River Front ( Ghats)
The great river banks at Varanasi, built high with
eighteenth and nineteenth-century pavilions and palaces,
temples and terraces, are lined with an endless chain
of stone steps – the ghats – progressing
along the whole of the waterfront, altering in appearance
with the dramatic seasonal fluctuations of the river
level. Each of the hundred ghats, big and small, is
marked by a lingam, and occupies its own special place
in the religious geography of the city. Some have crumbled
over the years, others continue to thrive, with early-morning
bathers, Brahmin priests offering puja, and people practicing
meditation and yoga. Hindus puja, and people practicing
meditation and yoga. Hindus regard the Ganges as amrita,
the elixir of life, which brings purity to the living
and salvation to the dead; sceptical outsiders tend
to focus on all-persuasive and extreme lack of hygiene.
Ashes to the dead, emissions from open drains and the
left-overs from religious rites float by the devout
as they go about their bathing and ceremonial cleansing.
For centuries, pilgrims have traced the perimeter of
the city by a ritual circumambulation , paying homage
to shrines on the way. Among the most popular routes
is the Panchatirthi Yatra, which takes in the Pancha,
(five) Trithi (crossing) of Asi, Dashashwamedha, Adi
Keshva, Panchganga and finally Manikarnika. To gain
merit or appease the gods, the devotee, accompanied
by a panda (priest), recites a sankalpa (statement of
intent) and performs a ritual at each stage of the journey.
For the casual visitor, however the easiest way to see
the is to follow a south-north sequence either by boat
or on foot.
Asi Ghat to Kedara Ghat
At the clay-banked Asi Ghat, the southernmost in the
sacred city, at the confluence of the Asi and the Ganges,
pilgrims bathe prior to worshipping at a huge lingam
under a peepal tree. Another lingam visited is that
of Asisangameshvara, the "Lord of the Confluence
of the Asi", in a small marble temple just off
the ghat. Traditionally, pilgrims continued to Lolarka
Kund, the Trembling Sun", a rectangular tank fifteen
metres blow ground level, approached by steep steps.
Now almost abandoned, except during the Lolarka Mela
fair (Aug/Sept), when thousands come to propitiate the
gods and pray for the birth of a son, Lolarka Kund is
among Varanasi’s earliest sites, one of only two
remaining Sun sites linked with the origins of Hinduism.
Equated with the twelve adityas or divisions of the
sun, which predate the great deities of Modern Hinduism,
it was attracting bathers in the days of the Buddha.
Much of the adjacent Tulsi Ghat – originally
Lolarka Ghat, but renamed in the honor of the poet Tulsidas,
who lived nearby in the sixteenth century – has
crumbled. Continuing north, above Shivala Ghat, hanuman
Ghat is the site of a new temple built by the ghat’s
large south Indian community. Considered by many to
be the birth place of the fifteenth-century Vaishnavite
saint Vallabha, who was instrumental in in the resurgence
of the worship of Krishna, the ghat also features a
striking image of Ruru, the dog Bhairava, a ferocious
and early form of Shiva.
Named for a legendary king said to have almost lost
everything in a fit of self-abnegation, Harishchandra
Ghat, one of the Varanasi’s two cremation of burning
ghats, is easily recognizable from the smoke of its
funeral pyres.
Further north, the busy Kendra Ghat is ignored by pilgrims
on the Panchatirthi Yatra. Above its steps, a red-and-white-striped
temple houses the Kedareshvara lingam, an outcrop of
black rock shot through with a vein of white. Mythologically
related to Kedarnath in the Himalayas, Kedara and its
ghat become a hive of activity during the sacred month
of Sravana (July/Aug), the month of the rains.
Chauki Ghat to Chaumsathi Ghat
Northwards along the river, Chauki Ghat is distinguished
by an enormous tree that shelters small stones shrines
to the nagas, water-snake deities, while at the unmistakable
Dhobi (Laundrymen’s) Ghat clothes are still rhythmically
pulverized in the pursuit of purity. Past smaller ghats
such as Mansarovar Ghat, named after the holy lake in
Tibet, and Narada Ghat, honoring 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 haveli (mansion), built
in 1807 and currently used for religious ceremonies
and occasionally, as an auditorium for concerts.
Dashashwamedha Ghat
Dashashwamedha Ghat, the second and business 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 both benign and malevolent aspects
– ease and succor as well as disease, particularly
smallpox.
Dashashwamedha 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 lingam here. Since that
time, Dashashwamedha has become one of the most celebrated
tirthas on earth, where pilgrims can reap the benefits
of the huge sacrifice merely by bathing.
Man Mandir Ghat to
Lalita Ghat
Man Mandir Ghat is known primarily for its magnificent
eighteenth-century observatory, equipped with ornate
window casings, and built for the Maharajah of Jaipur.
Pilgrims pay homage to the important lingam of Someshvara,
the lord of the moon, alongside, before crossing Tripurabhairavi
Ghat to Mir Ghat and the New Vishwanatha Temple, built
by conservative Brahmins who claimed that the main Vishwanatha
lingam was rendered impure when Harijans (untouchables)
entered the sanctum in 1956. Mir Ghat also has a shrine
to Vaishalakshi, the Wide-eyed Goddess, on an important
pitha – a site marking the place where various
parts of the disintegrating body of Shakti fell as it
was carried by the grief-stricken Shiva. Also here is
the Dharma Kupa, the Well of Dharma, surrounded by subsidiary
shrines and the lingam over all the dead of the world
– except here in Varanasi.
Immediately to the north is Lalita Ghat, renowned for
its ganga Keshava shrine to Vishnu and the Nepali Temple,
a typical Kathmandu-style wooden temple which houses
an image of Pashupateshvara – Shiva’s manifestation
at Pashupatinath, in the Mathmandu Valley – and
sports a small selection of erotic carvings.
Manikarnika Ghat
North of Lalita lies Varanasi’s preeminent 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 pre-occupied 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 constructed as intent, and provoke hostility.
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 cared the
kund with his discus, and filled it with perspiration
from his exertions in creating the world, at the behest
of Shiva. When Shiva quivered with delighted, his earning
fell into this pool, which as manikarnika – "Jeweled
Earring" – became the first tirthas in the
world. Every yea, after the floodwaters of the river
have receded to leave the pool caked in alluvial deposits,
the kund is re-dug. Its surroundings are cleaned and
painted with brightly coloured folk art, which depicts
the presiding goddess, Manikarnika Devi, inviting pilgrims
to bathe and worship at its small Vishnu shrine, and
at the paduka (footprint) of Vishnu set in marble on
the embankment of the ghat. The most important of the
lingams is the remains of Tarakeshvara, Shiva as Lord
of Taraka mantra, a "prayer of the crossing"
recited at death.
Strictly speaking, Manikarnika is the name given to
the kund and to the ghat, while the constantly busy
cremation ground is Jalasi Ghat, dominated by a dark
smoke-stained temple built by Queen Ahalya Bai Holkar
of Indore in the eighteenth century.
Scindia Ghat
Bordering Manikarnika to the north is the picturesque
Scindia Ghat, with its titled Shiva temple lying partially
submerged in the river, having fallen in as a result
of the sheer weight of the ghat’s construction
around 150 years ago. Above the ghat, several of Kashi’s
most influential shrines are hidden within the tight
maze of alleyways of the area known as Siddha Kshetra
(the field of Fulfillment). 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.
Panchganga Ghat to Adi Keshva
Ghat
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 Beni Madhav-ka-Darera. With its minarets
now much shortened, the mosque stands on the ruins of
what must have been one of the city’s greatest
temples, Bindu Madhava, a huge Vishnu temple that extended
from Panchganga to Rama Ghat before it was destroyed
by Aurangzeb and replaced by an impressive mosque. Panchganga
also bears testimony to more favorable 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 river front lies a curious
array of three-sided cells, submerged during the rainy
season, some with lingams, others with images of Vishnu,
and some empty and used for meditation or yoga. One
of these is a shrine to the Five (panch) Rivers (ganga)
which, according to legend, have their confluence here:
the two symbolic rivulets of Dhutapapa (Cleansed of
Sin) and the Kirana (Sun’s Ray), which join the
mythical confluence of the Yamuna and the Yamuna and
the Sarasvati with the Ganga.
Above Trilochana Ghat, further north, is the holy ancient
lingam of the Three (tri) Eye (lochana) Shiva. Beyond
it, the river bypasses some of Varanasi’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 first landed as an emissary of Shiva, and stands
on the original site of the city before it spread southwards;
around Adi Keshva are a number of Ganesha shrine.
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