The Holy City of Varanasi

“Benares is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together.”

No, that’s not a line about your grandmother. It’s Mark Twain describing the northern Indian city of Varanasi, also known as Benares or Kashi.

Continually inhabited for over 3,000 years (and with settlements dating back an additional 2,000 before that), not only is Varanasi one of the oldest cities in the world but also one of its most culturally and historically important.

Set on the banks of the Ganges river, Varanasi is one of seven sacred cities in Hinduism, prominently featured in the texts of the Rigveda, Ramayana and Mahabharata, and considered the birthplace of Ayurveda (Vedic medicine). For Hindus, bathing in the holy water of the Ganges at Varanasi is believed to remit sins, especially on holy days, and the city sees over 1 million religious pilgrims annually to bathe in the many ghats (steps leading down to the river).

Hindus also consider that dying in Varanasi is a means to free the soul, and every day sees the burning of hundreds of bodies by the river as part of cremation ceremonies. It is a loud, lively, colorful, otherworldly and altogether unusual sight to see the pyres set out in the open lit day and night as body after body is consecrated to traditional fires.

Varanasi is also the place where, around 500 B.C, the Hindu philosopher Adi Shankara consolidated the monistic Hindu doctrine of Advaita Vedanta, leading to the great Hindu revival. It is from this main branch of Hinduism that Brahmananda Saraswati (aka Guru Dev) emerged, as the Shankaracharya (spiritual head) of Jyotirmath until his death in 1953. Most in the West are familiar with one of his principle devotees, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who toured the world for the latter half of the 20th century teaching the practice of Transcendental Meditation.

Varanasi is also a holy city in Buddhism, one of four designated by Gautama Buddha himself. It is in Varanasi’s residential area of Sarnath that Buddha is said to have given his first sermon on the principles of Buddhism, and the spot where he met his first disciples. The Dalai Lama apparently spends time here as well, and was reportedly in the city on the day that we visited.

As a visitor, the first impression one gets in the Old City is the jumble and tangle of tiny streets and myriad of alleyways going in every which direction. It is next to impossible to keep your bearings as the alleys wind and turn haphazardly, revealing countless little shops, colorful doorways, hidden monuments, small temples, and wandering cows.

And then, a random alley opens up to the Ganges river, and it’s beautiful wide open space, colorful steps leading down to the water, hundreds of little boats, burning funeral pyres, bathing pilgrims, and scenic temple facades and towers overlooking it all. Above all, somehow, a pervading sense of peace and serenity, an ancient city that transcends time itself.