Mrs. Ruchi Ghanashyam is the former High Commissioner of India to the UK. With a career in Indian Foreign Service for over 38 years, she has been posted in many countries including South Africa, Ghana, before arriving in the UK. She was only the second woman High Commissioner to the UK since India’s independence and during her tenure, she witnessed a number of significant developments in the UK-India relations.
Kashi, also known as Varanasi or Banaras, is one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities, believed to go back to the ancient kingdom of Kashi 2500 years ago. The kingdom covered much of today’s eastern Uttar Pradesh and parts of Bihar. It is also referred to in the Rigveda, deriving from the Sanskrit verbal root of kaś, meaning "to shine". It is thus the luminous city of learning, or the city of light.
Located on the holy river Ganges about 690 km east of Delhi, Varanasi occupies a prime position in the life of Hindus, be it pilgrimage or death. Even during the Upnayan or Janeu (sacred thread) ceremony, considered a rite of passage almost like a spiritual rebirth, one of the rituals involves the saying of “I am leaving for Kashi for studying”.
Excavations carried out in 2014, and subsequently at Akhtar and Ramnagar near Varanasi, give it an even older antiquity. Artefacts dating back to 800 BCE in the former and to 1800 BCE in the latter, suggest that this area was inhabited as long ago as that. Much of the ancient relics or sites are no longer traceable as a series of attacks destroyed them over the years.
Many of the traditions have also either disappeared or since modernised, but the significance of Kashi in the minds of Hindus remains eternal, perhaps because it is known as Lord Shiva’s city, having been founded by him, where even the Pandavas went to seek Shiva after the Kurukshetra war.
A visit to the holy city of Kashi is incomplete without a visit to Kashi Vishwanath Temple, dedicated to Lord Shiva. On the western bank of the river Ganga, it is one of the twelve Jyotirlingas (the holiest of Shiva temples) dedicated to the Lord of the Universe, and is a central part of worship in the Shaivite culture. The temple was demolished several times, most recently by Aurangzeb who constructed the Gyanvapi Mosque on its site, thus leading to a controversy that still remains alive. A temple was built on an adjacent site by the Maratha ruler, Ahilyabai Holkar of Indore in the year 1780. A project of creating Shri Kashi Vishwanath Corridor linking the temple with important ‘Ghats’ nearby, was undertaken at the behest of PM Narendra Modi, who represents Varanasi as its Member of Parliament since 2014.
Visiting Varanasi as a child, I remember a boat road on the Ganga in a small wooden boat. On a recent visit, we took the evening cruise that gave us a good view of the ‘Ghats’ or riverfront steps leading to the banks of the River Ganges. Varanasi has 88 ghats, most of them for bathing and puja ceremonies, while two of the ghats, Manikarnika and Harishchandra, are used exclusively as cremation sites. Most of the ghats were rebuilt in the 18th century under Maratha patronage: Shindes, Holkars, Bhonsles, Peshwas, and the Maharajas of Benares. A morning boat ride on the Ganges along the ghats is a popular visitor attraction, as is the evening cruise,which culminates in the Ganga Arti.
The significance of Varanasi is not restricted to Hindus alone. Sarnath, located 10 km northeast of Varanasi, near the confluence of Ganges and Varuna rivers is revered by Buddhists. The Deer Park in Sarnath is where Gautama Buddha first taught the ‘Dharma’, and where the Buddhist Sangha came into existence. Renowned as the place where Buddha gave his first sermon after attaining enlightenment, in which he explained the four noble truths and the teachings associated with them, Sarnath is one of the four foremost places of pilgrimage for Buddhists.
Approximately a km from the site is the birthplace of the Eleventh Tirthankara of Jainism. A temple dedicated to him is an important pilgrimage site for Jains.
Kashi is also home to the Banaras Hindu University (BHU), which was established in 1916 jointly by Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, the Maharaja of Darbhanga Rameshwar Singh, Maharaja of Banaras Prabhu Narayan Singh, Sunder Lal and British Theosophist and Home Rule League founder Annie Besant. With over 30,000 students, 18,000 of whom reside in the 80 hostels on campus, BHU is the largest residential university in Asia. Its multitude of institutions, departments and faculties, teach from the ancient to the most modern. The university's engineering institute was designated as an Indian Institute of Technology in June 2012, and is the Indian Institute of Technology (BHU). My visit to Varanasi was brought about by a speaking engagement for my husband, sponsored by the Ministry of External Affairs, at one of the faculties of the prestigious university.
Varanasi has long been an educational and musical centre, with many prominent Indian philosophers, poets, writers, and musicians having lived or living in the city. It was the place where the Benares gharana form of Hindustani classical music was developed. Arts and crafts have flourished in Banaras; the Banarasi silk sari is a valued part of a bride’s trousseau. If Tulsidas wrote the Awadhi language holy epic of Ramayan in Varanasi, Kabir and Ravidas illuminated the city through their enlightened wisdom and devotion. In the more recent past, Prem Chand and Bismillah Khan brought literature and music to the fore in Banaras.
A quote from author Mark Twain from 1897 on Varanasi, that I found on the net, seems appropriate to conclude this column: Benares is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend…
