Moscow vs Varanasi graffiti contest - the winner

We are happy to finally announce the winner of the contest — ‘Fire, water, wall’ by Ukranian team Interesny Kazki.

Congratulations!

Most members of the Jury have declared that the style, the symbols and the theme of the works by Interesny Kazki fully befits the contest and the city of Varanasi itself.

The key idea of the work is intercommunication of two elements, that are conflicting by nature - fire and water. Tangled together those two forces are omnipresent in Varanasi - the fire of burning dead bodies converses with the Ganges water. Life and death mix and become inseparable. At the same time those two elements stand for two different cultures - Slavic and Indian.

We would also like to point out a work, which has received special praise from the Jury - The Metro.

Artem Semyanenko has chosen a very modern symbol of Moscow, the logo of the subway and made it look alive. The work has original concept, artfully cragted, has a bit of satire is easy to remember.

You can see the gallery of other works here and the short list here.

So our next step is to make it happen offline - the real graffiti on the Varanasi wall. We expect to paint it in the coming fall. Stay tuned!

Dussehra Ganga festival in Varanasi

Ganga Dusshera is a holy festival celebrated on the tenth day of the month of Jayeshta. The festival is devoted to the worship of holy river Ganga.

It is believed that the ‘Gangavataran’ (the descent of the Ganga) took place at this time. On this day, places such as Varanasi, Haridwar, Rishikesh, Garhmukteswar, Prayag etc. hold special significance.

A huge number of devotees flock to numerous ghats located on the west bank of the river Ganga to bathe in water and carry the river clay home to venerate. A bath in the Ganga is believed to purify the soul and clean it of 10 sins. In Varanasi the special aarti sounds bounce across the city, and in Haridwar aartis and meditation are also performed by a large number of devotees on the river banks.

Ganga water is stored in sealed pots in homes and is used on sacred days.

Ganga moving away from Varanasi ghats

The river of faith, Ganga, is changing course and appears to be moving away from the historic ghats of Varanasi, the abode of Kashi Vishwanath. The river is now flowing 7-10 feet away from the banks. Though the media make it look like some extraordinary event, our local friends there admit, that it's the casual annual decrease in Ganga's waters. Soon with the monsoon, the Ganga will gain strength again.

At the famous Dasaswamegh Ghat, close to the Kashi Vishwanath temple, the river is flowing 9 feet away from the ghat steps. At Rajendra Prasad Ghat, Rajghat and Assi Ghat the river is seven, four and five feet away respectively from the ghats’ steps.

According to scientists associated with the Ganga Action Plan, the river is changing course due to massive pollution and lack of proper cleaning of the banks of the river.

Acharya Jitendra of the Ganga Mahasabha says that the administration is not working towards cleaning the Ganga; instead more and more pollutants are being pushed into it.

Moreover, the dams and barrages that have been built upstream are diverting increasing amounts of water for farming and other purposes. For example, around nine percent of Ganga’s waters are diverted to canals at the Bhimgouda barrage.

As per a report, the government has spent Rs 36,448 crore on cleaning the Ganga, yet at Varanasi the river is little more than a deadly cocktail of groundwater, sewage discharge and spillage from tributaries like the Yamuna and the Betwa.

A band from Varanasi made it to National Geographic

A wedding photo from Varanasi became the photo of the day on National Geographic website

Varanasi children need to learn about Indian culture

Of all the places in India I would never say that Varanasi lacks insights into the rich Indian cultural heritage. But that's my western opinion, and as it turns out things are not quite like this there.

Daily India reports, that as an initiative to inculcate cultural values and allied Indian ethos among youngsters, a special summer camp has been organized for school children in Varanasi.

The children are taught essence of Hindu culture, relevance of rituals and recitation of passages from holy scriptures such as Vedas, Bhagwad Gita, Upanishads and Puranas.

Every day, the teacher conducting the classes fondly applies a paste of sandalwood on the foreheads of the young Vedic 'scholars', incidentally, all studying in English medium and convent schools.

"It is very necessary for today's children because today, children are convent educated, going far from our traditional culture. So, we need to enlighten them about our Indian cultural heritage since during their routine academics, they are unable to concentrate on this aspect. So, this is the right time to give them the right training. That's why in summer camp we are teaching these children Bhagwad Gita and Vedic Mantras among others," said Ishita Saraswat, a trainer at the school.

On their part, the children despite not understanding the Sanskrit language in which most of the Hindu scriptures are written seemed to be curious to learn it.

"My father and mother are very happy to hear my reciting passages from our religious scriptures," said Avantika Kapoor, a student at the summer camp.

"Since many parents are working, both of them don't have time to make their children understand about basic culture. They don't have time even to make their children be aware about certain basic facts of our culture and hence this summer camp for the children," Saraswat said.

She also mentioned that the young children have learnt a lot about Hinduism right form respecting one's parents and teachers to reciting simple shlokas (psalms) from the scriptures.

Probably, being the territory of wisdom, like I stated in the previous post, Varanasi can never find the current amount of knowledge enough for its children. Right?

Varanasi - territory of wisdom

Most people in the West, when recalling their trip to Varanasi mostly rattle about sacred Ganges and hordes of people and animals bathing in it, dead bodies burning, pilgrims, sadhus and cow shit.

What often escapes their narrative is that Varanasi has long been a center of wisdom and learning.

For the most ancient name of the city is Kashi, the name nearly three thousand years old. As Diana Eck in her book rightfully observes, the most common etymology of the word is from the Sanskrit roor kash, "to shine, to look brilliant".

And when we speak about wisdom India-wise, we inevitably travel into the mystic land. The worldplay in Sanskrit continually underlines the relation of the City of Light to the light of enlightenment. For example, the city is called "City of Light which illumines liberation". Varanasi is also called jnana-svapura, the "embodyment of liberating insight". So the Kashi is pure light and wisdom, which enables us to see into the true nature of things. In Kashi, as the Kashi Rahasya, a 14th to 17th century old text says, one sees one's own soul.

Right next to the mystic wisdom stands the second, more easily comprehended meaning of light in the West - the light of study. As early as 1,000 BC Varanasi attracted worshippers, religious seekers and yogis, who found the city to be an ideal place for their hermitages. And in this period Varanasi became known as a center of learning.

The most famous seeker was, of course, Siddhartha Gautama, who became to be called the Buddha, the Awakened One. In a park in Sarnath he preached to his companions the Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Noble Path, turning the wheel of Dharma.

The legend says that while travelling to Sarnath, Buddha had to cross the Ganges and having no money with which to pay the ferryman, he crossed the Ganges through the air. When King Bimbisāra heard of this, he abolished the toll for ascetics.

Diana Eck cites an Indian historian, who wrote that "Varanasi at this time was so celebrated that it was only suitable for the Buddha to reach a new way and turn the wheel of the law here". And for 1,500 years Sarnath continued to be an active monastic center of Buddhism.

As the ashrams back at that time were Indian universities, Varanasi outlive all other cities in India as such a center and became synonymous with classical learning. The ritual journeys to Kashi to study the Vedas has become an integral part of initiatory and wedding rites in distant parts of India. In some Hindu weddings the groom should declare that he would renounce the world and go to Benares to study the Vedas. Thus he initiates the bargaining for the bride and the brides' family makes him abandon the thought. And in some parts of India the initiation ceremony for young men includes a mock journey to Varanasi - seven steps in its direction symbolize ancient journey to the source of all wisdom.

Today Varanasi houses the famous BHU - Benares Hindu University, the largest residential university in Asia, with over 12,000 students living on its huge campus, dominating over South part of the city. According to Wikipedia, it ranks as the second best university in the field of research in India after Delhi University and it is also ranked as the best overall university of India on all parameters.

And another university that I should mentioning speaking of learning in Varanasi is Sampurnanand Sanskrit University. The University website says that "Benares has been most appropriate for the University", and that's true, it's not a simple coincidence, that Varanasi is the place for worldwide acknowledged Sanskrit University. I personally know some Russian guys, who study there, so "worldwide" is not just a figure of speech.

There are also a lot of students clearly visible on streets of Varanasi. Mostly school children, students are dressed like everyone else, but school kids wear different uniforms, each style appropriate to one's school.

I absolutely agree with the point Diana Eck made in her book - the ancient traditions of seeking of wisdom are still visible in the streets of Varanasi.

That's the important thing I would like the travellers to percieve in Varanasi.

Easter cake - synonym of lingam?

Easter cakes - they look kind of Indian, don't you think?
Not only the shape, but the way of decoration looks very similar to Indian lingams, no?