Over twenty five centuries ago, a sage travelled 200kms from Bodh Gaya, where he had attained Nirvana to reach the ghats of Varanasi of Kashi as it was then called. The city had seen saffron clad spiritual teachers before him, who came here, drawn by its magnetic, inexplicable spiritual power. The Sage was looking for five Hindu ascetics, old companions from whom he had parted, because they had insisted that the only path to salvation was through self-mortification. The Buddha found them at Rishipattana, the Deer park near Kashi, and gave them the gift of the spiritual knowledge which he had attained since he parted with them, and they became his first followers, and the first members of the Sangha.
A time would come when the Buddha's teachings would travel to lands he had never seen, his image worshipped in temples and his name chanted in monasteries. However for Kashi, that summer two thousand five hundred years ago, he was just another pilgrim.

Varanasi, Benares, Kashi, they have called this city by many names. Placed between the Varuna and the Assi rivers it is Varanasi. It is the spiritual pilgrimage that is like a luminous beacon to Hindus and for them it has always been Kashi, the city of light. They believe bathing in the river Ganga here washes away their sins. It is also Avimukta, the city that is never forsaken by Lord Shiva, its ruling deity. It is Shiva's favourite city, his Anandavana of Garden of Bliss. And finally, it is also the Mahashmashana, the great cremation ground.

One of the oldest cities in the world
Living with the great questions of birth and death, Varanasi has never bothered to record its history. Its beginning are lost in the mists of time, no one cares to remember when this city began. It was there when Jerusalem, Beijing and Athens rose and it has watched great cities like Nineveh and Babylon get swallowed by the sand. It is one of the oldest living cities in the world.

On the banks of the Holy river
The best introduction to Varanasi is from the river. The city stands by a curve of the Ganga river, with the stone steps of the numerous Ghats sweeping down to the water. At dawn, hire a boat and drift past the Ghats and the city will float past like a hand operated bioscope. Begin from Dasashawamedha, one of the holiest Ghats, where the gods are said to have performed the ten-horse sacrifice. The river will be thronged with early morning bathers standing chest deep in the water as they raise their faces to the rising sun and recite the sacred mantra. One can see the perpetual movement of the pilgrims on the steps, the vivid colours of their clothes glistening against the pale gold water, the triangular flags fluttering atop the temple spires.

A view of the ghats
The panorama of the ghats is one of the most arresting images of Varanasi. As you float down the river some will be crowded with bathers, at others a solitary, ash-smeared sadhu with matted hair will be communing with the sun. Another ghat will be full of washermen slapping clothes on flat stones in a synchronised swinging of arms. A blue grey have of drifting smoke covers the most fascinating ghat of all, Manikarnika. Only those fortunate to have died in Varanasi have the privilege to be cremated here.

To die here is to be freed from the cycle of life and death. And with the city's usual penchant for myth making they named this ghat Manikarnika, after the Goddess Parvati's earring which fell down while bathing. On top of the steps is a large tank, the manikarnika kund that Lord Vishnu is supposed to have dug with his perspiration. Vishnu's feet are set in a marble pedestal beside it, called the Charanapaduka. At the heart of this city is the Kashi Vishwanath Temple, the holiest shrine of Lord Shiva. Here he is also called Vishweshwara, the lord of the world and the city is said to sit atop his trishul (trident).

Benaras Hindu university
Benaras Hindu university was founded by Madan Mohan Malviya early this century. He wanted to combine Varanasi's great tradition of Sanskrit scholarship with modern education. Bharat Kala Bhavan located in the university Campus has a good collection of artefacts and medieval miniature paintings. Also within the campus is the new Vishwanath temple in pristine marble with carved figures and screens that is said to be a replica of the temple destroyed by Aurangzeb. Varanasi's second museum is in the Ramnager Fort complex across the river.

Varanasi is a city that enjoys the pleasures of this world as much as it thinks of the next. Music and dance have a long history here. Great Hindustani classical musicians like Ustad Bismillah khan, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Siddeshwari Devi, among others, have come from these lanes. The people have an inimical blend of spiritualism and worldliness in their character and an ability to laugh at life's vissicitudes.

The weavers of Varanasi
The weavers of Varanasi have been creating exquisite silks and brocades for centuries. Once they were the prized goods beings carried on the silk Route to Europe and to China. Even today Indian brides get married in the silk sarees woven in Varanasi. It is said that the muslin shroud that covered the Buddha after his Mahaparinirvana was from Varanasi, and it was woven so fine it would not absorb oil.

Queen Mahamaya's dream
On the full moon night of Vaisakha (April-may), Mahamaya, the chief queen of king Suddhodana of Kapilavastu, had a beautiful dream. In the dream she saw a six-tusked elephant enter her side as she lay sleeping. The king summoned sixty four Brahman astrologers to interpret the dream. They concurred that the queen would give birth to a son who would acquire world renown.

Queen Mahamaya bore the child for ten months and one day expressed a desire to go to her maternal home. The royal entourage camped in the beautiful Lumbini grove, the royal park near Kapilavastu. When the Queen reached out for a branch of a Sal tree the child miraculously came out of her right side.