were done with temples in Kashi!! Back at the hotel for a short rest.
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| Karnataka Bhavam |
Later that evening we decided to walk all the way to one end of the Ghat to “Assi Ghat” and have dinner there. It was about 3+km walk one way, we stopped by & went into some of the Ghats like Mysore Ghat/Karnataka bhavan, Shankar matt, Harishchandra Ghat. Karnataka Bhavan which was built by Maharaja of Mysore looks like it is not maintained for decades. What a pity!
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| Sadhu near Harishchandra Ghat |
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| Kedar Ghat |
Imagine how wonderful the ghats will look if these magnificent structures are maintained!
Shankar Mutt looked maintained! if one prefers to stay there it is Rs 500/night per person. I was hoping for some coffee :-) but no one was around.
There were bodies burning in Harishchandra Ghat (No photography allowed here) and
couple of them were waiting for their turn. This Ghat does not get as many
bodies as Manikarnika Ghat for cremation and the electric cremation facility here is in non
working condition and that building looks totally abandoned. Between
Manikarnika and Harishchandra Ghat we were told they burn 200 bodies per day and
the fire in these two Ghats never goes off. It is 24x7 & is burning for centuries. We
stood there for a while! .There was lot of dogs wandering around. What made me
sick was when dogs were trying to get near a body & family members shooing
them away. We saw a body near the Ganga
waiting to be dipped for one last time with no family members around.. I was worried about the dogs that may come...All these ritual process for burning is
done in front of strangers and groups of people who have come to witness the
burning.
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| Newlywed couple |
What we saw next, was just unimaginable – a newlywed couple performing pooja bang next to this burning Ghat in an open temple. After the pooja, the newlywed & their entourage just walked around one of the bodies that was in their way & waiting for its cremation as if nothing unusual & with their music band playing the music. We also saw lot of children playing cricket in the nearby Ghat. It was like as if we were watching a movie of "circle of life" in front of us- the sadness, happiness and children laughter all at the same time. This is what makes this city so unique and intense: It is after all BENARAS - ‘Ras’ (taste or essence) of 'Bena' (all things mixed together).
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| Bringing child for blessing |
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| cricket on the ghat |
Where else in the world you get to see these seven events/activities happening almost side by side ?
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| Cards on the ghat |
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| elderly couple praying |
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| Final journey |
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| Cremation:Harishchandra ghat |
We noticed Ghats after
Harishchandra Ghat was not that good and the path also was getting dirtier! Finally
reached Assi Ghat which has some old nice buildings converted to Hotels/Guest
houses. I heard travelers who prefer
quieter Ghat prefer to stay at Assi Ghat.
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| At Assi ghat - interesting addition |
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| lamps on ghat |
By then it was 6:00pm, we went looking for Aum Café at Assi Ghat which had good reviews but it was closed. We went to a local owned café , it was OK. Service was very slow. We saw Ganga Arathi from this restaurant. By the time we got out is was 7:30pm and the owner recommended that we don’t walk back the same 3km route as it is not safe near some of the Ghats. So we took a cycle rickshaw from the behind the temple street thro’ all the ghallis. It was about 30min ride. Got down near the temple street & walked towards the Ghat… interestingly you see only foreigners walking on the Ghat once Arathi is over.
We saw lot of lamps lit at a Ghat at a distance from ours…we walked there. It was so beautiful with 100’s of oil lamps lit on every stair, apparently Clark Hotel has bought this Ghat and conducts Indian classical music & dance program for their Hotel guests. It costs USD 150 for outsiders (Ya, right!) :-)
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| Beautiful Moon! |
By the way, it was “Sankastahara
Chathurthi” and the moon is supposed to be very bright and
so was it, it was beautiful. We were so
lucky to have seen the beautiful moon on the Ganga today.
We could hear fantastic Veda chanting that night for a
long time, sounded like it was coming from Sankarmutt side of the Ghats. River Ganga, the Ghats and the entire place
looked so peaceful & beautiful and with the wonderful background sound of
the chants, one would wonder if this is the same buzzing & chaotic place
that you see & experience during the day.
We made arrangements for next morning with our Hotel
reception to go to Allahabad for ½ a day. Cost was Rs.1300/- for taxi & we
were to leave at 7:30AM.
Feb 19:
Got up to a beautiful sunrise yet again! The same scene repeated with tons of tourists
on boats, photographers clicking their cameras, beautiful birds & monkeys
being monkeys! (Luckily they were happy on branches and on our roof top and did
not come inside the balcony though we were warned that this could happen.)
We left on time to Allahabad; main agenda was to immerse
my mother’s asthi into the Triveni Sangama of the Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswathi. We had breakfast at a daba on the highway… we
had Alu Parata with yogurt, it was very good! Thought I will also make use of
this stop as a pit stop… but after almost reaching there, headed right back as
fast as I could (I guess it is self explanatory. So I don’t have to explain :-)). The journey was
nothing to talk about, very dry and looked sort of run down. I noticed similarity in housing/building structures here to what I had seen few years ago
when we drove from Kashi to Gaya , the exterior of the buildings are just raw brick finish with no paint or
finished bricks or any kind of finish. I
wonder why? I think this adds to the
look of run down.
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| Triveni Sangama |
Just before reaching Allahabad, I spoke to my friend Geetha who had visited Allahabad during Kumba Mela last year and asked her if she knows the price for boat to take us to Sangama that we can expect. She said for a private boat anywhere from 500 to 1000 Rs & not to pay anything more. She also recommended we see 2 of the ancient temples - Hanuman and Dhashaswamedh temple.
When we reached Sangama, we were disappointed at the
sight. Lot of the tents from 2013 Kumba
Mela were still around & lot of plastic thrash. As we drove into the parking lot of the
Sangama area, we could see the huge fort. The moment we stepped out of our car, we were
surrounded by the boat wallas. Looked like Taxi driver was with them in cutting
a deal. We just shooed these people away
and went near the shore & found a huge boat about to leave with lots of
people and when we asked how much – all the boat wallas surrounded us and told us
this is not recommended as we have to wait for everyone to finish
pooja/karma/shradha and the total time can be up to 3hrs for the round trip and
instead take private boat. As most of the people do religious pithru karma, we
thought may be true. One man said they
can take us in a private boat for 4000Rs. This is despite us talking in Hindi
(of course they know from our ascent, grammar & pronunciation that we are
not from North India) - we told them we are from Bengaluru so “Vullu math bana”
and that we know the rates. Here it is
nothing but pure boat mafia and you cannot corner any one boat fellow to take
you, they are united! If only we Indians unite like this for good things… During this drama of price negotiation, a
French tourist, a single lady walks in and asks us if she can join us for the
boat ride as they had refused to board her on the common boat. Suddenly the scene changed, one of the boat fellows
who had just agreed to take us for Rs.500/- changed his terms & condition -
we cannot take the foreign tourist with us as they wanted to charge her 4K.
Tried to give some lecture to them that she is our county’s
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| Ganga-Yamuna confluence |
guest/mehaman , we
need to treat them well (tried everything from Amir Khan’s ad) , they all
laughed at us :-(. Although Rs. 500/-for 2 of us in a private
boat was a good deal, we decided not to go without her. Finally after lot of
back and forth; they agreed to take 3 of us for Rs 500 each. We agreed and went. Boat guy told us, it is only fair that these
foreigners should pay more , me & Viji were laughing because people assume
foreign Caucasian tourists are rich &
will pay anything– here this lady told us she works in an NGO & teaches
Yoga in France and comes every now and then to India to learn Yoga. She told us she has learnt to
deal with this kind of behavior by not responding to anything they say.
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| Me & Viji |
Boat ride was pleasant – we saw way too many people on the other side of the sangama performing different poojas/karmas. Boat guy told us we have to pay Rs 1000/- if we want to perform pooja at Sangama to Pandas who were stationed in a boat (of course, he did not know about our lesson learnt from our temple experience). We told him we are not doing any pooja and to just take us to sangama. At the Sangama the merge of Ganga and Yamuna is very evident and Saraswathi is said to be Guptha gamini (under water) and hence not visible. We quietly immersed my mother’s asthi into the sangama “Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih ||” we parked for few minutes & then turned around to head back. Boat guy started telling us that he makes only 2,000 Rs/month and all the money goes to one single leaser who won the bid last year & owns all the boats. A typical UP scenario of mafia & swindlers at all levels and everywhere. How sad & ironic it is, in an Indian state that has so many holy places from different religions! Talking about mythical river Saraswathi, I am reading a fantastic book called "The Lost River - On the trail of Saraswathi" by Michel Danino.
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| Hanuman temple |
From here we went to Hanuman temple.
It is located near the Allahabad Fort & is
one of the unique temples in the city. Idol is 20 feet long and 8 feet wide in
a reclining position and is few feet below the ground. Apparently, this temple
gets submerged when the river Ganges rises. According
to mythology, it is believed the rise in the water level of river Ganges is
because the river wants to touch the feet of Lord Hanuman. Next,
we proceeded to Dasashwamedha temple. We had to search for this as our driver
did not know of this temple nor did some of the locals we asked. Finally we
made it after asking a temple priest on the way. This is an old temple on banks of Ganga. According to the Puranas, this is the place where Brahma performed
ten Ashwamedh Yagya. There are two Shivlings in the sanctum. One is Dhashaswamedh
Mahadev while the other is Brahmeshwar Mahadev and a huge trishul (trident)
between them. Nandi, Sheshnag idols & a marble slab bearing the image of
foot print in the memory of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu are the main attractions of
the temple. It is also said Rama had visited and worshiped Shivaling here. First
Shivling was destroyed by Aurangzeb, there is a cut mark on the top but unique
thing here is this Shivaling is also worshiped and not abandoned like in other
temples.
One good
thing in these two temples was that there were no Pandas to bother us for
money!
We were
done with Allahabad. It was 12:30, we headed back to Varanasi & reached
Varanasi city around
2:30 PM. Had good lunch at the Khesari restaurant on the main temple street & walked back to our Hotel.
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| Manikarnika ghat |
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| An artist |
Early evening around 4:30 we walked towards Manikarnika Ghat, the Ghat that had captured me completely during my last visit even though we spent hardly 15min there. We could see several fires and smoke from far. One thing I have to mention here is that you don’t smell the stenches of bodies burning as you walk to these the burning Ghats or on the ghat in general; this is because we were told due to the Banyan tree wood they use for burning. At a distance we saw an artist painting this Ghat.
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| Logs for cremation |
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| Boats offloading logs |
As we got closer, you can see higher up the stairs of the Ghats there were logs everywhere stacked 20-30 feet high & many boats off loading logs.
There were many cows, and dogs roaming the area. As we stood near one of the burning bodies, we were approached by a man claiming to be the caretaker of this burning Ghat and pointed up to where a large brown black old building which looked like a building in a war torn area that rose above the burning Ghat & said it is a hospice for old people waiting to die – he said he takes care of those people & that building (that building looked like anything but taken care of with all the exposure to flames & filth). He said strictly no photography in this Ghat.
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| Hospice |
We asked him how much wood is used per body, he said total length they cover is up to 5ft. He then wanted to explain the process of Hindu cremation - We politely told him, we are Hindus and know the process. He was not giving up, yet another swindler… so we started walking to higher area. This Ghat was very busy compared to Harishchandra Ghat and there is a preference to be cremated here given the belief - persons cremated in this sacred Ghat receive moksha! There are some interesting mythological stories about this place, if interested read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manikarnika_Ghat.
There were lots of people here (both families with bodies &
many visitors like us). We saw about 5
fires/5 bodies being cremated. Since the length of the log platform to cremate
the body is 5ft or less, we saw a burning body of a woman with feet and head
out – A very disturbing sight indeed & an experience that stays with you
with a feeling of true “Bena Ras” - an ultimate reality of life. An eerie feeling when you hear the loud sound of a breaking skull and every now
& then, the dogs howling and cows mooing in this Ghat.
Thousands of tourists come and watch this day in and day out both
from the boats on the river and by being on the Ghat itself with absolute silence
we noticed many foreign tourists taking photographs from the boat– Money rules!
Anybody who pays money to these guys claiming to be the caretakers it is
allowed. Another man approached us saying
he too is the caretaker and is not looking for money like others, he just wants
to explain the process and if we want to take pictures he can arrange… we said
no, thanks! We decided to walk near the
ghallis up to the entrance of the Manikarnika Ghat from the city side where the
bodies are brought. 4 men carrying the body for cremation is a regular sight in
Kashi ghallis and their chant “Rama Nama Satya Hai!'” rings in your ears quite
for some time. We noticed one of the guys
was following us and when we asked why? He said he wants to take us to the old widows’
place & that he is employed elsewhere and just wanted to accompany us. We
said no thanks and said we are not going there!
We had decided we will go to that hospice on our own early
tomorrow morning. We had heard these men
who follow behind anyone who goes to see these old orphan women snatch/steal
money given to them & the guides do the same as well. We wanted to
go without anyone seeing us & really
wanted to talk to those ladies. We walked across the alleys of logs that are
used for cremation and then headed back towards the temple street. We tried to ask few local people where is the
Vidhava (widows) house – This is something we wanted to see ever since we
watched the movie “Water” few years back. We were told there is nothing like that now;
it was there many many years ago and not now.
Somehow none of responses were convincing, looked like they just wanted
to get rid of us.
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| Immersed building |
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| School children near Brown bread cafe |
We Just wanted to sit somewhere quiet, went to Scindia Ghat & sat where you have the submerged Shiva temple. There is an interesting story on this. Temple submerged 150yrs ago due to heavy construction of this ghat and continues to sink.
Later, for some hot coffee, we went in search of Brown Bread café,
top rated café by lonely planet near the temple street. After crossing the maze (ghallis) found
it!! we saw happy school children, these kids were not shy when I offered to buy them candies, they told me what they wanted - hope these girls continue to know what they want when they grow older. This cafe required lot of climbing narrow stairs… on top of it, we decided to go to roof top & did more climbing. It was cute! Food was good too; we had Apple pie & hot coffee. We found out that in their dining hall inside they have daily music concert at 7:30pm by local artists. This hotel is an NGO & was started by a German many years ago.
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| Ganga Arathi |
We watched Ganga Arathi for a while in front of Scindia Ghat and
headed back towards our hotel & watched more Arathi in front of other Ghats
on the way. It was a long day! Somehow
could not remove from my mind the picture of the burning body with head &
feet visible. Was touched and at the
same time drained mentally with so many thoughts & the total experience at
the Manikarnika Ghat.
Feb 20:
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| Sunrise |
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| Watercolor: view from balcony by Viji |
Again, started our morning with a beautiful sunrise. A sight that can never be tiring or boring! It was a repeat scene of tourists in boats and
the pretty sight of migrating birds. Viji
was finishing the sketch she started on 18th, she was telling me
next time she would like to come and just sit on Ghat & draw all the
wonderful subjects you can find on the Ghat.
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| Sadhus |
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| Maan-mandir ghat |
After getting ready we headed off to none other than Manikarnika Ghat
once again. On our way, like other days saw vibrant varied images on the ghat..
The visuals at Manikarnika were same as last evening with different bodies & we could see yet again feet & head while rest of the body covered in logs burning. The same first guy who claimed to be in charge of the burning rituals and hospice approached us. When we started questioning him on how much Govt pays for maintenance, to burn an orphan body etc…he told us Govt does not help at all, he does it as a service bla bla bla…we had read Govt pays Rs. 700 /orphan body. He got annoyed at us for cross questioning him & mainly for not paying him anything – he cursed us to glory!
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| Aghori near Manikarnika? |
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| Manikarnika ghat |
We walked to the ghallis where logs were piled and saw a guy weighing the logs
as it was being piled. I asked him how
many kgs of logs they use per body. He
was first hesitant then refused to answer. When I insisted, he said he is very
busy to talk. Later we found the reason
he might have not spoken is because he may have thought we are from the
press/media. Here they all cheat, although Govt pays Rs. 700/orphan
body for cremation, I heard these people burn only half of such bodies at late night and
throw it into Ganga. If there are any skin disorders, they just take the body
in a boat to the middle of Ganga after midnight and after all the flash bulbs
are gone – they tie a stone to the body and drop it there. It is so sad that the greed and ugly side of humans is exhibited even while cremating someone. Wonder how they can live with themselves after behaving like this.
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| Old lady in Hospice |
We tried to go quietly to that brown building/hospice behind Manikarnika where these guys told us some of the old ladies waiting to die live (or if it is a setup by these conman/mafia using old orphan ladies who cannot fend for themselves, I wonder) – inside of the building is in worse condition than the outside. All it has is piles of
filth. We saw one very old lady in one
corner and some mud cooking stove in the middle of the room and some lockers
(actually pad locked). I don’t know how or from where someone saw us, 2 men who were barely out of teens came in
front of us, they looked very typical with a cigarette in one hand and
continuously chewing pan and spitting.
One of them went to the terrace., the guy who stayed back started to
make conversation and I asked him his age and what he was doing here, he said he was 20 and is an artist. I asked him what he is doing here, he said he has come to meet his friends on terrace… we said why would such young people like them come here and why not some other nicer place. He just grinned and started to divert the attention to the old lady and how no one helps her and it is only from tourists money they survive & blamed the Govt for not helping them etc., He said how the guides who bring foreigners make them pay money to these ladies and later take it away from them. He said there are total 3 ladies at the moment who lives here and the other 2 have gone to beg in front of temple. Isn’t this funny, here many claim they are the care takers of these people & the place, and here they have gone to beg! Although we told this kid to move as we are not paying her anything and just want to talk to her…he had an eagle eye on us.
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| Old lady outside Manikarnika |
We spoke to that old lady in our Hindi and she said she has no one and looked very scared & later started to cry… she looked like she once was very pretty and we wondered what kind of atrocities she would have faced. By now, we saw a guide bring a foreigner and tell all BS about this place including how they cook in that mud stove…and here it looked like it was never lit in a long time and made the foreigner pay her money & they left. Since we were 2 of us, we diverted attention of the kid by taking him across the floor while Viji went and paid her money. She told Viji not to tell the kid that we paid her & started to cry again. For some reason I felt this place is rigged, old women beggars are forced to come here and sit all day I think by these local hooligans.
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stairs, stairs & stairs
at Ganapathi |
We asked the manager about Vidhava house. This is what he said, there used to be one long time ago and does not exist anymore. This building was sold to the current owners who converted this to a hotel/guesthouse. We asked him about widows still staying in their basement; he obviously declined it and rubbished it. I told him, somehow the way locals have responded to us so far, we feel like something is being hidden or swept under the rug. He said there is nothing to hide, all that was in the past and now condition of widows are more pathetic as they don’t even have any house and most of the women who are left in Kashi by their children/husbands/in-laws/relatives beg for their livelihood and stay in abandoned Ghats (mostly in the last Ghat - Raja Ghat). He blamed the Govt for this situation in Kashi. He said “so much money poured into Ganga cleaning project from World Bank & from local & overseas NGO but every corrupt Govt in UP is busy misusing the funds. The stink on the Ghat is due to lack of sewage system on Ghat. He said this was supposed to be done and ensure sewage does not flow to Ganga. But nothing is done so far. He blamed administration for keeping the locals in a state of hopelessness intentionally. He said many Ghats today are either sold illegally and/or occupied illegally. Although there is a heritage law on these buildings and how it can be renovated & that you cannot even move a brick without permission– nothing is followed and if one pays bribe anything & everything goes. There are no ownership papers for many of these ghats as it is believed that folks who built the buildings gave it to priests but now no one knows, There is no law & order on illegal activities”
We gave up looking for the Vidhava house, l(after we returned to Bengaluru, we found some of the widows who can afford and live independently are in Nepali Ghat). It was around 11:00AM by now; we had some coffee at this Hotel. Viji and I as planned earlier went our separate ways. She went to look for a spot to sketch and I went to visit Banaras Hindu university and the museum there.
It was a 4km ride one way in an auto for a 200Rs round trip. This young driver too was busy chewing the pan and spitting often. His response to me about negative impact of pan chewing was just shocking – He said he is only in 20’s and when he is old like in 40’s he will quit and no harm done! God help India’s youth!
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| Campus-BHU |
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| Bharat Kala Bhavan |
He drove around the campus. It is a nice campus, lot of acreage and greenery. This was one of the famous universities to study many years ago. Even now I was told the Arts is a good department here. I went to Bharat Kala Bhavan. As I understand, concept for this university museum was by
Rabindranath Tagore & his son. It was developed by Rai Krishnadasa, renowned Hindi poet and art historian. It is a very nice museum & you are not allowed to carry any items inside the museum. Good thing is they have lockers where you can keep your stuff. It has a wonderful collection of paintings, photographs and my personal favorite, the archaeological gallery! It has some amazing artifacts starting from 3000 BC (Harappan times) & many others from Varanasi in & around excavation sites including Raja Ghat. Excavation around this area is still on. Museum has many sketches & old photographs of Varanasi from early 1800. It is a very nice and informative.
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| Watercolor by Viji |
By the time I got back to the hotel it was around 2:00pm, was very hungry & tired with all the walking and climbing stairs. Viji had returned as well, we went to Brown Bread café for a quick bite. Oh..No! More climbing as their roof top is 4 floors up! Felt like I was on a trekking trip :-) we roamed around for a while after lunch and went to the same sari wholesale shop (Rinku) on the Ghat that we had visited last time. Viji said she was not buying for herself as she had bought 2 saris last time. We found some nice real silk saris for very cheap Rs. 250/-, could not believe it! Viji who I have never seen comeback without buying a sari for herself was getting tempted seeing so many sarees there of various price range. We picked 3 saris and Viji was thinking of keeping one for herself :-) . One thing with these wholesale shops is that you cannot spread the saree completely. After we came back we found one of the sari width was small, less than 5 yards. One cannot make out it is small due to the way they fold…. Tricks, tricks and more Kashi tricks & tricksters!
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| Music-Brown Bread Cafe |
Later in the evening just sat on the Ghat & we decided to go back to Brown Bread Café for dinner and the music. Cannot believe eating European food in Kashi and that too very tasty! We ate a good dinner listening to melodious Sarangi & Tabla by the local artists. Very nice environment! Good to see that the city which once thrived with Hindustani musicians & "the" place to learn Tabla, continues to produce good musicians.
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| Cow petting |
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| Munshi-Rana Mahal at night |
Walking back to our hotel we saw as usual some very interesting scenes on the ghats & musicians (local & tourists) gathered near Munshi Ghat playing music
We walked on the other side of Manikarnika Ghat passing Scindia Ghat
and couple of others. Beyond Scindia it
did not look nice. We turned back. We started asking about Vidhava house again and
finally one man told us, the building that houses Ganapathi Guest House used to
be the Vidhava house but now it is converted to a Hotel and they are dispersed
– Remembered reading somewhere after the movie “Water” was released & all
the controversies it created, the house was shut or moved. We went near Ganapathi guesthouse and asked
couple of
