Elephants in Varanasi

If you thought, that elephants are only for South India, if you thought, that Varanasi is all about cows, monkeys and goats, you would have been as surprised as we were, seeing the elephant walking down to the Main Dasashwameth Ghat.

It was on Shivaratri, one of the major festivals in India, commemorating the wedding of Lord Shiva. On such a special occasion they even brought the elephant there.

He was part of a huge procession, that seemed quite bizzare to the Western eye, everyone very solemn and festive, dressed up accordingly to the sacred meaning of the parade.

Fire Show on Assi Ghat

In the beginning of March, just after the big festival MahaShivaratri we witnessed a surprisingly gypsy-european, but at the same time quite fitting the spirit of Varanasi fire show at one of the most popular tourist ghats - Assi.

It was a quiet, warm and dark evening, the tourists were enjoying the atmosphere on the steps and pizza in the very decent Vaatika cafe up the stairs of the ghat, while a group of european artists performed an amazing show with fire, flying it like doing some kind of modern and ambient puja at the bank of the Ganga.

Here's the short video

Clean Ganga - joining hands on the ghats

To commemorate the World Water Day, the Sankat Mochan Foundation (SMF) -- the organisation working for the cause of Ganga for three decades through Clean Ganga Campaign-- has invited local citizens to assemble on the banks of the Ganga on and form human chains along the ghats to show their support for a clean Ganga.

SMF president Veer Bhadra Mishra, who is also a member of National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA), said around 75 schools and other organisations had committed to join hands along the ghats, but the SMF had invited all citizens of Varanasi to extend their support.

"It is as if the theme of WWD 2011 water for cities responding to the urban challenge has been made for Varanasi. Here in Varanasi, untreated sewage from the city flows into the Ganga, endangering the health of those who bathe in it," said Mishra. 'Attending this event is a small way for the people to show their love and devotion for the Ganga and their commitment to see the holy river cleaned," he said.


via Times of India

Varanasi hotels fully booked for Shivaratri

You have to really hurry up to book the hotels in Varanasi, if you plan to arrive there in the beginning of March for Shivaratri.

Quick email exchange with a handful of them showed that most average-price(which at least have rooms with hot water) near-the-ghats hotels are fully booked for March 1-2.
Forget about Divya, Haifa, Temple on Ganges, Ganges view on Assi ghat.
Rashmi Guesthouse near Dasashwamed is fully booked for March 2-3 and almost no vacant room remains for March 1.

Good luck to everyone, meet you there, on ancient Varanasi ghats!

Benares 100 years ago

Looking at the old photos we can see for our selves how the city stays the same through hundreds of years.

Varanasis, just like in the 1900s, hide from the sun in the shade of bamboo umbrellas offering prayers for the dead souls on the ghats, bathe in sacred Ganges, burn at Manikarnika.

The only thing that has changed - there were much more trees back there, and less people.

photos from oldindianphotos.blogspot.com

Geography of Varanasi

As for the physical geography of Varanasi,

Varanasi is located on the Western bank of the Ganges river in Northern India. The Indian state is Uttar Pradesh. In Varanasi the sacred Ganges makes a moon-like turn and flows to the North, while usually most rivers in northern hemisphere are destined South.

If we count from Delhi, Varanasi is 780 km to the South-East of the capital.

If you drive a car, or rather, hire a driver, the road to Varanasi will take more than 16 hours. You will have to ride creepy Indian roads, which are unlit at night and remain in dire condition for the last 50 years. As one school of Indian driving puts it, local "roads" are not meant to commute from here to there, it’s the road themselves that run from here to there.

You can also take some time to enjoy the countryside and hire an auto rickshaw, this is one of the most extraordinary ways to travel – it will take you a couple of days. I personally have not heard of any foreigner, who found the courage to make such a journey.

The most common way to get to Varanasi is taking a train (13 to 17 hour-long trip) or book air tickets (1.5 hours flight). The train tickets cost around Rs1 000 ($ 25), flight – from Rs 2 000 to Rs 10 000 ($46-250) depending on the season and the time of booking. The cheapest tickets are booked about 2 months before the flight.

After you have landed in Varanasi, you will need a taxi to reach the city – the price tag is around Rs 550 ($13). The ride will take about 1.5 hours depending on traffic situation, which is totally unpredictable.

As for the mystical geography of the city,

Varanasi is considered to be the center of space and time, located above the Earth. The locals believe that the city rests on the Shiva’s trident, between Heaven and Earth.

The common belief is that it’s not very easy to reach the city. The molecules of your destiny would tuck in such a way that would hinder your trip plans. But at the same time whenever you decide to come to Varanasi, the sheer determination to accomplish that makes your karma a bit better. And it will drastically improve onwards should you enter the city, see the Ganges and bathe in it.

And if you have come to Varanasi for however a short trip, you will probably tilt towards visiting it again and again. One of the names of the city is Avimukta – a never forsaken city, maybe that is the reason why a lot of people do come back.

Pinda death ritual

Maybe you have heard about one very interesting ritual with rice balls - pindas, performed after death in India. Since this ceremony is easy to spot on Varanasi ghats, we have decided to take a close look on it.

We called our friend brahmin in Varanasi, and here is what he said.

The pinda, though very small and seemingly unsophisticated, plays a significant role in death rituals, assisting the soul of the dead person to avoid some serious problems.

After the cremation, when the soul have left the body through the hole in the skull, the rice balls are offered to the soul during 12 days. A new ball each day. Why 12? Because it takes exactly this amount of time for the soul to reach the world of ancestors - the mysterious Pitriloka.

On the way to Pitrilka the soul may encounter some grave troubles. Like it can get stuck between Heaven and Earth, turning into a ghost or into an ever-hunger spirit. But the pinda rituals actually help the soul to proceed smoothly on its way.

The balls symbolize a transferring body and offer a temporary asylum for the soul. The thing is, after death, the soul gets quite confused - what to do and where to go. And since there is no body anymore, it needs some anchor. And this is what the pindas are made for.

There's also a theory, that the soul actually feeds on those balls, but that is not very clear. The balls are composed of rice flour, and sometimes sesame and barley flour. What exactly meaning is assigned to those ingredients, our friend brahmin couldn't tell us on the spot, but promised to ask his grandfather, a 90 year old ayurveda professor. We'll keep you updated on this. Probably, the soul somehow likes the sesame.

On with the ritual. On the 10th day there's a special ceremony for the balls. The pinda is left on the ground for the crows. Crows are considered as a symbol of Yama - the lord of death in Hinduism. The crows are very greedy, and yet very clever. A lot of things could be discovered watching their behaivour. So sometimes the crows would not come near the pinda, as if something or someone scares them away.

This means that the soul tries to get the attention of the relatives. It hovers above the rice ball and keeps the crows at a distance - this is the only way the soul can send a message to the relatives.

Apparently, the soul is in pain because of vasana - a fundamental desire, which it failed to fulfill during lifetime. And if the relatives are ready to help, they should approach the pinda and say "Should you have any unsatisfied desire, come to my dream or let me know about it in some other way". And then the deceased person will try to establish a contact.

On the 12th day the soul finds itself in Pitrlioka, and its future is defined by its karma. The soul can attain - reunite with the God, or get a new life on Earth.

Later on the pinda ritual is done after in a year. The name of the deceased is muttered over the rice balls and the family dips into Ganges rivers. If the first ritual was performed in some sacred city, like Varanasi, there is no need to perfom it for the second time.