Varanasi

Varanasi, in Uttar Pradesh, has been the religious capital of Hinduism through all recorded time. No one knows the date of the city's founding, but when Siddhartha Gautama, the historic Buddha, came here around 550 BC to deliver his first teaching he found an ancient and developed settlement. Contemporary with Babylon, Nineveh, and Thebes, Varanasi has been called the oldest continuously inhabited city on earth.

Every devout Hindu wants to visit Varanasi to purify body and soul in the Ganges River, to shed all sin, and, if possible, to die here in old age and achieve moksha, release from the cycle of rebirth. Descending from the Himalayas on its long course to the Bay of Bengal, the Ganges is believed by Hindus to hold the power of salvation in each drop. Pilgrims seek that salvation along the length of the river, but their holiest site is Varanasi. Every year, the city welcomes millions of pilgrims for whom these waters—physically fouled by the pollution of humans both living and dead—remain spiritually pristine enough to cleanse the soul.

Formerly called Banaras or Benares—or, by devout Hindus, Kashi ("resplendent with light")—Varanasi has about 1 million inhabitants. About 70 ghats line a 6-km (4-mi) stretch of the Ganges, effortlessly wedding the great Hindu metropolis to the river. At the heart of the city is a maze of streets and alleys, hiding a disorderly array of at least 2,000 temples and shrines. Domes, minarets, pinnacles, towers, and derelict 18th-century palaces dominate the river's sacred left bank. The streets are noisy and rife with color, and the air hangs heavy, as if in collaboration with the clang of temple gongs and bells. Some houses have simply decorated entrances; other buildings are ornate with lacy, Indian-style gingerbread (filigreed ornamentation) on balconies and verandas. You're likely to encounter funeral processions, cows and goats munching on garlands destined for the gods, and, especially near the Golden Temple (Kashi Vishvanath) and centrally located Dashashvamedh Ghat, assertive hawkers and phony guides.

Its variety of shrines notwithstanding, Varanasi is essentially a temple city dedicated to Shiva, Lord of Destruction. Shiva is typically said to live in the Himalayas, but myths say he was unable to leave Kashi after manifesting himself here. Exiling the earthly maharaja to Ramnagar, across the river, Shiva took up permanent residence here. (As a popular song has it, in Varanasi "every pebble is a Shiva linga."

) The city itself is said to rest on a prong of Shiva's trident, above the cycles of creation, decay, and destruction that prevail in the rest of the world.

The maze of lanes may seem daunting, but you're never far from the river, where you can hire a boat for a quiet ride. Banarasis, as the locals call themselves, typically hire boats at sundown for twilight excursions, sometimes with tiny candlelit lamps made of leaves and marigolds, which they leave on the water as offerings. The Ganges turns sharply at Varanasi to flow south to north past the city, so the riverbank aligns perfectly with the rising sun. In sacred geography the city is demarcated by the Ganges to the east and two small rivers—the Varana, to the north, which winds by the cantonment area and joins the Ganges near Raj Ghat, and the Asi, a small stream in the south.

Traditionally, Varanasi is seen as a field divided into three sections named after important temples to Shiva. Omkareshvara is the namesake temple in the northern section, which is probably the oldest area but is now impoverished and seldom visited by pilgrims. The central section is named after Kashi Vishvanath, the famous "Golden Temple." Vishvanath itself means "Lord of the Universe," one of Shiva's names, and there are many Vishvanath temples. The southern area, the Kedar Khand, is named for Kedareshvara, a temple easily picked out from the river thanks to the vertical red and white stripes painted on its walls, a custom of the South Indian worshipers who are among the temple's devotees. The ghats stretch along the river from Raj Ghat in the north to Asi Ghat in the south; beyond Asi is the university, across the river from Ramnagar Fort and Palace. The city itself spreads out behind the ghats, with the hotels in the cantonment area about 20 minutes from the river by auto-rickshaw.

It's wise to hire a guide in Varanasi on your first day to orient you with this complicated city. For one to four people, India Tourism's licensed guides cost Rs. 450 for one to four hours, Rs. 600 for up to eight hours (if your block of time starts before 7:30 AM or finishes after 8:30 PM, add Rs. 75); cars and boats can be hired from the office as well—a way to avoid haggling on the streets or the ghats. Also, many temples and mosques are open only to their own sects, so a government guide may help get you in.