Dr Roopali takes us on a tour of Varanasi, the world’s most ancient city, exclusively for Different Truths.

Varanasi, or Banaras, is a mythical and mystical city.  Father’s siblings settled down in many parts of India. The partition had uprooted them and made them pan-Indian. They would meet on holidays and talk about many things. Somehow Banaras always figured in their conversation. 

Although we travelled to many places, we never visited the famed city. It somehow remained a mysterious place in my child-mind. 

Thakurma, our paternal grandma, died young in a freak accident while visiting Banaras. Her last rites were performed on the banks of the Ganga. How fortunate she was, they said. 

Older people travelled to Varanasi, where they sometimes waited for years to die. It is believed that from here, it’s a clear route for the soul to attain nirvana.

The presence of the Indian Army’s 39 Gorkha Training Centre finally made it possible for me to see Varanasi. It was the 200th year of the spouse’s regiment’s Raising Day. So here we were as guests of Lord Shiva. Hindu mythology tells us that Lord Shiva built the city of Varanasi. 

One of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world, it is also one of the holiest cities for Hindus. 

All you must do is rent a boat if you want to witness the theatre of life. The boat takes you down the river Ganga. The many ghat embankments built on one side of the riverbank come alive when the sun rises and sets. 

If you’re out early in the morning, you will find children from local monasteries singing the Gayatri mantra chants; women and men are bathing, scrubbing their sins away with soap, and vendors hawking fruits and handicrafts. 

Boatloads of tourists from Japan, France, and Thailand with marigold garlands around their necks float up and down the holy river. Some even sport a large orange vermillion teeka marking on their forehead.  They come from many parts of the world with expensive cameras, click-clicking away. 

The seemingly sanitised clockwork-precise societies the tourists come from seeming extraneous in Varanasi.  There is something inexplicable here. It is as if we are in a microcosm of the Universe—something in you changes—an imperceptible shift.

As undergraduates, American students studying abroad in Indian universities went backpacking to Varanasi. What drew them there, I often wondered. When they returned, they never spoke of Varanasi at all. 

When the sun sets, the ghat embankments come alight with Aarti worship. Invoking the swiftly flowing River Ganga. Eager little children sell little leaf boats with diya (lamps). You can set this in the water. I did one each for members of my family who have passed away.

Twilight highlights the Manikarnika ghat, where funeral pyres burn continuously. Thousands of years have gone by. Beyond lies immortality and eternity as the soul journeys on. 

The river Ganga unwinds itself from Shiva’s locks of matted hair and gushes down from the Himalayas, winding its way through mountainous regions and glacial landscapes past Rishikesh and Haridwar and Varanasi towards the sea.

Buddhists love this city because of its proximity to Saranath. There the Gautama Buddha gave his first sermon after attaining nirvana and started the rotation of the Wheel of Dharma. Practitioners of the Jain faith find it sacred because four Tirthankara saviours were born here. 

The river Ganga, mauled for years by human filth and garbage, is now cleaner and flowing faster. Environmentalists and ecologists and the efforts of India’s government have made a difference.  The newly renovated Kashi Vishwanath temple is drawing hordes of Indian spiritual tourists.

Classical music remains an attraction in Varanasi, and the annual music festivals draw connoisseurs from India and abroad. The river sustains all communities. Many Muslim weavers and carpet makers live comfortably in a dominantly Hindu city. Secular India and the Ganga embrace all. 

Two thousand temples dot the skyline. The narrow lanes of the city offer opportunities to learn the Sanskrit language and yoga and eat delicious sweets. Although the famed Benares handwoven silk sarees and scarves are now endangered, factory-made articles now use textiles from China.

The ancient city of Varanasi is where you can witness life’s complete cycle of birth, youth, old age, death, and eternity. Varanasi allows us to understand the truth and meaning of life and the commonality of our conclusion. 

You don’t need to be a seeker. You must sit in a boat and sail down the Ganga past the silent observing ghats. 

Photos by the author

Dr. Roopali Sircar Gaur

Dr. Roopali Sircar Gaur is a poet, travel writer, and social justice activist. A former professor of English Literature at Delhi University, and a creative writing professor at IGNOU, she is a widely published academic and creative writer. Her book Twice Colonised: Women in African Literature, is a seminal text on women’s socio-political empowerment. In 2020-21, she co-edited two poetry anthologies – In All the Spaces: Diverse Voices in Global Women’s Poetry, and Earth Fire Water Wind.