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MBLF

lUZAC A CO

PLATE I

• • •
• • •

• • • •<

H. H. Sir Prabhu Narain Singh, G. C. I. E.,
Maharaja of Benares.

Frontispiece.

THE HOLY CITY

( BENARES )

[ With jS lUust rations and a ULip \

Kajani Ranjan Sen, b. a., b. l.

Pleader, and Law Lecturer, Chittagong

College, Author of "The Triumph

iW \'.\i.MiKi" ( Valmikir

J ay a in English ).

*'A nation that does not take a just pride in its
own annals must be wanting in self-respect."

— Dr. Rash Behari (ihosh.

CHITTAGONG
1912

ALL RIGHTS RESEftvEO

aciea Q^7Cefnayu

eatte7t

^46873

-X

Printed by K. B. Bose, at the Minto Press,

and Pablished by M. R. Sen,

Chittagong.

Paper-Rs 2-8 ; CIoth-Rs 3.

TO BE HAD OF M. R. SEN, PARA5E. CHITTAGONG.

rO THE READER

"Never resort to the argument : 'I do not know

this, — therefore it is false'.
"We must study to know, know to comprehend,

and comprehend to jud^e".

— Narada.
(^ HAD little idea while paying a fl) ing visit to
Benares for the first time during the X'mas recess in
1909 that I should have to put my fugitive recollections
into writing. I feel conscious however that a sketch
like this may be of interest to those who proceed
to that ancient place with an open mind and who
have no definite notion as to what in reality to
expect to find there. Random rambles, I believe,
are neither much illuminating nor very edifying in
their effects in the absence of a capacity in the
wanderer for taking an intelligent interest in what is
observed, owing to the want of requisite equipment
in the shape of needful informations. I felt this
myself, and hence a hope that this little sketch
of the holy city might be of some use to tourists
like me is my only apology for bringing it to the
light of day in spite of the diffidence I feel in
doing so.

"In wealth, population, d'gnity and sanctity,"* this
city, writes Macaulay, "was among the foremost of
Asia". As the oldest and the cn'y living city in

(ii)

existence where the ancient and the modern
meet together, it stretches its memories to the ages
of pre-historic antiquity and has managed to outlive,
as none other has done, the inevitable ravages of
time and every other destructive agency. Speaking
of its antiquity Rev. Mr. Sherring in his 'Sacred
City of the Hindus^ observes :

"Twenty-five centuries ago at the least, it was famous.
"When Babylon was struggling with Nineveh for supremacy,
"when Tyre was planting her colonies, when Athens was
''growing in strength, before Rome had become known, or
"Greece had contested with Persia, or Cyrus had added
"lustre to the Persian monarchy, or Nebuchadnezzar had
''captured Jerusalem and the inhabitants of Judiua had been
"carried away into captivity, she had already risen to greatness,
"if not glory".

To the world abroad Benares has beoi known as
the place of the greatest religious sanctity in all
India — that land, pre-eminently, where the religious
element supervenes and transfuses itself into the
most ordinary vocations of daily life. Whatever
changes that element might have undergone owing
to our contact with the Western natir*!.^, their
religion and educational system, — and peiiiaps it
would not be too much to add, — owing to our own
ignorance, apathy and consequent want of aptitude
to grasp the real underlxdng the ^visible, — still the
mind loves to linger over the glories that are past,
and there is much of charm and attraction in old
associations of by-gone da}'s. And steeped as we
have been in the Western lore and filled with

( iii )

preconceived notions and ideals of foreign infusion,
we know but little of our precious possessions in
the treasured wisdom of our hoary sa^es, and perhaps
care still less to know or hardly have leisure
enough to spare for the purpose. Yet, even in spite
of our altered tastes and views, a sigh of deep
regret would not unoften involuntarily come forth
for opportunities neglected and the lateness of the
hour of the mind's awakening, and make us feel
how apt we are to be carried away by the glitter
of things exotic, forgetful of the vast unexplored
mines of our own Golcondas hiding gems of purest
rays serene and of far brighter lustre than the sparkle of
the fine-cut stones of other lands so catching to the eye !
Varied would be the nature of the sights that
would meet your eyes in this ancient city — sublime
and fantastic, elevating as well as queer. Advance
with a scoffing predisposition and a supercilious
contempt for what you may not understand, and things
will take complexion from your temperament, and
enough will there be for affording you amusement
and means of cavilling and reviling. But why leave
the honey and seek the sores which incidences of
time must inevitably cause ? Approach rather with
a feeling of respect and in a spirit of considerate
s\'mpathy making due allowances for the deformities
of age, and with an earnest desire for peering into
the inner nature of what you see, and enough shall
you find for reflection, enlightenment and enjoyment.
The apparent freckles and pallidness of age will

( iv )

then pass away from your vision revealinj^ the cherubic
h'neaments of the earh'er da}'s harbouring the soul
immaculate and immortal ! *Every religion is an
expression of Divine Wisdom' and its study is surel}-
preff^rable to an off-hand condemnation.

Here I must take leave of you lest I grow too
tiresome. My plan has not been to furnish quite a
complete and exhaustive enumeration of all that
you may meet with in this city, but only to offer
hints and outlines just to put you on your track,
leaving to yourself the option of pondering over the
esoteric or the secular aspects and phases of things
as you choose and of studying the subjects that
catch your fancy as you like. My object has not
been to provide you simply with thoughts but
rather to put you in the way of thinking.

For the help I received from the authorities T
consulted in making this sketch, I have to express
my indebtedness and grateful acknowledgements ;
and I embrace this opportunity of expressing my deep
obligations to Mr. A. Venis, Principal, and Mr.
C. M. Mulv my, Professor of Queen's Colleg^ B mares,
and Col. Vindeswari Prasad vSingh, Chief Commandant,
Benares State Army, and Rai Bahadur Dr. Nabin
Chandra Dutt of this place for many valuable suggestions
and informations with which they favored me ; and
I am also very grateful to His Highness the Maharaja
Bahadur of Benares and Dr. J. Ph. Vcgel, Offg.
Director-General of Archaeological Survey of India.
Simla, and Messrs. Saeed Brothers of Benares, for their

(V)

kind permission to reproduce some of the photos of
Benares scenes which they graciously presented to
me. And to Babu Nobo Kumar Chakr^varti of
Benares, who took me all over the city, I have to
offer my sincerest thanks for his kindness and
troubles, as also to my very esteemed and revered
friend Mr. A. F. Dowling of Chittagong whose
constant encouragement has helped me on in my
work. If this little volume into which I have
attempted to compress as much information as has
been available, is thought useful and interesting, I
shall consider myself amply recompensed.

Chittagong, ^ ^

July^ igi.

CONTENTS

PART I
Chapter 1— to the city

Cava — The Sone Bridge — Mogal Serai — The Grand Trunk
Road— The First Glimpses — Kasi — Nomenclature- Situation
and Population — Climate and the Ganges water — Visweswar-
gunj Bazar — The Municipal Garden — The Nagri Pracharini
Sabha— Alfred Hall— The Chauk- Indigenous Products-
Trade — The Carmichael Library. ... ... ... i

Chapter II— of the stars and their ways

Jai Singh — The Man Mandil-The Mural Quadrant—
The Giant Sun-dial — The Equinoctial Circle -The Chakra
Yantra — The Digansha Yantra. ... ... ... 17

Chapter III— mostly secular

Ancient India — Origin of Civilisasion— Kasi of old -
The oldest living City — Educational Systems of old -The
Central Hindu College — The Theosophical Society — The
Goebi Kua--The Ram Krishna Sebasram — The Victoria
Park — The Queen's College — Education — Schools — Chatus-
pathis and Pathsalas — Hospitals — Dharmasalas and Chhattras
— Hindu Endowments. ... ... ... ... 24

Chapter IV— sects and cults

Kabir — Kabir Chaura — Madhudas's Garden - Nadesar
House — The Radhaswamis — Arya Samaj— The Sikhs — The
Jainas — The Dandis — The Vaishnavites-The Nagas— Sri
Bharat Dharma Mahamandal — Christian Missions -Reflec-
tions. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 48

Chapter V— of the olden days

Paucity of old remains- Researches— Ganj-Saheda-ka-
Musjid— Raj Ghat Fort— Lai Khan's Tomb— Lat Bhairo—
Bakaria Kund— Battis Khamba-Arhai Kangura Musjid—
Maqdam Saheb. ... ... ... ... ... 69

( vli )

Chapter VI— sarnath

An Ekka— Jhawa Jharan - Humayun's Tower -The
Dhamek-The Deer Park- Buddha -Bodhi^tree at Gaya-
Fa Hian and Hiuen Thsang— The Lion-Capital— Jain Temple
— Jagat Singh's Stupa — Researches— Modern Aspects — The
Excavations— the Museum — Khantivadi Jataka. ... 83

Chapter VII— myths and annals

Kasi-Khandam — An Allegory — Antiquity — The Early
Kings — Religion of the time — Later Kings — Sankaracharya
— Mahomedan Raids — Temple-breaking — The Moghuls —
Later History. ... ... ... ... ... ... J15

PART 11
Chapter VIII— the shrines and temples

First Impression — Siva-worship — Its Origin and later

developments — Benares Lanes — The Temples ... 137

(i) ON THE EAST

Dasaswamedh Ghat — To the Golden Temple — Annapurna

— Visweswara — The Arati— Hindu Ideas — Jnan Bapi —

Aqrangzeb's Mosque— Adi-Visweswara—Kasi Karwat. 149

(2) ON THE NORTH

Sankata Devi — Gopal Mandir — Bhaironath — Naugraha —

Dandapani — Kal Kup — Trailanga Swami — Kameswara —

Kirtibasseswara — Alamgiri Mosque — Briddhakaleswara — Bara

Ganesh — Jageswara — Kasi Devi — Bageswari — Nag Kua —

Kapildhara. ... ... ... ... ... ... 173

(3) ON THE SOUTH

Pisach Mochan — Pitri and Matri Kund — Suraj Kund —
L^ksmi Kund — Sankaracharya — Sankudhara — Kumareswara —
Sankat Mochan — Temple ofDurga — Bhaskaranand Swami —
Jagannath — Lolark^ Kund — Tilbhandeswara - Vishuddhanand
Saraswati-Sitala Devi. ... ... ... ... 186

Chapter IX— along the river

JJie Ghats — The Vyasa Episode. ... .;. 207

( vlii )

(i) NORTHWARD

Dasaswamedh Ghat -Man Mandil Ghat -Mir (}hat-
Lalita Ghat — Nepalese Temple— J alsain Ghat — Manikarnika —
Tarakeswara — Ahmety Temple — Manikarnika Kund — Scindhia
Ghat— Panchganga - Madhoji-ka-deora - Beni Madho - Tri-
lochan Ghat — Barana Sangam, ... ... ... 211

(2) SOUTHWARD

A Dandi's Watery Grave -Scenes on the bank-
Chausatti Ghat — Kedarnath — Harish Chandra — Ballavacharya
— Sivala Fort-Tulsi Das — Asi Sangam — Temple restoration
-Panchkoshi Road. ... ... ... ... ... 229

Chapter X— ramnagar

Mansa Ram— Bulwant Singh -Chet Singh -Mahip
Narayan — Administration — The Present Maharaja -Ramnagar
Fort-Janakpur and Girijaya Temples -Temple of Durga —
Maharaja's Garden -Night on the river -Our Guide -
Farewell ! ... ... ... ... ... ... 247

Appendix—

A Firman of Emperor Aurangzeb. ... ... 269

ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE I-H. H. the Maharaja of Benares Frontispiece

n-i. The Crescent Bank -2. The Chakra (a),
Samrat (b), and Narivalaya (c) Yantras-3.
Man Mandil Ghat -4. Chakra Yantra— 5.
Digansha Yantra. ... ... ... ... 17

in -I. Saraswati Temple, Central Hindu College -
2. Queen's College -3. Central Hindu College
Boarding. ... ... ... ... .. 23

IV- I. Dasaswamedh Ghat -2. Sankaracharya - 3.

A group of Sannyasis. ... ... ... 48

V-i. Lai Khan's Tomb -2. Ruins of old
Visweswara Temple -3. Scindhia Ghat -4.
An Ekka. ... ... ... ... ... 5<j

VI - Avalokites wara - Buddha as Teacher - Maitreya. ^3

( '^ )

PLATEVII-i. The Dhamek and its neighbourhood -2.
The iMain Shrine and Lion-Capital -3. Old
Walls hi the excavations -4. Asoka Column. 97
VIII- I. Bodhisattwa Statue -2. Votive Memorial -
3. Some Sculptures --4. Buddha with Alms-
bowl- 5. Mara -6. A group of Statues -7.
Sculptured fragment representing Ramagram
Stupa, ... ... ... ... ... 107

" IX -I. Bas-relief illustrating incidents in Buddha's

life and a Buddha statue in Bhumi-sparsha Mudra
-2. An Elephant in Stone -3. Rama-
Lakshmana Sculpture— 4. The Gupta Lintel
illustrating the Khantivadi Jataka. ... ... 114

X-i. Jnan Bapi Temple -2. Dandi Ghat -3.
Entrance, Dufterin Bridge -4. A cosy corner,
Raj Ghat - 5. A bit of Benares from one of
the Beni-Madho towers -6. The Golden Dome
and Spire of Visweswara Temple -7. Open
porch of a temple near V'isweswars, ... 149

" XI -I, Bhaskaranand Mausoleum -2. Ahmety Temple

-3. Durga Kund and Temple -4. Vishnu
image, Sankudhara - 5. A Benares Street —
6. Rani Barahar's Temple -7. Durga Temple

(porch) 186

XII -A road to the Ghat -2. Bathing Ghat for
females -3. Ganga Mehal Ghat-4. Manikarnika
Ghat -5. Bathing Scene -6. Burning Ghat. 207
" XII A - Panchaganga Ghat.... ... ... ... 221

XIII-i, Durga Temple, Ramnagar-2. View north-
ward from the Sivala Ghat -3. Ramnagar Fori. 247

A PLAN OF THE CITY OF BENARES. ... 268

THE HOLY CITY

{ BENARES )

PAR T FIRST

Chapter I

TO THE CITY

*'As a queen she (Benares) has evef teceived thfe
-willing homage of her subjects scattered all over India 5
as a lover, she has secured their affection and regard/^

— M. A. Sherring.

i»^.,ffl; Y the Bombay Mail— Grand Chord — lies
'^ ^ the most convenient route from Calcutta ;
and it is pleasant to watch through the
window as the rushing iron horse pierces
the serried darkness and emanations of
electric brilliance from the well-lit carriages
shimmer along the straight pathway
converting it, as it were, into a rippling
glistening streamlet. It is about ten in
the evening now, and the gentle rocking soon lulls
you into a disturbed slumber — half-way between a
doze and actual sleep.

Dim as the purple twilight looms in its subdued
brightness in the far-off east, a few bleak rocky
hillocks appear on the right and left interspersed

THB, HQL V CITY (BENARES) Quw

.\/v/^\yNyxAv/\)>^x^/x/-, -v/\y\

with tufts of green sprouting up here and there.
Presently the Falgu with its shallow expanse of
scanty water comes into view with the Gaya temples
and buildings on the distant left studding the gentle
curve of its sandy bank. Wide awake at the peep
of early dawn you come to a halt at the Gaya
Station, and in a few minutes a turbaned boy clad
in the correct style in spotless white brings in
his tea-tray and offers you chhota-hazri if you would
care to have it.

The sight of a chain of sma!! hillocks bordering
the horizon on the left with the tall spire of some
ancient shrine pointing heavenward in the distance
and the pleasing scent of the neighbouring fields
borne on the bracing morning breeze, give you a
sense of welcome relief after the clc^eness of the
dusty and smoky atmosphere of the oppressive brick
and mortar you have left behind. A fresh verdure
following the night's dewy bath seems to have
clothed the expansive fields on the right and on the
left as you dash through them.

Soon enough the winding SONE begins to glisten

to the view, and presently^ with slackened speed you

are upon the magnificent bridge itself — something over

ten thousand feet in length 1 ^ Famed

The Sone to be the longest in existence in the

world, — that over the Scottish Tay

only excepted,— it is a lasting monument of the

(i) 10,052 feet.

I. TO THE CITY

triumph of the engineer's art that harnessed the
broad river thus in the concluding year of the past
century. As over the rolHng biliowy v/ater — ^ couple
of miles in width — the iron dragon glides on dragging
its serpentine tail behind, puffing and snorting and
leaving a trail of dense dark smoke hovering in
the air above, the grandeur of the scene would be
unrivalled and the view superb and imposing ! But
in the winter the shallow river is nearly dry and
tiny islets of sand \xi upraised patches appear on
its bed on either side overgrown with moss. Near
to the white sandy expanse on the edge you now
approach, and your vehicle bounds with a renewed
start and a vigorous pull.

Low hillocks and extensive fields green with
fertility now catch your eyes, and dense mango-groves
lying scattered at intervals furnish variety to the
scene. Patches of ripening yellow here and streaks
of snowy white there amidst the surrounding green
Jook like the pearly smile lighting up the features of
some buxom darksome beauty. On the fringes of the
spacious fields bright with their wealth of yellow
and green — the reward of a responsive Nature to
the labouring humanity — are high-wall-ed wells sunk
deep into the bowels of Mother Earth ; and panting
bullocks are observed tugging at the ropes attached
to primitive pulleys depending from the most archaic
structures, and drawing up huge vessels filled with
the milk of Nature to drench the parched soil. Up

4 THE HOL V CITY (BENARES) Chap:..

above the adjoining depression where the excess finds
ks way, there hovers a tiny heron, poised for a moment
apon its. • pair of silver- white pinions relieved in bold
contrast against the dark-blue sky, and presently
alights gracefully upon the marshy ground.

Clusters of squalid-looking huts lying on the

toad side, with rotting thatched roofs and mat-walls

daubed with mud, give you some idea of the general

poverty of the masses here and fill your sympathetic

heart with pity, perchance, for the people who have

to live such miserable hves in the midst of all this

munificent gift of a bountiful Nature in the shape

of a plenteous yield of all that can shoot out of her

bed. It is occasions like these that bring forcibly to

mind the plight of tlie weather-bound ancient mariner

who saw 'water everywhere, but not a drop to drink,'

and make one feel that to the poverty-stricken.

people here all this plenty is but brine. But a

rail-road journey is not perhaps leisurely enough to

arouse an inclination to cogitate upon such a theme and

to ponder over the causes.. So, for the present it must

all be assigned to that easiest and safest of all

solutions — kismet !

The engine slows down, wiiistles out a choked

scream and fetches a deep breath ; and at last it rolls

into the MOGAL Serai Station and

Mogal Serai comes to a stand. Here you must

change, and pass across with bag and

^^ggage along the high overhead bridge to tlie

TO THE CITY

platform opposite and get into some Oudh-Rohilkhand
car and wait till you are hurried eff again.

Time, however, would not hang heavy, for there
are diversions enough to engage your attention.
Unique carved brassware and ciariously- fashioned
"horn and ivory, earthen statuettes and pretty
flower-vases, bundles of walking-sticks and even
tap-to-date novels and the latest morning papers,-—
•such is the strange medley of articles that catch
your eyes, and their vendors come up and pester
you to accept their eagerly-proferred presents, for
consideration of course. Presently, the fruiterers
with tempting ripe guavas and plump luscious
©ranges walk along hawking their wares ; small
urchins with matches and cigarettes, cigars and
%etel-leaves, scream out in their piercing treble-
and a sweets-seller sooia passes by and keeps run-
ning onward in his everlasting course with a large
tmcovered wooden tray upon his head, followed by
a companion waving an upraised stick to scare
away the kites flying above.

Even the greatest of ordeals, however, has a ter-
anination. So this new train also starts at last and
proceeds with yoxk towards the holiest of the holy
cities you are longing to see. The same verdure and
luxuriance of Nature's bounty all around again, and
groves of various trees now grow more abundant
As you pass the Sasseram Station, the large
t^Mte dome oi Sher Khan's tomb with its Jojy

6 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap.

minarets around peeps throug-h the g^reenerfes on
the left and seems to^ play at bide-^nd-seek as you
move onward. That heroic Behar Chief who con-
quered Bengal and drove Emperor Humayun out
of India in the middle of the sixteenth century
has left one lasting memorial that serves to com-
memorate his name among posterity to this day.
His Grand Trunk Road runs still from Bengal to

the Punjab, and in his time mosques
The Grand and caravaBserais both for Hindus and
Trunk Road Mahomedans stood by its side at

convenient distances for the use
and comfort of the way-farers. It was then
traversed by millions of foot-sore arid weary pil-
grims to the sacred cities in the North- West, and
upon it numbers had probably sunk down breath-
less and even dropped dead from sheer exhaustion !
Hallowed by associations such as these, it now runs
parallel to the raO-road on the left —neat and trim
and sheltered under the cool shade of the over-
arching trees flanking its edges. Mango-topes in
the distance planted in orderly symmetrical rows
with their rounded leafy croAvns standing above the
upright trunks cause frequent changes in the scenic
background of green that variegates the blue
horizorL

We now cross the little Karmanasa streamlet.
Presently a middle-sized camel struts on over Sher
Khan's Road swaying its long neck from side to

I. TO THE CITY

side and nibbling the leaves from the branches of
dwarfish trees ; and anon follow a swarm of pigs
urged on by a small child nude as the hand of
Nature had fashioned it There, a little way off
saunters a straggler keeping to the shady side of
the road, and even an ekka skips on in its jolting
gait, followed by that picture of patience, the
washerman's ass, carrying a pair of large bulging
bundles hanging from its back and the happy
rider sitting astride tapon tbem and evidently singing
snatches of sofnc light popular ditty in a hoarse
cracked voice.

The fine towering steeple of the Durga Temple
?it Ramnagar now raises itself above the distant foli-
age on the left. A pleasant half-hour would soon
bring you to the broad DUFFERIN BRIDGE that took
five years (18S2-1887) in stretching itself across the
hofy Ganges, supplanting thereby the bridge of
boats that existed there before and costing nearly
forty-nine laklis of rupees. Grand amd imposing it
looks upon its half a dozen massive stone supports
'With its couple of wide footpaths quite three quarters
of a nsiile in length (Plate X, 3).

The sacred water of the holy river, with glimpses
of towering temples standing on tier bank, now
gleams into view through some breaks of the foliage
?n the remote horizon. Forward as you approach, a
grand panorama of the long-looked-for city, spreading
)0Ut os^ar an exjisaaase ©f -sofne four extend-i»g joailes

S THE HOL V CITY (BEN'ARES) Char

fn the form of a mighty crescent now breaks upon
your wondering gaze.

Upon a high ridge of kankar on the western
bank and m front of the greenish bay of h"mpid
water she stands hke a vast amphitheatre^ with her
domes and spires and turrets up above the flights
of numberless steps, extending along the winding
stone-paved riv^r-bank far as the eye can reach.

Hurried on over the bridge, the cres-
Flrst cent-like arc now widens and becomes

Glimpses more defined, and the twin towers of

Madhoji-ka-deora stand out prominent
among the white and gold-tipped spires clustered
all around. The tiny Barana to the right and the
hazy Asi to the extreme end on the south there
join the sacred river and enclose with her — figuring
the resplendent crescent moon o-n Siva's forehead
— what IS known as the ancient and holy Kasi,
the city founded by Siva himself and fabled to be
resting upon the points of his trident which no
earthquake can shake and reminiscent of a
glorified vision of the sacred manifestation of
Annapurna and Visweswara as the originating and
ever-sustaining Energy of the Universe \

Here then is Kasi — ^the highest in sanctity, the
thrice-blessed spot beneath the heavens, associated
with an ideal of all that is pure and holy, the
dreamland of a devout Hindu's longing, the dispenser
of salvation from earthl}' existence and repeated births.

I. TO THE CITY 9

and the very abode of peace and joy eternal ! Here
must you alight if you will visit the holy city.

Having covered no less than four hundred and
seventy-six miles of the iron track at a stretch
— though by the Grand Trunk Road it would
only be four hundred and thirty-two, — you may
now pause awhile to take breath. About this
Kasi station lie the ruins of the old Fort of the
ancient King Banar, the last of the Gaharwar
princes, who ruled over Kasi and the kingdom of
Kanouj. " Benares '\ the modern anglicised name
of the city, has been considered to be associated
with the fort of this king, who is repated to have
rebuilt the city also in the twelfth century A. D.
The older name "Bdrdnasi" seems to be compounded

of the names of the two streams,

Nomencla- Barand — and not Barna as it is

ture usually spelt — and Asi, meandering

round the city by the north and
the south and emptying themselves into the
holy Ganges. ^ The other name "Kdsi\'' which is

(i) This is supported by the Valmana Purana which notes
the words of Vishnu in the following terms : —

10 TFIE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap,

.•X,-V/X'\'^.^.\^\

the oldest one, is supposed to be derived from the
Kdsis tribe of the Aryans who first settled
here three thousand years ago. According to the
erudite editor of the Viswakosha the city came to
be called "Kasi" after the name of Kdshi or Kdsya
(the son of Raja Kdsli) who was the first king of
this place. Situate 25° 18' N. Lat. and 83^ i' E.
Long, — it is now the head -quarters of the Benares
district of the United Provinces and covers an
area in acres of three thousand and a half, ^
and in course of the Census of 1901 answered
for the housing of nearly two lakhs and ten
thousand citizens, among whom over a lakh
and a half were Hindus, and over half a lakh
professed allegiance to the Prophet, and about
twelve hundred were Christians.*

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(i) 3448 acres.

(2) 151,488 Hindus, 53,677 Mahomedans, 4176 Christians
and other:, making up 2,09,331 in all. In course of the last

I. TO THE CITY ii

Well-drained and standing dry on the high
rocky bank sloping to the river, the city is reputed
to enjoy a pleasant equable climate, with the

exception of the extremes of heat

Climate and and cold during some portions of the

Ganges Water summer and winter. Its health is no

doubt due to the purity of the water
of the Ganges which people use for bathing and
drinking purposes even in preference to the filtered
tap-water from the Water-works inaugurated here by
Sir Auckland Colvin in 1892. Mark Twain, speaking
of some tests by an expert scientist in Government
employ at Agra in connection with the water of
the Ganges, remarks in his ''More Tramps Abroad\

"He added swarm after swarm of cholera
"germs to this (Ganges) water ; within six hours
"they always died, to the last sample. Repeatedly
"he took pure well water which was barren of
"animal life and put into it a few cholera germs ;
"they always began to propagate at once and
"always within six hours they swarmed and were
"numberable by millions upon millions. For
"ages the Hindus have had absolute faith that
"the water of the Ganges was utterly pure,
"could not be defiled by any contact whatso-

"ever and infallibly made pure and clean what-
"soever thing touched it. They still believe it,

Census of loth March 191 1, however, there had been a decrease
in the population by 10,456, and the total stood at 198,859.

12 TFE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap.

"and that is why they bathe in it and drink it.
"The Hindus have been laughed at these many
"generations, but the laughter will need to modify
"itself a little frcm now on. How did they
"find out the water's secret in those ancient
"ages ? Had they germ-scientists then ? We
"do not know. We know that they had a civili-
"zation long before we emerged from savagery".^

If you are now refreshed and in proper trim,
we may proceed to have a look at the city and
shall first take the road leading to the Dasaswamedh
quarter. The massive iron gates at Rajghat opening
towards the city lead us into a dusty
Visweswar- road lined with modest unassuming
gunge Bazar houses with the wrinkles of age stamped
upon most of them. A small market-
place— VISWESWARGUNGE Bazar — soon appears with

(i) In confirmation of this may be quoted what the Indian
Medical Gazette notes : — "It would appear as if modern
iicience was coming to the aid of the ancient tradition in
maintaining a special blessedness of the water of the Ganges.
Mr. E. H. Henkin, in the preface to the fifth edition of his
excellent pamphlet 'On the Cause and Prevention of Cholera,'
writes as follows : — "Since I originally wrote this pamphlet
1 have discovered that the water of the Ganges and the
Jumna is hostile to the growth of the cholera microbe, not
only owing to the absence of food materials, but owing to
actual presence of an antiseptic that his the pow3r of des-
troying this microbe. At present I can make no suggcorjon as
to the origin of this mysterious antiseptic."

I. TO THE CITY 13

pulse-shops and flour-stalls ranged on either side
and various other necessaries of life piled about in
utter disregard of all order. Huge lumbering carts
labouring heavily along the badly rutted pathway,
each drawn by three sturdy bullocks with another
tied behind to serve as a relay and being itself
tugged on in its trail, make a curious spectacle.

Smiling at the oddity as you proceed onward, the
Municipal or the Maidagun Garden comes to view
on the right, neat and snug in its iron en-
Municipal closure, and the delicate perfume of roses

Garden fills the air near about. Roses of varied

hues and species laid out in a variety of

designs take up all available space inside, and a fine

jet-de-eau playing at one end adds to the beauty

of this enjoyable nook. It was the Maharajah of

Vizianagram who brought it into being in 1866 and

presented it to the people of Benares. A tank in the

middle of the garden with stone steps running down

from the banks into its clear water below is famed to

be the terrestrial remnant of the heavenly Mandakini

stream now shrunk into such circumscribed and

diminutive proportions. Adjoining this

Nagri Pracharini garden is the hall of the Nagri Pra-

Sabha. CHARINI Sabha founded in 1893 with

the object of popularising the Hindi
language. Patronised by Government with a grant
in aid of research it has a fine collection of Hindi
manuscripts and has already given sufficient evidence
of its usefulness in the shape of the publication of

14 THE HOLY CITY {BENARES) Qww

a number of works in Hindi comprising Hindu
and Buddhistic literature and philosophy.

To the left of the road lie the TELEGRAPH Office
and the Police Kotwali in the same compound,
both of them fine-lookinsr modern structures. Close
by in a large compound of green lawn is the
Alfred Hall — the Benares Town Hall — an imposing
pile in mixed Hindu and Gothic style enclosing a
long splendid hall with a dais on the further end
and a gallery approached by flights of stairs on
either side near the entrance. This also owes its

existence to the munificence of the
Alfred Hall Maharaja of Vizianagram who had it built

(1873-1875) to commemorate the visit of
H. R. H. Prince Alfred to this city in 1870. It contains
a fine portrait in oil of the Maharaja and a marble bust
of the Hon. Raja Deo Narain Singh, late member of the
Legislative Council of India, and was opened in 1876
by the then Prin:e of Wales (the late King Edward VII).
We next approach the Chauk, practically the
centre of the city and the largest mart and empor-
ium of trade in Benares, extending over a wide
area along the main road with a number of
narrow lanes running into the interior, which are lined

with lofty buildings full of all kinds of
Indigenous Pro- merchandise. The most not^d and at-
ducts tractive quarter here is the Thattiri Bazar

glittering with shining repousse and embossed
brassware and silver goods of wonderful workman-
ship for which Benares has ever been famous. As

I. TO THE CITY i$

' ^'N 'X'-v '\.rK'

you advance forward, wooden articles inlaid with
brass and various kinds of fretted woodwork engage
your attention for a time ; and interspersed among
the indigenous industrial products may also be
noticed the woven fabrics of Manchester and various
cheap shining tinsels with the hall-mark of " Made in
Germany " upon them. It is the gold-embroidered
kincobs and silk brocades, hov/ever, that are the most
beautiful products of the Benares looms deserving
prominent notice, as also shawls and fine embroidery
and gold filigree work for which Benares has
ever been noted in the world's marts. This weaving
industry, it is estimated, furnishes employment to
no less than twenty-five thousand people here.

From the very earliest of times Benares had
been famed as a great commercial city, and in
testimony thereof, Ralph Fitch in 1^5 characterised
it as "a great towne, and a great store of cloth is

made there of cotton." Bishop Heber
Trade in his " Narrative " also speaks of

Benares as •* the great mart where the
shawls of the north, and the diamonds of the south
and the muslins of Dacca and the Eastern Pro-
vinces center." Her wealth and activity even in
the earlier part of the last century had called
forth the following eulogium from Macaulay's pen :
" All along the shores of the venerable stream lay
great fleets of vessels laden with rich merchandise.
From the looms of Benares went forth the most
delicate silks that adorned the halls of St. James

i6 THE HOLY CITY {BENARES) Chap.

and of Versailles ; and in the bazaars, the muslins of
Bengal and the sabres of Oude were mingled with
the jewels of Golconda and the shawls of Cashmere."

We next come to the large square with the
imposing building on the right where the Chauk
Police is stationed. Vendors of various small wares
and brightly lacquered wooden toys have set their
stalls here in the open; and the crowd is rather
thick and is being constantly dispersed right and
left by the passing ekkas aud other vehicles with
their drivers shouting at the the top of their voice,
'■'■Hutto^ Bheiyd'' (Move away, Brother J and thus
adding to the babel of noises filling the place.

A few steps forward on the left is the fine

entrance to the nice little patch of garden of the

Carmichael Library with a beautiful

The Carmichael fountain squirting jets of cool clear

Library water around. In this cosy peaceful
retreat is a well-stocked library with
reading rooms. This interesting institution dates
from 1870 and was first inaugurated by Rana
Sanga Thakur Shaheb, a Reis of Benares, with the
aid of public subscriptions. Three years later it
was enlarged at the instance of Mr. Carmichael,
the then Commissioner, whose name it bears, and
it has now an annual income of nearly Rs. 2,000.

Past the GODOWLIA CHURCH of the Church
Mission Society on the right, we may now visit the
famous astronomical observatory, the Man Mandil,

l'J<ATK II

1. The Crescent Bank.

2. The Chakra (a), the Samrat (b), and the Xari\;ilaya (C)
Yantras.

3. Man Mandil Ghat.

4. The Chakra Yantra.

5. The Digansha Yantra.

P. 17

Chapter n

THE STARS AND THEIR WAYS

"Behold yon azure dome, the sapphire sky,
Rear in unpillared might its canopy ;
That vast pavilion, gemmed with worlds of light,
"Whose circling glories boast a boundless flight ;
And as they roll, survey man's chequered state
And scan the destinies of mortal fate."

— Pandnameh of Sa'di.

HE famous Man Mandil (Plate II, 3)
was erected by the Rajput Raja Man
Singh of Amber about the year 1600
A. D. and was used as an observatory
ninety-three years later by his descen-
dant Sawai Jaya Singh, the founder
cf the picturesque town of Jaipur. Jaya
Singh was an erudite prince and his
favourite study was Astronomy. He
spent seven long years in ransacking the Hindu as well
as all available foreign astronomical and
Jaya Singh mathematical works which he procured
from Samarkand and elsewhere. He had
many of these works translated into Sanskrit for
making a comparative study of the Hindu, the
Turkish and the European systems of astronomy ;
and he himself invented some astronomical instru-
ments — Ram Ymttra, Sam rat Y antra, and notably,
the Jaiprakash Yantra, — after a great deal of
researck

2 —

1 8 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap.

Referring to some astronomical instruments he
had procured from King Emmanuel of Portugal,
he noted in his great work in Persian, the Zcej
Mahammad Shdht\ that on critical examination
they were found to be defective in as much as
they caused a difference of four minutes in
calculations regarding eclipses. He attributed the
errors in the calculations of Hipparchus, Ptolemy
and others to the inaccuracy of their appliances.

Java Singh was commissioned by Mahammad Shah
the Emperor of Delhi, to correct the errors that had
crept into the calender. Hence it was that in
addition to the Observatory here, he installed four
others at Delhi, Muttra, Oojjein and Jaipur, and
embodied the results of his observations in his Zeej
Mahannnad Shdhi, so named in honour of the
aforesaid emperor.

Striking to the left into a narrow alley where
no other conveyance but your legs will carry you,
and taking a few turns up over some stone-paved
staircased lanes, you come at last in front of the
famous building, the Man Mandil — a place to
measure the globe, *from vidn (measurement) and
mandil (globe)'.

Admitted through a narrow entrance you find
yourself in a spacious quadrangle shady and cool

under the overspreading branches of
The Man Mandil a pair of old peepuls. Inside an open

hall, the walls and arches are all covered

II. THE STARS AND THEIR WAYS 19

,,-^r\/'\,-\j\/'\/\/^^^y^y\r\/\.r^y\/^y-K/^\/\/^\/ y^./-^/yy\j\j'-^\j\j\y\/\/\/\/\/\.

with profuse floral decorations in the old Indian style
and fresh enough for the vicissitudes of three
goodly centuries. A sudden glimpse of the clear
and pellucid water oi the Ganges at the ghat below
now catches your eyes through the side-doors and
apprises you of your arrival at the river-bank.

Up over to the top of the roof you find the
remnants cf the works of the mighty ancients. Few
they are now that are in existence — only those that were
perhaps hard-set immovable stones, and merely illustra-
tive of what once there had been, — standing out still
in their colossal grandeur beneath the wide expanse of
the azure above. Down below on the east as you look,
the placid shining lovely stream glides along its
stony bank of running stairs, and on the west
spreads out the city itself with myriads of house-
tops basking in the sun. Amidst surroundings so
grand and impressive under the vast canopy of
the heaven^s blue, a sense oi quiet seclusion, silent
and solemn and so well adapted to contemplation
and serious study, seems calmly to steal into your
heart. Looking backward into the g'oomy past
your mind's eye may yet perceive how those
mighty intellects of old sat here clad in their
simple robes and lay entranced in their favourite
pursuits, poring over their old tomes of astrology
and astronomy and scanning the heavens for the
stars and planets that were to light them into the
mysteries of Time and Space as measured by the
cycling orbs.

20 THE HOL V CITY {BENARES) Chap.

A look at the instruments constructed by J ay a
Singh may now be of interest if you should feel
inclined to have some idea of their use. The first,

then, that you find is the Dakshina-

Dakshinabhitti bhitti Yantra (Mural Quadrant) — a

Yantra stone wall built in the plane of the

meridian eleven feet hig^h and a little
over nine feet in length, with two quadrants inter-
secting each other described thereon and three
concentric arcs upon each of them graduated into
degrees and minutes. The shadows cast by a
couple of iron spikes (fixed perpendicular to the
plane of the wall at the top corners) upon the
divisions of those arcs, give the sun's altitude and
zenith-distance as also the meridianal altitude of the
stars and the latitude of the place.

The next instrument is the colossal Samrat
Yantra (the Prince of instruments)
Samrat Yantra which is rather a giant Sun-dial. It
is a massive stone right-angled
triangle 4| feet broad standing upright in the plane
of the meridian, with stone stairs in the middle
to ascend to the top. It is 36 feet long, and is
22^ feet high on its northern end and 6^ feet on
the southern, the inclined hypotenuse thus formed
pointing to the North Pole. On the eastern and
western sides of this wall are arcs of massive stone
somewhat greater than the quadrant of a circle,
and both sides of each of the arcs are marked out

IL THE STARS AND THEIR WAYS 21

,\j\r^r\r\r\/^

into degrees ; and stairs run up by the side of
each to the top to admit of closer observations.
The shadow of the wall as it creeps upon the
arcs gives the solar time ; the distances in time
from the meridian of the moon, the planets and stars,
and the declination and hour-angle of the heavenly
bodies can also be calculated by the help of this
instrument. A double Mural Quadrant has also
been inscribed on the eastern side of the wall.
It is a large structure of stone and gives some
idea of the accuracy and precision in the works of
ancient times. Another Sarnrat Yantra of smaller
dimensions and exactly similar to this lies further
to the east (Plate II, 2, h).

The Narivalaya Dak shin a and Uttara Go la or
the Equ'nojtial Circle (Plate II, 2, c) appears next.
It is a large circular slanting piece of
Narivalaya Dak- stone placed in the equinoctial plane
shina and Uttara with a circle described on the northern
Gola side over 4^ feet in diameter. Two

diameters drawn upright and horizontally
at right angles divide the circle into four equal parts
of ninety divisions each. An iron spike in the centre
pointing to the North Pole denotes by its shadow the
meridianal distance of the sun or the stars when in the
Northern Hemisphere. The use of this instrument is to
find out t'me and also whether the heavenly bodies are
m the Northern or the Southern Hemisphere.

Then comes the CJmkra Yantra (Plate II, 2a, 4)

22 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap.

V /\./\,'-s.'\.^yv/-v r\ /\/

consistinj^: of a movable circle of iron and brass — the
circumference of which is graduated into
Chakra Yantra sixty parts — turning upon an axis fixed
between two walls and pointing to the
North Pole. To a peg in the centre was attached a
brass index two inches broad with a line in its
middle passing through the centre of the circle, but
this is now broken. By moving the circle and the
index to bring a particular planet or star to the
middle line of the index, the degrees of its declina-
tion may be found out, and thus the distance in
time (hour-angle^ of the sun, the moon and the
stars from the meridian can be ascertained.

We next approach another large instrument, the
Digansha Ya^ttra (Plate, II, 5) constructed of massive
stone and consisting of two broad
Pigansha Yantra concentric circular walls, the outer one
double the height of the inner and
graduated to 360® degrees at the top. Four iron
spikes are planted on the four cardinal points of
the compass upon the top of the outer wall. A
round pillar of the same height as the inner wall
stands at the centre of the space inside it. It is
a little over four feet high and three and a half feet m
diameter and has an iron spike fixed at the top. The
yse of this instrument is to find the degrees of azimuth
of the heavenly bodies by stretching two pieces of
thread crosswise from the spikes upon the outer wall
and fastening another to the centre of the pillar with

II. THE STARS AND THEIR IVA VS 23

its outer end moving at the top of the outer wall.

These are the only remnants of all that had
once been, which have survived the ravages of
time and other destructive agencies, the rest
having gone to where all things earthly must — the
limbo of oblivion. As they are, however^ even to this day
they serve to give a slight insight into the great-
ness and mentality of the versatile Hindus of those
by-gone times, and make it a wonder as to how
they could attain to such marvellous accuracy
in calculations and nice precision in results, as
evidenced by the popular almanacs and calendars,
with the aid of such seemingly crude and simple
materials at their disposal before the quadrant-and-
telescope era.

Our limited leisure, however, to be devoted to
our tour would hardly permit us to indulge in reflec-
tions for the present. So, with a deep sigh and
perhaps a heavy heart we now come down from
the roof and cast aside the thoughts of the celes-
tials and their science, and direct our attention to
objects nearer to us in these sub-lunar regions.

■:o:-

Chapter III

MOSTLY SECULAR

" The sun of eternal truth arises in the East to
shine upon the West. The East is the beginning of
human thought,"

— Sarat Kumar Ghose.

AM now standing at the fountain-head
of civilisation, — the very source of the
most ancient and the most mighty monar-
chies. The vision is distinct, for I hold
the vantage-ground of the high table-land
of Western Asia. The warhke pilgrims
of the Oxus are moving towards the east,
the west, and the south ; they are the
patriarch bands of India, Europe and
Eg>'pt. At the mouths of the Indus, dwell a sea-
faring people, active, ingenious, and enterprising, as
when, ages subsequent to the great movement,
they themselves, with the warlike denizens of the
Punjab, were driven from their native land, to seek
the far distant climeS of Greece. The commercial
people dwelling along the coast that stretches from
the mouth of the Indus to the Coree, are embarking
on that emigration whose magnificent results to
civilisation, and whose gigantic monuments of art,
fill the mind with mingled emotions of admiratioi;
and awe. These people coast along the shores of
Mekran, traverse the mouth of the Persian Gulf
and again adhering to the sea-board of Oman,

vDe

III. MOSTLY SECULAR 25

Hadramant, and Yemen (the Eastern Arabia), they
sail up the Red Sea ; and again ascending the
mighty stream that fertiHses a land of wonders,
found the kingdoms of Egypt, Nubia and Abys-
sinia. These are the same stock that, centuries sub-
sequently to this colonisation, spread the blessings
of civilisation over Hellas and her islands.

Thus writes Mr. Pococke of those days

gone by in the nonage of old Time in lines that elevate

and thrill the mind with an indes-

India of old cribable feeling and make one pause

to meditate for a while ; for, it is

now hardly ever possible to realise or form any

idea of the position that old India occupied over

the globe in those early ages. Hard have the

master-minds and capable savants worked to clear

the debris heaped up by aeons reckoned in centuries,

till materials and informations enough have now

been unearthed to characterise her as the pioneer

all civilized life in the world.

From a comparison of her language and cus-
toms, myths and religion, and her old architectural
remains with those of the other regions of the
earth boasting of ancient civilisation, India has been
pronounced to be the very spot where all art and
learning had their origin and the ultimate source
whence emanated all knowledge and civilisation in
the infancy of humanity, that later en illumined
Assyria and Egypt, Persia and Greece — and, for

26 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap.

' \^^/N^\y v/'V^'X/v /^y^y-^/\y^xv/Ay'\y^y'\y^ ^./-v/\/\./-\y

the matter of that, the whole continent of Europe
as well. In his Philosophy of History in the begin-
ning of the last century the great western philosopher
Hegel took India to be ''the centre of emigration for
all the Western Worlds Later researches have gone
further and proved that the civilisation of Mexico,
Yucatan and Peru in the Western Hemisphere also
owed its origin to the Hindu emigrants from the
Indian shores. ^

Driven from their native abodes by mighty con-
flicts and religious upheavals large bodies of men

sought homes in distant climes and
Origin of carried along with them their old Ian-
Civilisation guage and religion and all the civilized

arts known to them, and spread them
over the regions where they settled. Bactria, Persia,
Asia Minor, Greece'and Phoenicia were among the regions
where they carried the germs of arts and sciences after
this vast human tide ' swept across the valley of the
Indus on the west,' and 'passed the barrier of the
Punjab, rolled onward towards its destined channel
in Europe and in Asia to filful its benevolent
office in the moral feitilisation of the world.' Anent
this tide of col )aisation it may bs interesting to
note that even Benares had then sent its quota
of men that were "distinctly seen near the banks
of the Tigris, as 'COSS.EI,' that is, the people of CaSI,
the classical name for Benares." *

(i) K. N. Bose's Hindu Civilisation in Ancient America.
(2) Pococke's India in Greece, p. 46.

III. MOSTLY SECULAR 27

Time brought about inevitable changes, old
shapes and forms \n their religion and language were
transformed or modified almost beyond recognition ;
but enough have yet been left in the crumbling
ruins of old architecture and the old language to
help to trace with reasonable certainty similaraties
and analogies for identifying them with their
parent source. A great French scholar, M. Creuzer
remarks that " if there is a country on earth which
can justly claim the honour of having been the
cradle of the human race, or at least the scene
of a primitive civilisation, the successive develop-
ments of which carried into all parts of the ancient
world, — • and even beyond, the blessings of know-
ledge, which is the second life of man, that country
assuredly is Indiar Hence it is that another
great thinker, M. LOUIS JACOLLIOT, treats the
thesis that " to study India is to trace humanity
to its source" as a simple truism.

In ecstasy over India's language, PROF. Barnouf
writes : "We will study India with its philosophy and
its myths, its literature and its laws, in its language.
Nay it is more than India, ?V /^ a page of the origin
of the world we will attempt to decipher." Speak-
ing of her philosophy, M. CousiN in the same
strain remarks : "the history of Indian philosoply is
the abridged history of the philosophy ot the world."
The Sankhya philosophy of Kapila and the Nyaya
of Gautama were, according to Mr. R. C. Dutt»

THE HOL Y CITY (BENARES) Chap.

the very first systems of mental philosophy and logic
in the world ; and even Grammar and * Arithmetic,
he holds, were invented in India. Hence it
was that India attracted the sages of :old, Fa Hian
and Hiuen Thsang, Pythagorus and Lycurgus and
Megasthenes to travel to her distant regions to
study law and philosophy and religion at their
fountain source.

As the brightest gem upon her diadem "and the
centre of all culture and learning in
Kasi of old India, Benares — which only is within
the scope of this work — has held its
pre-eminence throughout all ages ; for, here it was
that about 700 B. C. lived Kapila, the founder
of the aforesaid Sankhya school of philosophy, and
according to B. N. Chunder, "here, probably, did
Gautama found his school of the Nyaics. Yaska
probably published his Nirukta at this place, Panini
his Grammar and Kullak A Bhatta his 'Commentaries
on the Institutes'." Apart from being the chief
seat of religion, therefore, Benares was thus the
cradle of all learning in the East and full of abodes
of scholars and students from all quarters. When
the great Buddha came to Benares there were no
less than seven hundred seminaries and even then
it had wide celebrity for its educational institutions
of the ancient type.

In the Mogul times, Feizi, it is said, disguised
himself as a Hindu boy here in order to initiate

III. MOSTLY SECULAR 29

himself in the Hindu Shastras. In latter days also,
distinguished foreigners like Fitch (1583), Tavernier
(1668), and Heber (1825) directed their steps to
this place in course of their travels and search after
Indian wisdom and Indian antiquity. Western
savants from Sir William Jones who had 'discovered
Sanskrit' to the Western scholar?, down to all who had
followed him, never failed to visit this shrine of all
ancient wisdom to study and make researches here
for a while in its hallowed grounds ; and the
English Cemetery at the Sekrole quarter has a
melancholy interest as holding the last remains of
one of the earliest of the great Western scholars,
Colonel Wilfred, who had done so much to bring
Sanskrit before the world — 'that language which
formed all others' — and who had been taken to
have 'almost Hinduised himself by residence in
Benares from 1788 to i8?2.'

Apart from the undisputed sovereignty it had
wielded over the whole of Hindu India in all
matters of religion from the earliest of times,
Benares has ever been regarded as the fountain-
head of the Hindu philosophy, theology and juris-
prudence, and the decision of the
The oldest Benares authorities claimed supreme
living City respect and unquestioning acceptance
at all times throughout the country.
But the inevitable changes that time works upon
th(i face of Dame Nature has its sequel up^a

30 THE HOL V CITY (BENARES) Chap.

humanity and national life as well. So, though it
has kept up its existence as ^/le only oldest livhig
city of note in the two hemispheres at the present
time, the old order has changed Svith the process
of the suns' and new customs and new modes of
life have yielded place to the pre-existing ones.
Whether it has been a history of advance towards
the optimist's millenium it is for the philosopher to
ponder, not for the casual tourist to ascertain.

What, however, is apparent even to the most
superficial observer is that Benares
Educational has now lost its old indigenous
Systems of old institutions which alone, apart from
the holy shrines, made it famous and
sought for in the by-gone times. The old chatus-
pdthis and abodes of scholars and great teachers
where systematic training in all branches of Indian
philosophy and ancient shastras was imparted, and
where the students lived in all humility the simple
life of Bhramacharya in the homes of their pre-
ceptors and forgot the world while absorbed in
study, — are now merely memories of the past.
A few present-day tols maintained by the
munificence of some Rajas and reises may still be
met w^ith as we shall presently see, bat they are
the merest shadows of the olden days. A few
Shasiris or great Pandits — through some of whom
Benares still retains its ancient reputation for its
learned men — may now and then be found to have

III. MOSTLY SECULAR 31

(^\/\f\f\r\i

a few disciples attending on them, but nothing like the
old institutions is now in existence.

As to the utility of such institutions it may be
unhesitatingly observed that the influence they
exerted upon the national life was vast and
wide, turnmg out scholars of profound erudition
living the simplest of li\'es and knowing but the
fewest of wants and in very deed exhibiting a
striking combination of plain living and high,
thinking in the highest sense. ^ Examples are ever
catching and the effect upon the surroundings and the
multitude among whom they moved broadcast
throughout the country may well be imagined. How
the old times had changed and what the agencies
that wrought the change through the various vicis-
situdes of religious upheavals and alien conquests,
are mere matters of history.

(i) By way of an illustration it may not be out of place to
note the simple but touching anecdote of a great Bengal
Pandit of old named Ramnath. He was the brightest gera
of the court of Maharaja Krishna Chandra of Nadiya, and his
fame as the greatest of the learned men of the time had
spread all over the land. The sum-total of his worldly
belongings, however, consisted of a few small huts, a large
heap of old wood-bound hand-written puiithis (books) and a
small pension from the court to live upon ; and his wife had
but two pieces of thread tied round her wrists as substitutes
for gold and silver to signify her blessed married state. A
princess' maid having once jeered at these her precious posses-
bions, she was said to have rejoined with conscious pride that

32 THE HOL Y CITY (BENARES) Cha1>-

Though it is not possible to brirg these times
back again, a few large-hearted persons here,
actuated by the desire as well as the hope of
creating something like the wholesome atmosphere
of the olden days, have undertaken the task of
imparting education to the rising generations on
lines different fro.n those in vogue in our provincial
universities, making secular education go hand in
hand with moral and religious training based upon
the ancestral religion and ethics of the Hindus.
The experiment started hardly over a decade ago
through the indefatigable energy and self-sacrifice of
that noble lady Mrs. Annie Besant and her noble
band of workers, has already been giving fair pro-
mises of success. The objects of the institution
founded by her, the CENTRAL HINDU COLLEGE,
have been to 'wed together the religion, the ethics,
the philosophy of the hoary East with the science
and literature of the young and vigourous West,'

the disappearance of those little bits of thread from her wrists

-would mean the darkening of all Nadiya which all the lustre

of the princess' gold would be impotent to dispel. The

Maharaja having once come on a visit found him employed

in his studies in perfect contentment and peace in spite of

all the marks of dire poverty all about his surroundings. On

being asked if he had any want and what the Raja could do

for him, the Pandit looked abstracted for a moment and

replied in amazement : " Want ? - Well, I don't see 1 have

jiny. — What can you do for me .^ "' Such was this Indian
Diogenes!

I'LATF. Iir

1. Sarasuati Temple (Central Hindu College).

2. Queen's College.

3. CentniJ Hindu College Boarding.

P»33

II. MOSTLY SECULAR 33

and *to build up a Hindu aristocracy, courteous, brave,
truthful in word and deed, public-spirited

Central Hindu citizens, patriotic to the Motherland.

College loyal to the Imperial Crown, — to send

forth from this place men worthy of their

«"lorious past, men worthy to build a yet greater future,

men worthy to be citizens in an empire of the free.'

Too much chatting perhaps for hurrying tourists,—
but may not this be introductory to what follows ?
So, without further delay, we trace our steps back-
from the neighbourhood of the Man Mandil to the
main road, and go westward past Godowlia to see
this institution first.

Through a populous part of the city along
broad roads with stately structures upon their borders
we pass, till we arrive at the precincts of the
Central Hindu College decorated with small
minarets in the Indian style of architecture in the
quiet Kamachcha quarter of the city. Opened in
189S, it has been affiliated to the Allahabad Univer-
sit)^ up to the M. A. standard ; * the most marked
feature of this institution, however, is that the boys in
all the college and school classes have to read Sanskrit
as their principal subject. Attached to this is also a

( I ) This institution is shortly to form the nucleus of the,
proposed Hindu University of Benares towards the establishment
of which Mrs. Besant and the Hon. Pandit Madan Mohan
Alalaviya of Allahabad have been directing their united efforts and
working unceasingly. According to the Draft Memorandum of

34 THE HOLY CITY {BENARES) Chap,

seminary for the exclusive study of that language,
named the Ranavir Patshala, and there is also a Girls'
School as well connected with it, designated the
Kalika Vidyalaya. Thus, nearly a thousand students
in all receive their education and training in this
institution.

It has so far been independent of Government aid
but its usefulness and the good work done by it have
met with open recognition from the highest in the "land,
and Lord Minto almost on the eve of his departure from
India thought fit to visit this institution and expressed
high gratification at what he saw here. The grounds
upon which the buildings stand are the gift of the
Maharaja of Benares ; and many of the Ruling Indian
Princes, rich merchants and other personages in various
grades of life have contributed towards the erection
of the beautiful structures here; and white marble slabs
above the doorways commemorate their nam^s. The
costs in respect to the College Laboratory here were

Association, besides the usual provisions for the diffusion of
scientific, technical and professional knowledge, the main objects
of this University are to be 'to promote the study of the Hindu
.Shastras and of Sanskrit literature generally, as a means of pre-
serving and popularising for the benefit of the Hindus in particular
and of the world at large in general, the best thought and
culture of the Hindus, and all that was good and great in thti
ancient civilization of India,' and 'to promote the building up
of character in youth by making religion and ethics an integral
part of education.

III. MOSTLY SECULAR 35

borne by two Bombay merchants, and the funds left by
an Indian student accidentally killed in England furni-
shed means for the erection of the School Hall. In fact,
every part of all the buildings, bears testimony to tlic
munificence of generous donors, which reached the
figure of over Rs. 1,189,000 in course of the first nine
years of its existence.

It is the day of the great All-India Theosophical
Conference ^ which is to meet in the hall of the Hindu
College and commence its sittings from to-day. Volun-
teer boys with their pretty floral badges move about
briskly and are busy receiving delegates coming in
from all quarters of India, A very young amiable bov
from the Punjab accosts us and undertakes to pilot us
round the college and the Boarding Houses.

Stepping into the courtyard you find a small w hite
marble temple in the middle (Plate HI, i) with a very
gracefully-draped image of the Goddess of Learning,
Sarasivati, in white marble, worshipped with floral
offerings. In the open verandah upon the raised floor
of the hall the first object that falls to your sight is a
large portrait of Mrs. Besant in delicate colours faithful
to life. There is another of the present Maharaja of
Benares, the donor of the grounds of the College
and one of its pirncipal benefactors. By a great
good fortune we meet here the noble lady Mrs.
Besant herself who receives us with a kindly smile and

(i)Sunday, the 26th December 1909.

THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap.

. 'Wy-. '^.'\.'\.'\.'\/V \y ^X'V^^v/ V

with greetings in the graceful Hindu style with joined
palms. After a few words with her we walk round
the College and see the Common Room containing
a good supply of books and newspapers and a large
portrait in oil of the Principal and pass on to the
fine quadrangle of the adjoining Boarding Houses
(Plate ni, 3) carpeted with beautiful season-flowers
of the various hues of the rainbow. All the houses
look neat and comfortable and accommodate within
them about two hundred and fifty students. Cne
of the interesting features here is that a spacious
apartment on the first floor has been consecrated
and set apart as a Prayer Room ''for the worship
of Iszvara " — the most cosmopolitan name that can
be thought of — in the right orthodox Hindu style.

We now take leave of our young guide and cross
over to the quarters of the TllEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY,

Indian Section — on the other side of

Thecsophical the road. Amid extensive gardens in

Society the wide compound, a tank on one

end with spotted deer grazing on the
banks and the pretty houses standing isolated here
c.nd there overhung with flowering creepers look
exceedingly picturesque. One such accommodates
Mrs. Besant and is designated ' Santi Kunjd — the
bow er of peace ; and there are quarters here for
the Hindu College Professors as well going by the
name of ' Jnana-Gehd — the house of knowledge.

You must new sec the hall v>hcre tie memhers

III. MOSTLY SECULAR 17

j^/^^y\y\/-\^\y\j-\y\/\y^\j^ /\y^y\

of the Society meet. Just above the entrance is
engraved on the outer wall the sacred 'Om' and
the mystic symbol like the six-rayed star with an
inscription above in Sanscrit — 'Satydt ndsti pan*
Dharmd! — There is no religion higher than Truth.

Inside you see the walls covered with interest-
ing paintings — pictures of Christ and Confucius,
Zarathustra and Lao-Tze, Birbal and Akbar, Madonna
under the Apple tree and St. Joseph with the child
Jesus, and other subjects of cosmopolitan interest.
A portrait of Col. Olcott the founder of the Society
and fine large ones of Mrs. Besant and Madam
Blavatsky decorate the northern and the southern walls.
One other striking object in the hall is a large
mirror upon which is etched the figure of a man
clad in the fashion of an American Indian stand-
ing upon a globe with a sword in hand and starry
rays around his head somewhat like a halo — said
to be the Persian ( Zoroastrian ) representation of
the Sun. The hall is well stocked with books and
magazines and the shelves are replete with all kinds
of Theosophical literature and Hindu scriptures.
A sense of calm repose pervading here has a
chastening effect upon the mind.

We may now resume our rambles, and as we are

in this quarter we may go a little further southward

and have a look at the noted well

GoebiKua ^^^^j.^^ j^^a lying under the shade of

some large peepuls near some brick-fields

38 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap.

in a very retired nook at this end of the
city. Beneath a wooden canopy standing over
it sits an old Brahmin who draws water and
supplies it to people coming from the most distant
quarters for it. It is scrupulously clean and is
reputed to have medicinal properties, and its
continual use for a time is said to effect cure ot
dvspepsia and debility and a host of other maladies.

Back from this place, as we pass by the Ram

Krishna Shebasram (Home of Service), not very

far from the Central Hindu College,

Ram Krishna we may drop in for a short visit. It

Shel>asrain is a local branch of the Ram Krishna

Mission an I is intended to give relief to

the poor and the diseased and was founded in A. D.

1900. The Hospital is well worth seeing and has

been doing very noble work and would amply

deserv-e active help from the munificent and the rich.

The institution has quite an interesting history of
its own in respect to the way it was ushered into
existence. Some youths of noble blood in Benares
fired by the instructions and inspiration of Swami
Vivekanand — a name now of world-wide celebrity —
resolved to devote their life in serving humanity in
the spirit of worshipping God. "It is this 'worship
of the poor', this consecration of one's self to 'serve
the Lord coming daily before us in the shape of
the diseased, the lunatic, the leper, and the sinner' that
the great Swami Vivekanand has taught the Indian

III. MOSTLY SECULAR 39

\/\j-\/\y\r^f^j\/\f\/\.n^r\i^\j\.'\.rs^f\./^

people to realise and practise in their every day
life." Opportunities were soon afforded them in the
shape of a few dying indigent men and women
cast adrift on the streets in their last extremity
by the owners of the hired houses where they had
been staying — a thing alas ! not of very rare
occurrence in this great city. These youths picked
them u[) and placed them under shelter, and gave
them food and medicines by means of funds they
had raised by begging. This was the germ of the
institution which gradually expanded and drew
public attention, and was then placed in the hands
of the noble workers of the Ram Krishna Mission
after it had attained some magnitude. The found-
ation-stone of the present fine buildings — all constructed
by the aid of kindly donations— was laid in April 1908,
and in the year between July 1908 and June 1909,
6413 persons were given relief in various ways ;
and it is interesting to observe that two among
them were C/insiians and 244.3 Mahomedans, the
rest being Hindus belonging to all the provinces of
Jndia. The institution thus affords relief irrespective
of caste, creed or nationality, to 'the diseased,
homeless, and neglected poor* and the destitute,
iunable to earn a living or lying starving in
the street. There are neat indoor and outdoor
}\()spital and dispensary in the Home where
jnedicines of all the three systems — Kaviraji, Allopathy
;^ind Homcepathy — are stocked. Even those who are
enable to attend are treated in their own plaQei»*

40 THE HOL V CITY (BENARES) Chap.

and respectable families reduced to destitution obtain
help in the shape of food and money supplied them
at their own homes at stated intervals. Such are
the noble objects of this noble institution in this
great city !

Along the broad roads with spacious garder^s
on either side as we go northwards the Victoria
Park comes into view with its marble bust of
{he good Queen set upon a high pedestal

wearing a very dignified expression
Victoria Park upon the face. The fine green lawn

in its ample compound has a pleasant
and inviting look and furnishes an enjoyable pro-
menade and recreation ground.

The turrets of the Queen's College now
appear amidst the picturesque surroundings of its
well-kept grounds lined with flower-beds of elegant

designs. The High School is located in a
Queen's CoUe^ separate building with a very beautiful

ornate column in its front. The
quarters of the Principal and the Head Master are
within the College compound — pretty little houses in
the quiet of arborial surroundings.

The College building ^' Plate HI, 2) is a noble
edifice in the architecture of the old Gothic style
with a central tower seventy-five feet high. Mottoes
and wise sayings in Old English and Devnagari
characters form a pretty as well as useful decoration
below the cornices all around. The existence of tlie

III. MOSTLY SECULAR 41

institution dates as far back as 1791 when Jonathan
Duncan, the then Resident of Benares, suggested to
Lord Cornwallis the estabHshment of a College '' for tlie
/yreservation and cultivation of Sanskrit literature
and i^eligion of the Hi^idu nation at the centre of
their faith and common resort of their tribes'' Tluis
was founded the Sanskrit College with Pandit Kashi
Nath as its first Principal. The English School laised to
the status of a College in 1843 was amalgamated
w ith the Sanskrit College ten years later, and the
united colleges developed into the present Queen's
College now affiliated to the Allahabad University.
I'he present building took four years (1848-1^52)
in its designing and erection by Major Kittle
costing Rs. 1,27,000, and is undoubtedly a thing
of beauty. The College owns a well-equipped
Laboratory and a Boarding House at a slight dis-
tance across the road, and a commodious building is now
being erected in the College compound to serve
as a Library for storing Sanskrit works and to be
named Saras wati-bhabar..

As the principal place for the culture of Sanskrit
learning it earned the reputation of being the
Oxford of India, and included among the number
of its professors such eminent Western Sanskrit
scholars as Mr. R. T. H. Griffith, the translator of
the Ramayana, Dr. Kern, Professor of Sanskrit in
the Leyden University, Dr. Fitzgerald Hall, late
Librarian of the India Office, and Dr. John Muir,

42 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap.

f\/'\/\/\/\rsj\/\/\j'\' \/\/'\y\/\

Dr. Ballantyne and Mr. Gough. The present head
of the institution, Mr. A. Venis, the profound
Sanskrit scholar, has nobly kept up the old tradi-
tions by his erudition and valuable researches. A
monthly paper named " Tke Pandit " was started
from the college in 1866 and some rare and
\aluable Sanskrit works were published therein.

As you enter the main hall the first object that
strikes you is the resplendent youthful figure of the
late Queen Victoria of blessed memory clad in
ermine and seated in regal glory, crowned and with
a chain of brilliants round her neck and the
sceptre and the orb in her hands. It is in the
brightly coloured stained glass in the window above
the entrance and is a fine work of art.

As you turn round, the long hall with its high
roof looks exceedingly imposing and strings of mottoes
decorate the space below the cornices here also.
Towards the centre of the hall and furthur off as well^
the senior college classes occupy the room. To the
further end on the other side of the lofty arch
is the space set apart for students of Sanskrit who
sit on the carpeted floor in the orthodox fashion at
the feet of their preceptors — the learned Pandits and
Shastris — in the early hours of the morning. Above
the wall at one end of the hall is a circle of the
the Zodiac (the Rashi-chakra) on glass panes with
all the symbolic figures and signs in bright and
beautiful paints. Two wings running from the

III. MOSTLY SECULAR 43

nave towarc's the right and left accommodate the

undergraduates' classes, the office as well as the

Library containing the finest collection of rare

Oriental manuscripts. Recesses upon the high side
walls have been utilized for the storage of books

and some fossilized bones and other curiosities, and
galleries run along them.

Coming down to the open grounds oelow,
another object of interest catches your eyes. It is
a tall round stone pillar thirty-one and a half feet
high — a monolith found at Pahladpur near Gazipur
and brought to Benares in 1853. It is similar to
the Asoka pillar standing in the Allahabad Foit,
w hich, however, is much taller than this. Two line.s
f^r inscriptions in the character of the times of the
(iupta Kings of the fourth century are still readable
though partly obliterated, and a few semi-circular
diagrams are also visible en one side. Leaving th's
antiquarian treasure, as 3''ou prepare to come out
to the road, a small circular tank attracts your eye
with the head and nozzle of a live crocodile of
decent proportions floating thereon and diving
underneath when your attentions seem to grow
too obtrusive.

Such is the premier educational institution of

Benares. All grades of Schools ranging

Education between the High and the Primary

are here, numbering over two hundred

and including seme lwcnt\-six Girls' Schools amcr.g

41 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap,

'"v/\yx/ vX/X- V'X' V'^z-^^'v/X/v/X/ V

them. They afford facilities to something Hke
eleven thousand boys and girls to pick up their
three R's therein. An important one among them is
that founded by Raja Jay Narain Ghosal in 1817
at Bhelupura and now being managed by the
Church Missionary Society and going by the name
of the Jay Narain Collegiate School. Another is the
Hewett Kshatriya School founded and endowed by
the Raja of Bhinga with lavish donations. The five
different Christian Missions in the city manage among
them eight boys' and eighteen girls' schools imparting
Christian instructions to nearly two thousand pupils.

For the exclusive study of Sanskrit on the old
methods, there are some thirty or more Chatus-
pdthis and Paths Has te ichi ng nearly a thousand
students. The most important among them are the
Sanskrit Pdthsala at Chauka Ghat attached to the
Government Sanskrit College, Xh^ Jugal Kishore Ruid
and the Sangvet Pathsalas at Nagwa, the Brahma
Vidyd Pathsala at Tehri Nim, the

Chatuspathis and Yasovijaya Jaina Pathsala at Thatteri
Pathsilas Bazar, the Syddvada at Bhadaini, the

Durbhanga Pathsala at Dasaswamedh,
the Sannyasi Sanskrit Pathsala near the Visweswara
Temple and the Iswara and Sarhamangald chatuspa-
this at Bengalitolah. Besides the Government College
Pathsala, the Nagwa Pathsalas and the Durbhanga,
the Jaina and the Syadvada Pathsalas contain
the largest number of pupils. The institution

III. MOSTLY SECULAR 45

''■y^^'\r\s\y\.r\/\/-^ys

founded by the Maharaja of Durbhanga imparts
education in the Hindu Philosophy, Nyaya and
Grammar, and the celebrated Pandit Mahamahopadhaya
Siv Kumar Misra is at the head of it at present. The
Maharaja of Kashmir had a similar institution near
the Dasaswamedh, but it has been amalgamated
with the Ranavir Pathsala of the Central Hindu
College. Besides these there are numerous small
tols, in each of which four or five students read
under a Pandit or Adhydpaka, and students from
various parts of India still come to this place and
sit at their feet and study the various branches of
the Shastras such as Vedanta, Sankhya, Miinansha,

Yoga, Sniriti, Yotishy and also Grammar, Rhetoric
and Poetry. There are still over eighty of such distin-
guished AdhydpakaSy some of the most eminent among
them being Mahamahopadhyayas Gangadhar Shastri
Telang, CLE., Siv Kumar Misra, Rakhaldas Nyayaratna,
Subrahmanya Shastri Dravida, Tatya Shastri,
Krishnanath Nyayapanchanan, Bhagavatacharya, and
Pandits Mahadeo Shastri, Annoda Charan Tarkachura-

mani, Priyanath Tattwaratna, Srikar Shastri, Bhawani

Dikshit, Jaya Krishna Vidyasagara, and Vinayak

Shastri Yotishi.

Along the road leading to the Kasi station we

pass by the Zenana Mission House and the Bible

and Tract Depot on the left, and further

Hospitals on the IswARi Prasad Memorial

Hospital (the Lady Dufferin Hospital

for Females) founded in 1892 and occupying

46 THE HOLY CITY {BENARES) Chap

'\y\''\/^j^./'\/^''\y^^

extensive grounds. Next to it are the fine buildings
of the Prince of Wales' Hospital erected by
the gentry of Benares in honor of the late King
Edward's visit to the city in 1876 as the Prince
of Wales. Another important hospital in the city
is the Victoria Hospital built in 1888 by the
Zenana Bible and Medical Mission at Sigra and
managed by them. There are a few other hospitals
also doing very good work though on a small scale.

Very numerous are the charitable institutions
founded by Rajas and rich men consisting of

Dhannasalas and Chhattras in which

Dharmasalas substantial provision has been made for

and Chhatras the shelter of pilgrims and strangers.

the maintenance of poor Brahmins and
indigent persons belonging to other classes, and for
helpless widows and students studying Sanskrit. These
institutions are mostly in the nature of alms-houses
and it has been estimated that nearly four thousand
persons obtain food and she'ter therein. There nrc
some endowments as well providing for scholarships
to students. The Chhatras of the Maharajas of
Durbhanga and Kashmir near the Dasaswamedh
and Tehri Nim, and of Ahalya Bai near the ghat of
her name, and of the Maharaja of Cooch Behar, are
on an extensive scale. So are the Nathcote and the
Marwari Chhattras feeding large number of
Marwaris. Mention may also be rnade of the Chhattras
Connected with the names of Rani Bhawani, Rashmani,

III. MOSTLY SECULAR 47

^j-\j~^j\/\f\,^rw-^j^-.

Vidyamayi, Rajrajeswari, as also of Putea, Tahirpur
and Ambjria. A Maiwari reis supplies rice and
tlour and other eatables to a number ot students
\\\ his garden at Sigra.

The Indian Princes and Reises vied with one

another formerly in affording relief to the poor

as an act of the highest merit ; and

Hindu Endow- thus was the origin of the Ckhatras

ments existing in scores in all parts of the city.

Besides these, the Muths or monas-
teries of different sects of asceties and the various
Hindu temples are maintained by substantial endow-
ments made by their votaries or patrons, and
provide means of living for a very large number of
religious devotees. One of these, the Gopal Mandir,
owns ten villages and two mehals and commands
an annual income of over three thousand rupees.
So, between objects religious and secular and consi-
derations of piety and hankerings after fame an'd
glory, immense is the benefit to the poor and the
needy — and for the matter of that, to a number
loafers and nothing-to-do's as well, unavoidably
mixed up in the medley ; and the pious donors
undoubtedly share the blessings and benedictions
articulated in the fulness of heart by grateful lips.
This the recompense here of charit}-, and what
hereafter — it is perhaps for the conscious heart
alone to feel !

Chapter IV

SECTS AND CULTS

" Tht" religions of the world are the ejaculations
of a few imaginative men. But the quality of the
imagination is to flow, and not to freeze."

— Emerson.

" Message proclaimed by my ancestors on

the banks of the Ganges thirty centuries ago : 'They
who see but one in all the changing manifoldness
of this universe, unto them belongs Eternal Truth,
unto none else, unto none else'."

—Dr. J. C. Bose.

ERY close to the Prince of Wales'
Hospital is Kabir Chaura named
after one whose holy life and
sweet and entrancing songs go to
influence the lives of a consider-
able section of the Hindi-speaking
people. It is Kabir the great
Saint aud founder of the Kabirpanihi

sect of ascetics and the first of the born Sants

according to the Radhaswamis. Follow-

Kabir ing an old work 'Kabir Kasauti,'

the compiler of ' Kabir-Shakeb-ki

Sabdawair ^ computes that he was born

about Sambat 1455 (^399 A. D.) and as he was

reputed to have reached the great age of 120, he

(i) Edition— Belvedere Printing Works, Allaliabad.

PLATE I\'

1. D.isa'-wamedh (iliat.

2. Sankara(har\a.

3. A group of Sann\asis.

P. 48

I V. SECTS AND CUL TS 49

probably passed away about 15 19 A. D. Of him it
is said that while Niru or Nur OH Julaha, a
Mahomedan weaver of Benares, had been engaged
in washing thread in the Lahar-ka-talao he happened
to perceive a child floating on the water, and taking
him out he and his wife Nima nursed and brought
him up under their humble roof. A large shallow
tank outside Benares and a small temple lying
close to the 423rd Milestone near the Grand Trunk
Road running towards Allahabad now mark the
spot where Kabir was found.

From childhood he was of a very devout turn
of mind and manifested great powers. As he
apparently belonged to a low caste, the great
V'aishnava teacher Swami Ramananda then living
in his retreat over the Panchaganga ghat in Benares
would not make him a disciple which he ardently
longed to be. He, thereupon, hit upon the expedient of
Uing prone in front of Ramananda's house towards
the close of one night. The latter coming out in
the dim hours of day-break for his morning ablu-
tions in the Ganges happened to , touch his body
with his feet, and considering it to be a corpse
ejaculated "Rama" "Rama". This Kabir took as his
Mantra or mystic text and claimed to be his
disciple ; and moved by his piety Ramananda also
recognised him as such later on.

Numbers of followers soon flocked to him attract-
ed by his piety and devotion as he grew in years ;

4—

so THE HOL y CITY (BENARES) Chap.

both Hindus and Mahomedans attended his dis-
courses, for he preached and maintained that under
whatever name God was invoked it was THE ONE
AND THE SAME GOD that was worshipp(?d. The
Benares Brahmans grew extremely jealous at bis
popularity, and with the object of putting him out
of countenance they once devised a plan of invit-
ing a very large number of people to his house
to dinner without his knowledge. Legend relates
a miracle that came to pass. Thousands of people
gathered at his door in the morning. Notlu'ng
daunted, he filled a handi (pot) with eatables, cover-
ed it over with a piece of cloth, and gave it to a
disciple. The latter thrust his hand repeatedly into
the pot and brought out food enough for all to eat
to satiety ; and at last when the cover was laid
aside, the pot was still full to the brim.

A man of great devotion, his grand and inimi-
table musical dohas (songs), many hundreds in
number, are .^t'll familiarly and constantly recited in
the North-West and in the Punjab and afford plea-
sure and comfort to many a devout soul. His
works in Hindi embodying his teachings are twenty
in number and are known collectively as the Khas
Grant ha. As worshipper of the One Supreme^ Deity
he was claimed by the Hindus and the Mahome-
dans alike. At Maghar, a village not far from
Benares, he called his followers together one morning
and informed them that he would leave them that

IV. SECTS AND CULTS 51

day. He laid himself down and his disciples cover-
ed him over with a white sheet of cloth, and thus
as he was he passed away. The Hindus wanted
to cremate the dead body and the Mahomedans
wished to give it a burial. Both the parties quar-
relled over it, and at last when the covering was
lifted, lo! there was nothing underneath but a few
snow-white flowers upon the empty bed. These
they shared, and Bir Singha, Raja of Kasi, took
half and burnt them and preserved the ashes at
Kabir Chaura — one of the twelve inuths now \\\
existence out of a number of those founded by him.
The Pathan King Bijli Khan took the rest of tlie
flowers and gave them a burial at Maghar, near
Gorakhpur and erected a tomb over the spot where
he died. Both the places are objects of pilgrimage
to the followers of Kabir.

Another saintly personage, RoiDAS Shaheb, also
lived in Benares at this time and was also a sant
and associate of Kabir.

In a lane by the side of the Iswari Prasad
Hospital lies a line of low-roofed buildings enclos-
ing a quadrangle shaded by neeins^ cool, noiseless
and quiet in its seclusion. Here was
Kabir Chaura the abode of Kabir, and under a
Muth dome is a clean white sheet spread

out upon the floor and strewn with
flowers. In an apartm close by are kept an

Sz THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Char

ornamental taj (head-dress) and pictures of Ran^ananda,
and Kabir, — the latter discoursing to his followers
with his fingers holding a shuttle. In the garden
adjoining are the plain \\hite tombs of Nima and
Nur, the adoptive j^arents of Kabir, under the
shade of over-spreading ncciris.

A few steps off lies Mai>hu Dass's Garden
a^ssociated with the memcwy of the retreat of Warren
Hastings to Cbunar and of a tragedy enacted hy
Wazir AH,, the ex-Nawab of Oudh, mention of which may
be made here In 1781, when. Warren Hastings had re-
paired to Benares to bring Raja Chet Singh to book for
failing to supply troops as demanded by him^ he used to
stay at Madhu Dass's Garden. After the
MadlmDass's massacre of the English troops and
Garden three officers by Chet Singh's follow-
ers ^ he had to leave this place and
retire to the fort of Chunar with his men. His
position had become so ver}^ precarious that he
hrmself writes : " If Chet Singli's people after tney
bad effected his rescue, had proceeded to my
quarters at Mahadew Dass's garden, instead of crowd-
irrg after him in a tumultuous manner, as they did
in his passage over the river, it is most probable
that my blood, and that of about of thirty English
gentlemen of my party, would have been added to
the recent carnage ; for they were above two thou-
sand in number, furious and daring from the easy
(i) See C1,iapter X, post.

IV. SECTS AND CULTS 53

success of their last attempt ; nor could I assemble
more than fifty regular and armed Sepoys for ray
Avhole defence."

Later on it was the scene of another incident —
the murder of the English Resident Mr. Cherry,
whose memory is kept alive by a lofty monument
in the cemetary at SekroSe, and of his Private
Secretary and two other Europeans. The ex-Nawab
VVazir Ali, who was removed from his position as
Nawab of Oudh in 1799, to make room for tl^e
legitimate heir Saadat A^i Khan, had been allow-
ed to reside in this garden. The Resident hav-
ing come to learn that he was intriguing with dis-
affected Mahomedans and attempting to bring about
a rebellion had an order passed for his removal to
Calcutta. On a pretext of paying a friendly visit
to the Resident, Wazir Ali came with a largt
number of armed followers, and while conversini:^
with him treacherously stabbed him and killed the
other three unarmed Europeans in cold blood, and
retired on hearing of the approach of the Englislai
troops.

This was on the 14th January 1799, and as a
sequel may be added the story of the signal
bravery of Mr. Davis, a Judge and Magistrate of
Benares who defended himself and his wife and
children in the building now known as the Nadeswar
House at the Sekrole quarter of the town^

54 THE HOL > CITY (BENARES) Chap.

After the murder of Mr. Cherry, the infuriated
followers of Wazir Ali numbering some two hun-
dred men advanced under his leadership and be-
seiged this place. Mr. Davis had but time to lay
hold of a long iron pike with a sharp
triangular steel blade for his defence ; and
posting himself at the head of the narrow stairs
leading to tlie roof where his family had taken
refuge, he lunged at the insurgents who attempted
to go up the narrow stairs and caused them to
turn back. After an hour of breathless suspense and
apprehensions of imminent calamity the joyous tread
of the British cavalry was heard and the party saved.
Wazir Ali retired to his quarters at Madhu Dass's
Garden and stayed therein till his removal to
Calcutta. The Nadeswar House situated in the

midst of nicely-laid flower-beds m a

Nadeswar House spacious garden is now being used

atSekrole by the Maharaja of Benares, to whom

it belongs, as a guest-house for dis-

tiuguished visitors — among whom were the Prince
and Princess of Wales (now come to the throne) in
in 1906 and the Crown Prince of Germany lately
fn January 191 1. It is sumptuously furnished and looks
extremely comfortable ; and besides numerous ex-
cellent oil-paintings, a large crystal peacock and a
cockatoo standing upon the staircase and displaying
natural colours and holding electric bulbs underneath
their • wings are very noticeable,

IV. SECTS AND CULTS 55

../\.r^r\r^,^\

The locality of Madhudass's garden has, however,
changed its aspect altogether at present, and it
is now the head-quarter of the Radhaswami sect
founded by Shiva Dyal Singh, a Khattri
Radhaswamis of Agra, who died in 1873. It is sur-
rounded by high walls and possesses a
splendid hall on the northern side capable of holding
about two thousand people. There is a raised marble
/^lais at one end where the ashes of their late Guru
Brahma Sankar Misra have been deposited, and the
niche on the northern wall has a very gorgeous look ;
and the spacious grounds have been^ very neatly laid
out in green and floral patches. This sect follows the
tenets of Kabir, Roidas, Mira Bai and others and ob-
serves certain Yoga practices leading to the contem-
plation of Sabdh (word) or Dhwani (sound). Though
of recent growth there are numbers of people of
light and education who have joined this sect into
which ai! classes are eligible for admission.

Benares has ever been the meeting-place of all re-
ligions, and here more largely than anywhere else are
people of all shades of opinions and beliefs to be al-
ways met with in numbers. Not to speak of the
orthodox Hindus strictly so called who have their
own shrines and temples, and the Mahomedans who
have their mosques in numbers, there are various other
sects claiming to share the designation of Hindu,
that have also their places of worship here. Besides
thp followers of Kabir and the Radhaswamis, here are

56 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES^ Cuw.

Vaishnavites and Nagas, Nanakshabis and Jains.
Gorakpanthis and Shibnarayanis, and Theosophists
and Arya Samajists as well. And in a field of such
religious activity there could not but be a number
of proselytising Christian Missions as well

A rapid survey of these may not be without
interest. As we proceed towards the Chauk, after
leaving the Town Hal! behind, on our left appears
the large unfinished ball of the Benares branch of the
Arya Santaj founded by the famous
Arya Samaj Dayanand Saraswati of Lahore, \\hose
ideal was the Vedic Hinduism of the
earliest age.s, without the worship of idols. This is
somewhat akin to the Brahnio Saniaj which also
prefesses to cull the noble teachings of all religions
and limits itself to the worship of the One God-
head. The representatives of this latter Samaj had
been noticed by the Rev. Mr. Sherring so far hack

„ ^ „ , as 1868 in Benares in the palmy da\'s of
Brahmo Samtj ,^ » , ^. , ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Keshab Chandra Sen. Some members of

the community are still to be found here.

Going into the As-Bhairo Muhalla to the nortli-

east of the Chauk, is observed the

The Sikhs Bari Sangat Akhera ofthe5Y/:/^^ built

by the Maharaja of Patiala in honour

of the third Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadoor. Though all

the Sikhs are the followers of Nanak and go by

IV. SECTS AND CULTS 57

the general name Ndnak-PantJiis, there are two
classes among them, the Uddsis or the Mendicants
and the Ninnalis or the Pure. They pay almost
divine honors to the Adi-granth or the book con-
taining the teachings of Nanak consisting of a collection
of rhapsodies compiled by one of his successors.
Guru Arjun Dev% about fifty years after Nanak's
death. The tenth Guru of the Sikhs, the great
Guru Govind Singh (1675-1708) who converted them
into a fighting race, composed a Second Granth
known as the Granth of ths Tenth Reign. The>^
have dkheras or inutJis near the Visvveswara Road.
Mir Ghat and Asi Ghat. A large one among them
is the Panchaiti Kalan belonging to the Uddsis
founded about 1790 and owning an income of ten
thousand rupees bequeathed by its founder Baba
Nanak Ram. Near the Durga Kund is the Kina-
ram A/chera founded by a Rajput of the Aughar
sect about three hundred years ago, and near to it is
another of a very recent date called the Melarain
Akhera,

While here, we should not miss a sight of the
fine richly furnished palaces of the Maharajas of
Vizianagram and Benares in the adjacent Kamachha
and Bhelupura quarters in the middle of well-
kept grounds and flower-gardens with large roses
and bushy foliages quaintly trimmed to imitate
peacocks, tigers, camels and other animated beings.

At a little distance from the Durga Kund and

58 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap.

near the Water-works are the Jain temples marking
the birth-place of the Tirthankara
Paresnath — a prince of the blood
ro)-aI of Benares — which makes the Bhelu-
pLira quarter so sacred to the Jains, like the
Paresnath Hill on the borders of Iiazariba<^h where
he passed his last days and died. Some other
Jain temples stand above the Jain Mandir Ghat
near Panchaganga whose plain white tapering spires
uplifted amidst the surrounding elaborate Hindu
architecture have a very striking appearance. There
are some other temples over the Tulsi Ghat and
one near the Alfred Hall as well.

The Jain temples at Bhehipu7'a would amply
repay a visit. They stand in two clusters and
belong to the Digavibara (the sky-clad i.e. naked)
and the Swetambara (the white-robed) sects ; both
the sects, however, enshrine the images of all the
twenty-four Tirthankaras. Entering the temple on
the right, the striking figure there is the large image in
white marble of Paresnath with a hooded snake
above the head stretched like an umbrella. By the
right and left are smaller statues of the other
Tirthankaras, six of the Swetambara and four of the
Digambara sect in brass and in black and white
marble. The walls are replete with photos of
many famous Jain monks and the decorations are
gorgeous and imposing. In an adjoining house is a
piece of stone with irregular protuberances daubed

IV. SECTS AND CULTS 59

with red paint — designated Kdl Bhairo — evident-
ly a latter-day loan from the later Hinduism and
now an object of worship.

By the left of this is another temple of the
Digambara sect with numbers of small marble
figures of the Tirthankaras, all seated cross-legged
and posed like Buddha statues in the attitude of
meditation. Near to it is a beautiful temple with
eight very finely worked ornamental screens of
pierced white marble in pairs upon each of the
four walls. Inside the delicate tracery is Paresnath's
Charaii-pdduka placed o\'er a highly carved marble
pedestal. In the compound to the left is another
temple of the Digambaras with a magnificent floor
and a large collection of images of the Tirthankaras.

Between the Kurukshetra Talao and the Jagannath
Temple and at a short distance from the latter

lies the Dakshinamurti Muth of the
The Daadis Dandi Sann}'asis founded by Tokra

Swami containing a four-armed image
of Sankara in black marble. In the spacious quad-
rangle are a few small temples of Siva, and there
is another beautiful image of Sankara in white
marble seated upon a lotus represented in the act
of teaching four disciples squatting upon the floor
below.

The Vaishnavite Akhcrns, crowded thick near
the Jagannath Temple and the A si Ghat, would

6o THE HOLY CITY {BENARES) CiiAi'.

next call your attention. Among those near the

Ja_^annath Temple, the Tara Giidarji

The Vaishnavites \ . ... , ^ x^- 7 •- i u i .

and the Liifiota (jiidarji akheras date

from the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries,
and the Diganibari and the Baid are recent insti-
tutions. Near the Asi-Sangam is the Panditji akhera
founded by Tika Das in 1845, ^.nd in the interior
of the Asi Muhulla lies the oldest of the Vaish-
navite akheras, the Vishnupanthi Akhera established
by the great Ramanuja. Another known as the
Krishna A char i Akhera was founded by a Mar-
hatta Brahman of that name, and the Dadupant/u
Akhera reckons three centuries since its establishment.

Above the Shivala Ghat as you proceed north-
wards, stands the Niranjani Miiih of the
The Nagas Aaga Sannyasis. Its large and shad\'
compound is interspersed with small
temples of Siva, one among them being called the
Pataleswara Siva. The central temple with a trellised
marble floor contains an image in gilt copper of
Kartikeya, the general of the Gods and son of
Siv-a and Parvati.

Adjoining it just on the north is the Nirvdui
Akhera^ also of the Nagas, The grounds are very
spacious and capable of sheltering a large num-
ber of ascetics beneath the spreading branches of
numerous trees. Here also is a large number of small
temples, and underneath the rjof of one of white

IV. SECTS AND CULTS 6i

marble is the Charanpaduka of Kapil, the founder of
the Sankhya Philsophy, who Hved at Benares in
the seventh centur)' B. C. This iniith was founded
by a Dewan of Raja Chet Singh named Lakhi Baba
whose last remains lie beneath a high block of
stone just above the river under the shade of a
slanting mango tree with a Siva emblem set upon
its flat square surface.

Going further north, above the Hanuman Ghat
is one other Miith of the Nagas, the Juna Akhera
containing among others the standing figure of
Dattatrcya in a temple and his Charanpaduka of
white marble in another. This also shelters a large
number of ascetics. The position of all the three
iiiutJis bordering the flowing stream is picturesque
in the extreme, and the view of the great arc of
the bank from them (Plate XIII, 2) with its long
sweep of spires and temples ending near the
Dufferin Bridge on the north grand and majestic.

Among the other sects deserving mention are
the Gorakpanthis who have imiths
Other Sects near the Alfred Hall and the temple
of Bhaironath, and the SJiivanarayanis
who are the disciples of the Grant/i, — both named
after their founders ; but the number of their fol-
lowers is not very considerable.

The Theosophical Society and the good it has
done to Hinduism in placing it in its true light

62 THE HOLY CITY {BENARES) Citap.

before the world are too widely known to need
anything more than a msre mention of its name here.
The Sri Bharat Dharina Makamandal, which has

its head-quarters at Gurudham in this

Sri Bharat city, was originally started in Northern

Dharma India and after a few years became

Mahamandal amalgamated with the Nigamagania

Mandali Mahashabha founded by San-

nyasis and existing from some time before. The
unified associations now went by the name of Sri
Bharat Dharma Mahamandal and held their first
All-India Hindu Conference from the 28th to the
30th March 1902 at Mathura. The aim of the
Mahamandal is to gather together all the Hindu
associations in different parts of India as its
branches, so that all may work in unison towards
the regeneration of the Hindu nation and the attain-
ment of primitive purity in their religion by following
the tenets of the ancient Shastras. Its objects,
according to the Memorandum of Association are
"to promote Hindu religious education in accordance
with the Sanatana Dharma, to diffuse the knowledge
of the Vedas, Smritis, Puranas and other Hindu
Shastras and to introduce in the light of such
knowledge useful reforms into Hindu life and society
and to promote and enrich the Sanskrit and the
Hindu literature in all the branches." The Maha-
mandal, like the Theosophical Society, is thus not a
sect or sectarian at all, and is patronised by the

IV SECTS AND CULTS 63

Maharajas of Kashmir, Mysore, Baroda, Jaipur,
Udaipur, Ahvar and ahuost all other Hindu Rulini^
Princes of India, and the Maharaja of Durbhanga
is now the President of the Mahamandal.

The Christian missions doing good work in the

matter of education as already mentioned may next

claim our attention. The first evan-

Christian gelical mission to this place was set

Missions on foot in 1 8 16, and the Rev. W.

Smith was the first missionary sent

to Benares by the Baptist Missmi Society that \'ear.

This Society, however, withdrew to Delhi later on in

1890. There are four other missions now at work

here.

The ChurcJi Missionary Society followed the
Baptist Mission to this place one year later. The\'
have been working steadily ; and besides managing
the Jay Narain Collegiate School, , they have also a
Girls' Orphanage and a Girls' Boarding School in hand.
Into a well in the place occupied by their head-
quarters at Sigra, the Thugs of early days, it is
said, used to throw the bodies of their victims
after strangling them.

The next to come were the London Mission Society
who arrived here in 1820. The Rev. M. A. Sherring
who wrote "The Sacred City of the Hindus stayed
here for many years and belonged to this society.
They also maintain a High School under their

64 THE HOLY CITY (BEX A RES.) Chap.

nianaj:^ement and have a Church and Mission Houses
near the Cantonment Railvva}- Station.

The Zeiiano Bible and Medical Mission came later
in 1867 and started a dispensar}^ for women in 1887.
and now manages the large Victoria Hospital at
Sigra that was started the year following.

The Weslyan Missiojiary Society were the last
comers of them all and settled here in 1879. The\'
ha\e a Church at Sekrole and a Reading Room and
Mall near the Ar\a Mission Hall on the road leading
to the Chauk. The Roman Catholics also are not un-
represented, and they have a Church ( St. Mary's )
to the south-west of the Church Mission quarters.

Such are the varied sects and cults that have local
habitations here. From times beyond human ken
did Hinduism through all its varied stages live here
and claim the place for its own ; and even in the
present days it is Hinduism of the orthodox type
with its diverse forms of w^orship and ceremonials
and visible aspects that holds sway over the whole
citv and makes it famous as its greatest citadel. The
various sects show but the different forms of its develop-
ment in the different ages, and mark the struggles
of the human mind in its attempts towards the attain-
ment of Truth and emancipation from the trammels
f>f convention. The means adopted or the particular
forms accepted might ha\e degenerated in growing

IV SECTS AND CULTS 65

years, but it is not only hard but unfair to imagine
tliat their aims were anything but pure at the
inception.

Vast as is the field that Hinduism embractis, the gap
between seeming idolatry and pure monotheism looks
rather wide ; but both exist as parts of the same
s}'stematic whole and the gap is bridged over
bv broadeninf^ foot-holds at each successive sta£:e
of advance. As we proceed from age to age
and from the simplicity of nature-worship to the
higher flights of speculative theology, we cannot
fail to observe how in the intermediate courses of our
progress means have often been converted into ends
and symbols mistaken for the very substance they
stood for. Introduction of corruptions and fantastic
observances following this state of things always
necessitates and paves the way for the advent of
the Reformer who roots out the weedy growths for
a time and is honored and revered for his work, till
veneration for his personality waxes and waxes and
culminates in his deification. It is thus that almost in
the usual course of nature w^e come *to make idols of
©ur ideals and divinities of human clay\ The great
Gautama, who set up his pure tenets in antagonism to
the doctrines prevailing at his time, came thus to
be exalted into an incarnation ; and his great
opponent Sankaracharya later on was also accorded
almost divine honors. Various other teachers
followed each other in the different ages, and
their adherents and followers grouped tliemselves

66 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap

•^f\j\y\^ •>^r^-\j\r\r>*/\/ \

round their respective masters and formed into
different sects and gave birth to diverse cults —
all, however, linked together in the same unity of
spiritual interests. In other religions^ too, examples
are not scarce of schisms from the established order
originating various creeds and sects characterized
often by violence and persecutions blackening the
pages of history.

Despite all changes and transformations through-
out its chequered career and notwithstanding the
growths of rolling years hanging all about its frame,
Hinduism has in the main kept itself intact, the
pristine purity of its principles being only shrouded
in a gloomy mist. Hence it was that the destruction
wrought by the fire and sword of the Pi-ophet's
followers had hardly any appreciable effect at all
upon Hinduism in the long ' run. Other attempts at
proselytising have apparently done but little beyond
touching the veriest surface, and why ? To impute
this attitude of resistance to the mere sentiment of
conservatism inherent in man would be furnishing a
very feeble answer to the query. Races and tribes
that have no definite faith or culture of their own
can easily assimilate what is offered to them and provide
enough of virgin soil to favor the growth of anything
implanted therein ; but the very dearth of this makes
the case of the Hindus entirely different, for, here in
the Hindu world there is hardly any space left
fallow, the whole having been reclaimed in ages

IV SECTS AND CULTS 67

loner g-one bv. Preoccuoied as the rich Hindu
mind has been with th& loftiest notions and the highest
ideals handed down by their illustrious ancestors from
the hoary ages, there is little likelihood of its accepting
things that have little of originality or even the charm
of novelty for them.

To the world outside, Hinduism appears, no
doubt, as a tangled mass hard to comprehend and
harder to appreciate. The rough and rugged shape-
less shell may, however, have an ugly exterior ow^ng
to awkward protuberances upon its surface caused by
accretions and accumulations of the passing years, but
it shall ever have its value if it encloses the living
pearl of the purest lustre within. Such, perhaps, is
Hinduism, and the point is, whether it really does
enclose the pearl within its shell. The solution
is not far to seek. For a people that sent forth
the highest ideals of Philosophy and Theology
from the earliest of known times and who realised
the Divinity as " Him who exists by Himself^ and
zuho is in all because all is in Him!' no loftier or
purer conception of the Absolute and the Supreme
could be held forth from any other quarter of the
globe or system of religion the wide world over.
And hence is the full and complete recognition in
the modern times that Hinduism is a system with
the most perfect and complete conception of the
Most High ; and hence has it lived and wil! live
in spite of the apparent freckles upon its exterior,
for it has the genuine pearl within unbedimmed

68 THE HOL Y CITY {BENARES)

r\^\j-„-^/\y\/

m lustre through the eternal ages. The proclamati(.)n
by Sri Krishna, that when righteousness decays and
evil is rampant then will the Lord Himself come
forth and purge religion of its dregs by agencies thought
fittest by Him, is not a belief peculiar to Hinduism
alone ; for, are there not parallels in respect to the
saints and prophets of other nations as well — even
of Christ among the Israelites and Mahomet
among the Arabs, who made their advent in the
fulness of time when the exigencies of their
nations needed them ? So its reformation, not subver-
sion, will come from within it v^ hen the inscrutable
Providence in His wisdom chooses to have it so !

PLATE V

1. Lai Khan's Tomb.

2. Ruins of Old Visweswara Temple.

3. Scindhia Ghat. 4. An Ekka.

P. 69

Chapter V

OF THE OLDEN DAYS

The greatest glory of a building is not in its stone
nor in its gold. Its glory is in its age, and in
that deep sense of voicefulness, of stern watching,
of mysterious sympathy, nay, even of approval or
condemnation, which we feel in walls that have long

been washed by the passing waves of humanity

It is in that golden stain of time, that we are to
look for the real light, and colour and preciousness
of architecture,"

— John Ruskin

ELICS of olden days have ever a
peculiar charm of their own, and as
you contemplate them, a vista of by-
gone years lit up with glory and
magnificence and reminiscent of the
triumphs and struggles of the mighty
men of the past loom dim in the
distance and fade away into the frost
of the hoary ages. These are mile-stones on the
road of time and each bit of such remains may
inclose a mass of unwritten history and needs
only the touch of a master-hand to convert its
stock-and-stone existence into an object of absorbing
interest.

In a city like this of pre-historic ages, it is not

unfair to expect a find of such relics

Paucity of old in abundance, but the actual paucity

Tfimains of such remains here is rather striking.

70 THE HOLY CITY {BENARES) Chap.

Though time and other destructive agencies at
work had combined to obliterate much of the
land- marks that were of the earliest ages, there
are unquestionably some that give us a glimpse
into the Buddhist and Moslem periods at
least. It was these two faiths that had attempted
to supplant the pre-existing one from this place, —
the one by moral suasion and the purity and
simplicity of its tenets and the other by physical
force and the swords of its votaries. The iron
hand of devastation that the latter laid upon the city
smote the visible vestiges of both the other faiths
and left but a few smoking ruins behind as scanty
mementos of the past.

It was in the third century B. C, during the
ascendency of the Magadha Empire that Buddhism
had reached the zenith of its glory and domi-
nated over the Benares district ; but hardly a trace
of any ancient structure of that period has yet been
discovered in the purely Hindu portion of the exis-
ting city on the south and by the river-bank, while
the remains that are still to be found lie mostly
near the Rajghat Fort and Alipur and towards the
north-west of the Barana on the way to Sarnath.

In course of his explorations Mr. Sherring, some
forty-five years back, found brick and stone debris

and bits of sculptured stones scattered

Sherring's over the fields in great abundance

Researches on the bank of the Ganges lying

to the north-west of the Barana —

V OF THE OLDEN DAYS 71

leading him to suppose that there was at one time a
great city on this spot. Moreover, the scantiness
of structural remains of dates earlier than the Bud-
dhisiic period coupled with the fact that the des-
truction of temples and buildings at Benares took
place not once but many times over, led him to
believe that the oldest site of the city was here
and that its modern location would indicate a shifting
towards the south-west. Sarnath, according to him,
was thus a distinct city extending over some three
miles from the bank of the Barana all the way in
a northerly direction, and the locality undoubtedly
sprang into importance as a Buddhist city since the
fifth century B. C. The ancient remains at Bakaria
Kund and Rajghat, however, tend to suggest the
existence of Buddhist Viharas and shrines in these
localities also, warranting a belief that the Buddhist
city extended to this side of the Barana as well.

A look at the remains may now be of interest
Proceeding to the Rajghat Fort, at a short distance

to the east of the KASHI station

GanJ-Sahida-kl is observed within a walled enclosure

Musjld the object of the greatest interest

here. It is the Ganj-Sahida-KI-MuSJID
(Mosque of the Assembly of Martyrs) standing
upon grounds lower than the level of the surround-
ing places. It is an open hall covering a space
about a hundred and twenty-five feet in length
and twenty-five in breadth and contains some

72 THE HOLY CITY {BENARES) Cha

^/^/•^y^/-v/^,^/^

seventy-two richly carved stone pillars with floral
embellishments and fine relief works of lotuses upon
some of them in various designs of much artistic
beauty. The northern ones are shorter and support
a roof lower than that over the other pillars, and
this portion looks like a later extension to the
building. The pillars and the ornamentations upon
them point to their having undoubtedly been the
relics of Buddhist art now transformed into materi-
als for a later Mahomedan mosque.

Beyond the existence of the high rampart-like
eminence of the grounds round alx>ut and a large

gate further north that we shall pre-
Rajghat Fort sently see, there is not much else of a

fort here in this locality at present ;
but it owes its name to one erected by Raja Banar
and a later one built in 1857 by the British
Government to overawe the disaffected section of the
populace during the Sepoy Mutiny and lately aban-
doned on account of its unhealthiness.

This plateau of Rajghat extends to the junc-
tion of the Barana and the Ganges and rises about
fifty feet above the level of the neighbouring land.
As commanding not only Benares but a wide
extent of country all around, its great strataglcai
position was recognised even in the most ancient
times, and B. N. Chunder in his " Trai^eh " writes :
*' In Manu's time Benares was one of the six inde-
pendent kingdoms '\\\ the valley of the Ganges.

V OF THE OLDEN DAYS 73

The Hi:idu fort, overlooking that river, guarded its
capital in those days from the approach of the
Panchala from the west and from -the approach of
Magadha from the east. Inside the fort there
stood the palace of the king. Troops of men. with
brilliant sabres and iron-bound clubs protected the
royal household. The gates of the citadel were
guarded by pikemen bearing long spear_, scimitar
and buckler. Those who performed duty on the
turrets were armed with bows which shot an arrow
six feet long. The ca^-alry, riding upon well-mettled
horses^ curvetted in all directions. Richly
ca{)arisoned elephants — 'their protruding tusks armed
with keen sabres' — were driven about, and made
a splendid show. Gay cars and war-chariots ran
hither and thither through the streets. From this
fort poured forth of old the wa'Tiors who went to
assist the Pandoos on the plains of Kurukshetra.
The lieutenants of the Magadha kings lodged m
this fort. Raja Deva Pala Deva, the great Buddhist
king of Gaur, and his successors, held court here
on the second ascendency of their faith in Benares.
The province then passed into the hands of the
Rathore Kings of Kanouge. The last Raja, Joy
Chand, had deposited all his valuable treasures

there In the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries,

the space enclosed by the walls of the fort swarmed with
houses and temples. Various ruins of them are still
existing, particularly the remains of a Buddhi: t Vihara

74 THE HOLY CITY {BENARES) chap.

or temple, probably of the Gupta or the Pal period."
This last, however, is not traceable now.

Past the hii^^h and imposing structures at the en-
trance to the Dufferin Bridge and a few yards off tlie
rail-road stands the beautiful old monu-
Lal Khan's ment ( Plate V, i ) over the tomb of Lai
Tomb Khan, the minister of a Raja of Benares,

built in ii82Hijri. Its grand and lofty
dome worked with fine designs in red tiles and blue
enamel looking fresh as ever is perhaps the finest of its
kind in Benares.

Towards the left, at a little distance is a large circular
mound containing three large tombs, and one of its sides
adjoins a small hall with another supporting a roof on
four plain pillars beneath which is a white marble tomb.
The grounds near about are strewn with mounds and
raised brick terraces and ruins of walls proving the ex-
istence of numerous mansions and structures in the
locality in ancient times.

Proceeding along the road leading to the junction
of the Barana with the Ganges, we pass by the neglected
little temple of KJiarba Vinayak Ganesh on the left and
find a very spacious gateway of great solidity with
stairs running to the top. This no doubt is the north-
eastern gate of the old fort and looks quite strong
and massirve even now, and there is another further
off.

A visit to the Lat Bhairo about a mile to the
west of Rajghat. where the Ghazipur Road meets the

V OF THE OLDEN DA YS . 75

Rajghat Road, would be of greater interest than
heretofore. Upon a very high and
Lat Bhalro spacious stone-paved terrace above a
large tank with stone stairs running
into the bottom, stands what is known as Sivas
Lat. The tank is called the Kapalmochan tank or
Bhairo-ka-talao from the tradition that the god
Bhaironath having chopped off one of the five heads
of Brahma it stuck to his hand till after an extensive
pilgrimage he came and touched the water of this tank
when it dropped down at once and thus relieved him. ^
Hence has this tank been reputed to be sacred; and
a temple of Bhaironath was also erected above it,
but it was afterwards demolished by the Mahomedns.
The Lat is the fragment of a stone column about
eight or nine feet high enclosed in copper sheet
pain<"ed red, and occupies the central place upon
the terrace. On the left upon the same terrace
is a long narrow open hall used as a mosque by
the Mahomedans for prayers, and on the right at
a lower level are several Mahomedan rauzas or tombs,
one of them containing sixteen carved pillars of
of early Hindu workmanship. Fragments of beauti-
fully carved stones lie strewn about the cemeteries
in the neighbourhood and the banks of the tank.

( I ) There ''is another sacred tank of this name with a
similar legend, only substituting Siva for Bhaironath, which is
situated on the east bank of the Sarsuti River about 25 miles
to the east of Ambala. Vide Archaeological Survey Reports Vo
XIV (1882}

76 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) chap.

The Lat has been supposed to be one of Asoka's
columns and originally stood forty feet high^ and
later on came to be looked upon and venerated
as an emblem of Siva. Some Hindu king is said
to have brought it over from Sarnath and set it up
within the courtyard of the old Viswesvvara Temple
which was afterwards razed to the ground to make
room for what was popularly known as Aurangzeb's
Mosque. The Lat was, however, allowed to stand
in the compound, and the prevailing belief among
the Hindus was that Hinduism would retain its
glory at Benares as long as this column — v>hich
was styled Kiila Stambha ( pillar of caste ) — stood
erect, and caste-distinction and religion would all
disappear as soon as it was levelled to the ground.

Being now within the compound of Aurangzeb's
mosque, the Mahomedans claimed a share of the
offerings made by the Hindus, and the feelings of
the two parties were far from being friendly. The
strain reached the breaking point and the rupture
came about the beginning of the last century when
the Holi festival of the Hindus and the Muhiirruin
of the Mahomedans happened to fall on the same
day in the vear 1809. Processions of the rival
parties had to pass along the same route, but
neither of them would yi. Id a passage to its opponent
I'his quarrel culminated in a fierce riot, and both
the parties fought bitterly in the narrow streets
causing a good deal of bloodshed. The Mahomedans
were beaten, and in revenge they rushed in and

OF THE OLDEN DA YS 77

threw clown the Lat and broke it to pieces and
went the length of slaughtering a cow upon the
stone steps in the river tinging the water of the
Ganges with blood. The Hindus were infuriated
and rose in a mass, and it was with considerable
difficulty that a general massacre was prevented by
calling in the Military and by the tact and sagacity
of the sympathetic Magistrate of Benares, Mr Bird.
The Hindu populace grew extremely disconsolate at
the desecration and defilement of the sacred stream ;
and great crowds consisting of all classes of people,
laymen and ascetics, crowded the bank of the river
and sat in penance for a couple of days together
without tasting any food. They were at last convinced
that the desecration of the Ganges was not possible,
and after the necessary expiatory ceremonies , were
jjrevailed upon to return home. What remained of
the Lat was then removed and placed upon the
bank of the Kapalmochan tank in its present site
and the copper cap placed over it to save it from
further injury and to shut it out from the gaze of
the non- Hindus.

We may now pass on to the north-western
quarter of the city where lies the Bakaria KUND, a

large rectangular tank in a very
Bakaria Kund neglected condition in the interior

approached by narrow lanes. The as-
pect of this locality must have changed since Mr.
Sherring saw it about 1868, for he describes a
number of terraces and structures above its banks

7S THE HOLY CITY {^BENARE<) Chap.

and the neig-hbourhood which cannot now be
traced. Numbers of fragments of carved stones
lie all about and the banks are \\\ a very filthy
state in many parts and not likeley to invite a
second visit from any but the most ardent antiquary.
To the east of the Kund is a small raised mound
surmounted by a circlet of stone about three feet
in diameter, with a grcupirg of over a dozen
small figures sculptured around. It is in a very
damaged condition and is likely to disappear in a few
more years. This is known as Jogi Bzr, the place
where a Jogi (ascetic) emancipated himself from
his body in samddhi and was buried.

On the south side of the tank are three
Mahomedan mosques, the central one of which is
an open hall with some highly carved pillars
apparently of very ancient dates. The Dargd (place of
prayer) here known as Fakr-ud-dm's Dargd has
near it a musjid erected upon the foundation of
an old structure with some beautiful stone pillars
standing in rows. An inscription in Persian 'ipon
one of the beams of the ceiling is said to bear
the name of Feroze Shah and the date yyy Hijri
(1375 A. D).

To the west lies a number of other tombs with
fine well-proportioned domes^ notably those of
Gazi Meah and Alai Saked, most of which contain
remnants of old sculptures. This locality is full of
Mahomedan tombs and high stone terraces and

V OF THE OLDEN DAYS 79

broken pieces of carved stones stacked or strewn
about. The abundance of these remains, all of which
seem to be of the Buddhistic period, leads to the
conjecture that there must have been some large
Vikara or monastery here in ancient times, and
this is matured to a belief when it is found that
Iliuen Thsang records having seen some thirty
Buddhist monasteries in the district of Benares at
his time.

At a little distance from Gazi Meah's tomb is

a beautiful structure known as the Battis Khamba,

a large mausoleum with a magnificent

Battis Khamba dome sheltering a couple of tombs

Mosque underneath it. It has forty-two plain

square pillars, — aiid not thirty-two

as the name would seem to imply, — and has

porticoes on all the four sides extending from the

middle. Under the cool shade of hoary trees it

looks quite a cosy old nook meet for the weary

sojourner's final rest.

Another fine mosque is in the quarter of the
city going by its name. The Arhai Kangura

MUSJID, so called from there being
Arhai Kaitgura two small and another much smaller

Kanguras (domes^ upon the gateway, has
a large and shapely lofty dome over the main hall
with v/ings running right and left with their roofs
supported upon a dozen square stone pillars. The
materials used in the erection of this mosque have

8o THE HOLY CITY [BENARES) Chap.

been supposed to have beloiiired to Hindu as well
as Buddhist structures ; and there is an inscription
in Sanskrit upon a stone slab used in its construction
bearing date Samvat 1248 1^1191 A. D.) from which
Mr. Sherring infers that there was a tnuth of
Hindu ascetics here and that the object of the ins-
cription was to testify to the recent Hindu triumph
over Buddhism.

Besides a few Mahomedan mosques, such as the
Alamgiri Musjid, the Chaukhamba Mosque and
Aurafigzeb's Mosque near the J nan Bapi, which we
shall find later on, there are no other objects of
much antiquarian interest in the city, and many
among those observed before are fast falling into decay.
The ruins of an old Mahomedan mosque with its
rows of sculptured columns and a part of the wall
still standing in Tillianallah on the right of the
road leading to Rajghat will soon be a thing of
the past, as they were being ^ fast dismantled
for making room for a modern structure for a
Bengali gentleman who has purchased the property.
On the left of the road is what is known as
Maqdam Shaheb, a cluster of Mahomedan tombs
with a ruined wall behind it at a distance in a
very neglected condition.

So far there has hardly been noticed any purely
Buddhistic remains in the heart of the city itself.
What have been observed are all mixed up with

(i) October, 1910.

V OF THE OLDEN DAYS 8i

/\J■\/^\J■^.^r\yK/^y^'J'\y^Jr\^^yX/\/^^

Mahomed an mosques — in fact, such remnants have
been found only as materials used in the construc-
tion of these structures. Successive and almost
systematic devastation and demolition by the
Mahomedan invaders and emperors from the
eleventh to the seventeenth century had laid low
all the Hindu structures. This, probably, is the
reason why nothing very ancient can now be
discovered here* The brunt of their animosity, to
all appearances, fell against the Hindu structures
of Benares on account of its reputation, perhaps, of
being the strongest foot-hold of Hinduism. The
old Kirtibasseswara Temple was replaced by the
Alarngiri Mosque and the Visweswara and some
other temples had frequently to change their sites
to make room for Mahomedan musjids. This
would tend to foster the belief that it was the
ancient Hindu structures that suffered the most
by such vicissitudes. For, the existence of the
Hindu city here from the most ancient of times
having been indisputably recognised, there could
hardly be any other reason for the scarcity ot the
remains of those days. Buddhism for a time
triumphed over Hinduism, and the latter too
subsequently subverted it, and all were latterly
borne down by the violent zeal of the Prophet's
followers ; and the result is apparent in the
admixture of Hindu and Buddhist materials in some
of the Mahomedan structures that have managed

6—

82 THE HOLY CITY [BENARES)

to stand erect up to the present day. A careful
scrutiny of Aurang-zeb's Mosque behind the Golden
Temple standing upon the old terrace and of some
other similar* edifices would show all the three
kinds of materials mixed up together and support
the observations made above.

It would^ however^ appear that the activity and
the iconoclastic zeal of the earlier Mahomedans
had been confined to Benares proper where they
also settled in numbers. Although the outlying
Buddhist monasteries were destroyed in the eleventh
or the twelfth century as we shall presentl)' sec,
they did not care to erect mosques or to settle
in those localities. Hence it was perhaps that in
course of time the ruins mostly disappeared and
got buried below the debris and mud till some of
them were unearthed lately at Sarnath. Here at this
last-named place is a veritable mine of antiquarian
wealth that must only be seen to be understood.

About a mile to the west of Kapildhara on the
other side of the Barana are a lew Buddhistic relics
of the past near Sona-ka-talao or the Golden Tank.
But the real interest will centre in Sarnath whither we
must now hie.

PLATE VI

P. 83

Chapter VI

SARNATH

I asked of Time for whom those temples rose.
That prostrate by his hand in silence lie ;
His lips disdain'd the myst'ry to disclose
And borne on swifter wing, he hurried by I
"The Ijroken columns, whose ? I asked of Fame ;
Her kmdling breath gives life to works sublime ;
With do wnciist looks of mingled grief and shame,
;She heaved the uncertain sigh, and foUow'd Time,
Wrapt in arrta/x-meiu o'er the mouldering pile,
I s:uv Oblivion pass with giant stride ;
And vvhiJe liis visag-e wore Pride's scornful smile,
Haply tJiOU knoweJt, then tell me whose, I cried,
Whose these vasi domes that evn in ruin shine ?
I reck not whose, he said, they noiv are mine."

— Byron

Ac) BOUT four miles off to the north lie.'^
this repository of the relics of antiquity,
Gharriwalkihs and ekka-men now come in
flocks pestering you with their eager offers of
giving you a Hft lliis last means of loco-
motion—the ^y('Xv?— is one of the peculiarities
s^j of Benares an-cl would merit a passing notice.
In ridijg it one must not min-d a Httle

jolting, nof should he think that it is by any means
meant for the use of delicate and nervous fair o^es,
A very light queer-looking two-wheeler (Plate V_, 4',

84 THE HOL Y CITY (BENARES) CHAa

'\/ \y^>V'■\J'^>-v/\•^

it has a dome-like cloth canopy set upon four
carved posts, and the driver sits in front egging
the brisk httle pony on as it trots to the
tune of the tinkhng bell fastened to its neck which
is covered with trappings of green and red and
yellow. But to be just, there seems to be some
little comfort in it if one is not very punctilious,
for he can have plenty of air and have a look all
around while sitting with his legs dangling by the
side of the trap or squatting further away in the
middle, by way of a novel experience.

To the outskirts of the city proper we go and^-
u;>v)n th^ wide bridge over the Barana — a tiny
stream m the cold season now. We leave Raja
KtiU Sankar GJiosaVs Asyluin for the Blind and
Leper founded by him in 1825 and the large
Lunatic Asylum established in i8iO and the Jail
a\so to the left at a little distance behind. Wide
gardens of plum, guava and other fruit-trees end jsed
by mud-walls appear on both sides, and the road —
the tine broad Gazipore Rr,-ad, straight as the
flight of an arrow — passes through a very jjleisant
avenue of trees cooled by the shade of their branching
arms. A large mound of decent height comes now
to view to the right — they name it Jhawa Jharan
and say that it was formed in a single night b)^

the clods of earth shaken off there from
Jliawa Jharan the workmen's baskets on their wav

hc«ne from their labours at Sarnath

VI SARNATH 85

where they had been digging the fine extensive tanks,
the Naya Tal and Sarang Tal. Upon the top of
this mound stands the small temple of Mahavira.

Soon after, as you take a turning to the
left, you go straight for Sarnath, and find another
and a larger mound on the left of the road looking
like a small hillock . about seventy feet high, with
fragments of small bricks strewn all over, making
it seem as if built of bricks, which to all appearnces
it is. As the debris are now being
Humaywn's removed remnants of carved stone
Tower walls beneath are coming out to view.

There is an octagonal brick tower
at the top rising to a height of about twenty-five
feet which you may ascend, and thence have a
splendid view all around over the extensive fields
and mango-groves and make a comprehensive
survey of the ruins at Sarnath on the north and of
the domes and turrets of Benares on the south
surmounted by the tall minarets of Aurangzeb's
mosque. Inside, you find a deep and spacious
hollow in the centre — a well sunk by General
Cunningham for explorations. It was formerly a
Buddhist Stupa or memorial mound with the top like
an inverted alms-bowl surmounted by an arrow, —
tlie same, perhaps, which Hiuen Thsang had
reported having seen standing to a height of about
three hundred feet 'sparkling with the rarest and
the most precious jewels'. According to him it

^6 THE HOLY CITY {BEX ARES) CHAr.

nirirkecl th:; spot where Biricllia on li's arrival at
Sarnath from Gavd first met hfs five former
a ;sociate'\ Ajnata Kaundfnya and others, who had
forsaken their master at Uriivilva. A couple of
standii\i^ Bodhisattwa fii:^ures beautf^ully carved
in relief on upright stone panels — now preserved
in the small mtiseum at Sarnath, — have been diij^ out
here, one reprcsentini^ Maitreva (Plate VI). the
coming Buddha, and the other AVALOKITESWARA
(Plate VI), the personification of compassion. A pair
of beautiTul sculptures (Plate VI 11, 5) with a rampant
leoorryph in each ridden by a figure armed with a
sword have also been found here in an excellent
state of preseriTition. Thfs mound was formerly
known as the Chaukhandi or the 'square*" mounds
and there were three sqcyare terraces one above
the other accountii'K^ for the origin of the
name. It was also called Lttri-ka-kodan or Luri''s
T.eap after an Ahfr cow-herd named Luri who
Jumped from the tower at the request of his
sweet-heart and was kilted.

The remains of the ruined Stwpa now measure
about a hundred feet aboi-e the ground Jevel. The
octagonal tower surrrfeountfng the mound was erected
in 1588 A. D. and an mseription \x\ Arabic ran to
the effect that *as Huma\'i?n, Kfng of the Seven
Climes, now residing \\\ paradise, deigned to come
and sit here one day, thereby increasing the splendour
f«f the Sun^ so xAkbiir his son and humble seuvaut

VI SARNATH Zf

resolved to build on this spot a lofty tower reaching
to the blue sky'. Hence this is also known by the
name of H U.MAY UN'S Tower.

Something over half a mile forward, upon a
slio-htly rising ground, the great
The Dhamek Sarnath Stupa (Plate VII, i), raises
itself and rears its crown on high. It
is known as the Dhamek— an abbreviation according
to General Cunningham, of the word Dharniopadesak
(preacher of the law) ; but Mr. Venis considers the
real word to be Dharmeksha meaning 'the pondering
of the law* a view supported by a Jaina manuscript
bearing date 1669 Samvat (i6i2 A, D.) in which
the word Dharmeksha occurs as the name of a
locality containing a famous Bodhisattwa sanctuary.
This large round column of brick and stone, no
feet high and 93 feet in diameter, was erected
as a memorial tower to mark this blessed spot
where, according to Mr. Oertel, 'Maitreya received
an assurance from Sakya Muni that he would be
the next Buddha.* From the top to about halfway
down, this magnificent pile looks stripped of its
stony skin and ragged brickwork appears over-
grown with grass and weeds. The rest of the
column up to a height of about thirty-seven feet
from the ground, is of massive stones attached to
one another by solid iron clamps, with remains of
beautiful carvings, floral ornamentations and geome-
trical figures upon some of them. There are eight

88 THE HOLY CITY {BENARES) Chap.

'.'V/^/^.'^r^y^/^y^/^/^/X/-v■« r\r\/\r\,r\/

niches on its eight projecting faces in the lower
part of :the monument designed to hold life-size
images of Buddha ; the floral decorations all round
the western niche are exceedingly fine and elaborate
and those on the eastern one covered over with
gold leaf. The rich carvings at the base are con-
sidered to have been interrupted by the first
Mahomedan invaders of the eleventh century and
the unfinished state of the Dhamek has been
considered to lead to the conclusion that this was
the :Iast memorial of the kind constructed here.
Mr. Marshall, however, attributes the Dhamek to
the Gupta period on account of the carvings and
the ornate floral arabesques characteristic of that
age.

It was in 1835 that General Cunningham
explored this stupa by sinking a shaft right down
from its top and found an inscribed stone slab
inside containing the usual formula or profession
of Buddhist faith— Ye Dharma hetu p'>"^hkaba, crc
— in characters earlier than the Tibetan alphabet,
which led him to ascribe the sixth century as the
period in which this monument was first erected.
In a corner in the Archaeological Section of the
Indian Museum at Calcutta containing numbers of
inscribed slabs, lies this same slab of yellowish
Chunar stone measuring about a quarter and two
feet in length by a foot and a half in breadth with
three lines of neat and fairly legible inscriptions

VI SARNA TH 89

thereupon ; and visitors are apprised by a note at the
foot that it was '' found by General Cunningham in
1835, three feet from the top of the great tower
called Damek in Sarnatha, Benares."

There was formerly a large park here within
enclosing walls, and even in the sixth century
B. C, before the advent of Buddha, large numbers
of ascetics and religious devotees of all denomina-
tions lived here in seclusion and safety. This
locality was then known by the name
Rishipattana or of Rishipattana (the abode of the
the Deer Park , , r -. .. r^\ u 1 r

sages) — also, Jsjpatiana (the abode of

the gods). The modern name Sarnath was after
the name Sdrovgandth^ the Lord of the deer — an
epithet of Buddha ; but this derivation is open to
doul^t. Legend relates that in one of his previous
births Buddha was a deer *^ golden of hue,' with
eyes like round jewels and horns of silvery sheen
and mouth as ' red as a bunch of scarlet cloth.'
He dwelt in the forest under the name of the
Banyan Deer {^Nyagrodha ntri^d) and was the king
of a herd of fi^'e hundred deer, out of which one
was daily chosen by lot in accordance with an
arrangement with Brahmadatta, the Raja of Benares,
and sent to him for his kitchen with the object
of preventing indiscriminate slaughter which used
to follow his too frequent hunting excursior.s.
Once on a time came the turn of a doe great \\\\\\
young belonging to the herd of his cousin who

90 THE HOLY CITY {BENARES) Chap.

\r\/^y^ r\r\/\/\r\/\

reprtsented to the king- of the deer that though
she might die, the time of her young one had
not yet come ; and she, therefore, begged to be
spared. Thereupon, in great compassion the king
of the deer approached the place of execution
and lay down with his head on the block and
offered himself for slaughter in her stead. Surpri-
sed on seeing the king of the deer, the cook went
and informed the Raja of Benares, who mounted
his chariot and came in all haste with a large
following. Finding that the golden king of the
deer had come to lay down his life for the doe
and hearing his wise discourse, he said he had
never yet seen, even among men, one so abounding
in charity, love and pity. The Raja's eyes being thus
opened now he exclaimed — " I have indeed the body
of a man, but am as a deer. You have the bod)-
of a deer, but an^ as a man,'' From that time
forth the practice ceased and the park, which was
the King's pleasaunce whither the herds had been
driven and confined, was given over to the perpe-
tual use of the deer, and it came to be known
as Mriga-dava — th.e Deer Park. Thus is the
N igrodJid-M i^:!;n-Jataka tale, one of the birth-stories
of Buddha, related by Hiuen Thsang. It may be
intersting to note that this episode is figured in
tlie stupa of Barhut and forms the subject of one
of the numerous beautiful colored frescoes upon
the ancient walls of the famous Ajanta Caves^

Vr SARlVA TH ^r

where Buddha has been represented as the Royal
Antelope interceding- with the King- seated upon a
chariot with the royal umbrella held over him.

It was in the fifth century before Christ that
Prince GAUTAMA of Kapilavastu, able no longer to
bear the sight of human miseries, abandoned his

home of pleasure and enjoyment in the
Buddha very prime of life when he was only

twenty-nine, and forsook his loving-
parents, beloved wife and darling new-born child
in order to seek for the means of alleviating-
human sufferings and securing eternal bliss for
man. Born with a silver spoon in his mouth and
nursed and bred in the lap of luxury, he subjected
himself to no end of privations — all for the love
of his fellow-beings. Six years and more he toiled \x\
the Vindhyan mountains and elsewhere with five
followers who had accompanied him, studying^ the
Hindu philosophy and practising the austerities
enjoined by the orthodox doctrines, but could
obtain neither peace nor satisfaction. Tired at last
he wandered towards Gaya all alone forsaken by
his companions, and under the sacred tree of
wisdom — Bodhi-drnma — at Bodh Gaya, he sat in
contemplation for long and we?r}' )'ears together
till the Divine Light dawned upon him.

Five miles to the south of the city of Gaya lies the
famous Bodhi tree immediately to the west of the
great Bodh-Gaya temple. Hiuen Thsang relates that

92 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) chap.

the Bodhi-tree was destroyed by Asoka before his con-
version and once again by his queen,
Bodhi-tree at but each time it was miraculously
Bodh-Gaya renewed. About 600 A. D. Sasangka,
a king of Bengal, again destroyed
it, but it reappeared some months afterwards. The
existing tree must have succeeded this or some other
as obviously it cannot from its very appearance
claim antiquity from the seventh century. Upon the
platform where stands the holy tree was the famous
Vajrdsana or diamond throne wh'ch Hiuen Thsang
saw in existence in 637 A. D. Behind the temple
near the back wall is now a square slab of st )ne
upon the platform which is pointed out to the
traveller as the spot where Buddha had sat in
contemplation. The grand temple rising to a height
of over a hundred and fifty feet gives some idea
of the solidity and architectural magnificence of the
early works. If at Sarnath are the dead bones of
the past, Bodh-Gaya is stil! instinct with life and
Buddhist monks still sit in devotion in front of the
grand figure of Gautama inside the temple.

A fortunate day it was for the world when in
B. C. 522 the great Master, then only thirty-six,
came out of his seclusion, and at the end of
sixty days after his attainment of the Light directed
his steps towards Isipattana, and chose this plac^
of all places — the meeting-ground of the religious
recluses of all sects — as the spot whence to

VI SARNATH 93

disseminate his great lii^ht of Dhaiina throughcut the
world. All alone he travelled all the long disiance
through, till he arrived at this Rishipattana monastery
where he found his five former hermit-associates
who had deserted him before. They now became the
first converts to his new religion ; and here at
Sarnath he preached his first sermon and initiated
the five famou"-^ Bhikkus^ and sent them about on
their mission of revealing the light to the world
which was cestined to illuminate later on
not only India and Ceylon but the far-off
China and Japan and Tibet and Burmah as well.
His ministry continued for five and forty years
until his attainment of Nirvana in B. C. 477 at the
advanced age of eighty^.

The Chinese pilgrim Fa HiAN who travelled all

o\er India between 4C0 and 411 A. D. gives us

ll.e first definite informations about this locality as

it was at the beginning of the fifth

Fa Hian century. He speaks oi the ' Deer
Park of the Immortal' as lying
about two miles off to the north-west of Fo-to-
ra-sse (Benares) and of a temple and two monas-
teries therein, and makes mention of a small
shrine and four topes— one to mark the spot where
on his arrival the five associates of Buddha rose

(i) Prof. Rhys David in the Encyclopoedia Brittanica takes the
age of Buddha as 568-488 B. C.

94 THE HOLY CITY {BENARES) Chap,

up to salute him, another where he turned the
' Wheel of Law,' a third where he foretold the
coming of Maitreya Buddha, and a fourth one
where a certain Naga named Elapattra held
discourse with him.

Fa Hian was followed by the other traveller
HlUEN THSA^G in the middle of the seventh

century (^629 — 645 A.Dj, and the latter
Hiuen Thsan^ has lelt a graphic account in his

great work ' c^i-yu-ki ' of what he had
observed here. Speaking of the people and the
general aspect of the country he remarks : " Ihe
people are gentle and polished, and esteem most
ingnly men given to study. The greater poriion
of tnem believe in the heretical doctrines (Hindu-
ism;, and few revere tiie Law (religion) of Buddha.
Ihe climate is temperate, grain is abundant, the
fruit-trees are luxuriant, and the earth is covered
with tuited vegetation." He saw Buddhists from
various places living in huts and caves in the
Deer Park, Jainas and Bhikkus, followers of Siva
and Krishna, philosophers and students of the
Brahmanical School — ail living in harmony, discus-
sing and exchanging ideas and tolerating one
another's views. He found the Deer Park portioned
out into eight sections and a high wail round the
compound enclosing a large Vihara or temj^le-
monastery about two hundred feet high, with over
a hundred rows of niches in tiers over tiers each

VI S ARM ATM -95

holding a golden statuette of Buddha and a gold-
covered figure of the inango fruit (ydmrd) above
tiie roof; and in the mi idle of the Vihara was
a large bronze statue of Buddha seated upon a-
throne and posed in the attitude of tiie Teacher
expounding his doctrines. There were splendid tv,o
-storied buildings in the monastery with numbers
of cells symimetrically arranged and accomodating
jio less than fifteen hundred bhikkus^ and hundreds
of sacred monuments and memorials and votive
stupas strewn all about the compound. To the
west of the monastery lay a tank in which Buddlia
used to bathe and two otlicrs in which he washed
liis water-pot and his clothes. Upon the bank ot
this last was a large square block of stone
containing marks of thread-lines of the web of
the cloth, upon which Buddha used to place liis
kashciya (ochre robes) to dr)'. ^^

Towards the south-west portion of the Vihara, accord-
ing to Hiuen Thsang, stood the remains of one of
Asoka's stupas, even then a hundred feet in height,
and in front of it was a smooth pillar of stone
* bright and shining like a mirror ' and seventy feet
high, marking THE VERY SPOT WHERE BUDDHA HAD
DELIVERED HIS FH<ST DISCOURSE. ' Its surf^ice \:i

illistenino: and smooth as ice, and on
The Asok a Pillar it can be constanly seen the figure (jf

Buddha as a shadow'^ — thus chronicles

*(!) H. Thsang's Si-yu-ki, translated by S. Beal Vol II. p. 45.

96 THE HOLY CITY {BEX ARES) Chap.

the great Hiuen Thsang in his accounts. This spot
has now been located just to the west of what is
known diS thQ Main Shrine (Plate VII, 2^! ; and the
standing stump of a sandstone column i6 feet 8 inches
in height bearing an edict of Emperor Asoka in fairly
legible characters and erected about 249 B. C. has
been exhumed out of the ruins (Plate VII, 2, 4). The
fragments of its upper portion in four broken pieces,
round, smooth and highly polished, have been
found lying near it together with the famous
Lion-Capital that stood on the top of the column.
The fragments still lie by the side of the western
wall of the Main Shrine, and the Lion-Capital has
been placed in the Sarnath museum. This stump
of the pillar bears eleven lines of inscriptions — eight
of which are still wonderfully clear and distinct
— containing the edict of Asoka. Mr. A. Venis inter-
prets the sdsana or injunction contained in the
edict m the following manner : *' The Church is not
to be divided. But whoever will break up the
Church, be it monk or nun, must be made to put
on white dress and live in a place which is not a
formal residence [/. e. beyond the official boundaries
of convent or monastery]. Thus must this edict be
announced to the Order of Monks and to the
Order of Nuns." ^ His Majesty's command was also to
be made known to the lay members as well in all
towns and districts and provinces, that they might

(i) Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, (Vol. Ill 1907) p. 2.

PLATE VII

1. The Dhamek (a) and its neighbourhood.

2. The Main Shrine and Lion-Capital.

3. Old Walls in the excavations. 4- Asoka Column.

VI SARNATH 97

everywhere ' walk according to the proclamation.'
Two more Hnes had been lately added '' in the
fortunate reign of Rajan Asvaghosha in the fortieth
year" and in token of the "homage of the masters
of the Sammitiya sect and of the Vatsiputrika
school " in the Gupta Period. ^

The Lion-Capital (Plate VII, 2) that surmount-
ed the Asoka pillar is of the Persipolian bell-
shaped type containing four magnifi-
CapiSl*" *^^"^ ^^^"^ standing back to back
with a large stone wheel (the sacred
s\'mbol of the Dharma CJiakrd) in the middle
upon a circular block, which is decorated with the
figures of an elephant, a lion, a bull, a horse, and four
wheels among them. In spite of its great age of
two and twenty centuries, the Lion-Capital, standing
no less than seven feet high and superb in its
execution, looks wonderfully fresh and clear-cut
just as it was when it came from the sculptor's
hands. It has been pronounced by several art-
critics to be the finest piece of sculpture so far
discovered in India. * This furnishes full and

(1) Epigraphla Indica Vol. VIII pp and ff.

(3) In this connection it may be interesting to note that
(ieneral Cunningham in the Archoeological Survey Reports Vol
X (1880) makes mention of a similar Lion-Capital which he
discovered lying near the broken shaft of a small monolith
standing to the north of the great Buddhist stupa at

98 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap.

complete corroboration to Hiuen Thsang's descrip-
tions and enables one to realise the grandeur and
magnificence which the place had attained as the
nursing-ground of Buddhism, Besides Kapliovastu
the birth-place of Buddha — the site of which has
been discovered to be the modern Bhuila Dih in
Pargana Mansurnagar in the district of Basti (N.
W. P.), — Gaya where he was inspired, and the Kusinai^ar
where he obtained Nirvana — identified with the modern
village of Kasia, 35 miles due east of Gorakhpur,
where lies the ruined temple of Nirvana, — Sarnath
is the fourth place of pilgrimage which Buddhists
from Burma, Tibet, China, Siam and Japan still
visit.

Alas ! the times ! Though this great religion of
'Universal Love reckoned within its ibid more than
a half of the human race between the fifth and the
tenth centuries^ and still commands the allegiance
of a third of it, not a single abode of any of its
votaries is now to be found near about the place
whence the light had first emanated — nor even in far
o.T Benares ! Only a small Dhannasala for housing

Sanchi in Bhopal, bearing a line of Gupta characters. It,
was ''a bell-shaped capital, i8'i5 inches in diameter and
13 inches in height with a ciicular abacus 19,!^ inches in diame-
ter ornamented with birds and flowers. On the top stand
four lions back to back, above whom rises a Dharma
Chakra or 'Holy Wliecl' 20 inches in diameter." (See Plate
XXi in the Vol.)

VI SARNATH 99

\y\j-\j-^jr\/^'y^^y

pilgrims lies to the east of ihe Dhamek and another
is now being built to the west of the excavations made
here. Very close, however, to the great tower of

Dhamek and to its south-east fPlate
Jalna Temple VII, i) now rises the slender spire of the

modern jAiNA TEMPLE of the Degam-
bara sect erected in 1824, which contains the foot-
prints and a white marble statue of the eleventh
Tirthankara (saint) Ainsanath who became an Arhnt
at Singhpur, a village to the north-west of Sarnath.
About a mile off further to the south-east and nestled

upon a hillock lies also the temple of
Siva Temple Sarnath and Somnath Sivas — the two

in one — in a fine quiet and retired
corner ; but there is not the slightest trace of the
living Buddhism near about !

In 1794 some workmen in the employ of Jagat

Singh, the Dewan of Raja Chet Singh of Benares,

had been engaged in digging out old bricks from

a ruined stupa about a hundred and seventy-five

yards to the west of the Dhamek. This has been

supposed to have originally been a

Ja^at Singh's hemispherical relic tower, *82 feet in

Stupa diameter and not less than 50 feet

in height.' In course of their work

they lighted upon a couple of marble vessels — one

inside the other and a statue of Buddha bearing

an inscription with the name of King Mahipal of

lOO THE HOLY CITY {BENARES) chap.

'\v\/\/^/\/^^•^y^>^>^/\J'\y\y^>'^r^yXy\r\^ ^y^ ''

the Pala dynasty of Bengal dated Samvat 1083
( 1026 A. D. )^ at a depth of twenty-seven feet
from the top. The inner one of the two vessels
was 'a cylindrical box of green marble containing
forty to forty-six pearls, fourteen rubies^ eight
silver and nine gold ear-rings and three pieces of
human arm-bones.' The inscription upon the
statue of Buddha referred to above ran to this
effect :

" Mahipal, Raja of Gaur (Bengal) having
worshipped the lotus-like feet of Sree
Dhannasi (Buddha), caused to be erected in
Kasi hundreds of Jsajia (lamp pillars) and
Chitraghanta (ornamental bells^. Sree Sthira
Pal and his younger brother Vasanta Pal
having restored religion raised this tower
with an inner chamber and eight large
niches."

Sthira Pal and Vasanta Pal were reported to
be sons of King Mahipal and were sent by him in
1026 A. D. to Benares to repair the Dhamek and the
Dharma Chakra ' where Buddha preached for the first
time' and also to constiuct a Gandhakuti or temple
of Buddha.

This interesting find in Jagat Singh's stupa came to
light afterwards and the statue was recovered in a muti-
lated state by Major Kittoe in Jagatgunj, and even-
tually found its way to the Lucknow Museum. The

Vr SARNA Til

discovery was followed up by Jonathan Duncan who
made some exploration of the ruins ^t
Researches the close of the eighteenth century.
The first reported exploration of this
kind was by Col. C. Mackenzie in 1815. In 1835
General Cunninorham succeeded in getting hold of a
very old inhabitant of the neighbouring village of
Singhpur, named Sangkar, who had worked for
Jagat Singh in his boyhood and who now pointed
out to him the site of the stupa in question. This
enabled him to excavate and find therein the outer
case which was of Chunar sand stone with a cylindri-
cal chamber in the centre to hold the inner marble
box, and he presented it to the Asiatic Society of
Bengal. It is now to be seen in the Archoeological
section of the Indian Museum at Calcutta. It is a
cubical block of rough blackish stone a little over
two feet each w^ay with a hole scooped out in the
middle some ten inches deep and about a foot in
diameter, lying on the floor with a number of Buddha
statues, the earlier finds at Sarnath, ranged along
the wall.

General Cunningham records in his report that he
found to the north of the tank near the site of the
monastery a large single block of stone six feet ii:
length and three feet in height and of the same
thickness, carefully squared and hollowed out under-
neath to form a small chamber four feet in length

I02 THE HOLY CITY {BENARES) Chap.

and two in breadth and height. This he beh'eved to
have been the famous stone upon which Buddha
used to spread out his vestments to dry. He left
it undisturbed where it lay, but when he came to
search for it after some years it had unfortunately
disappeared.

Since then there were some desultory attempts
to explore the grounds by Mr. E. Thomas (Judge

of Benares), Dr Frederick Hall, Major Kittoe and
others. In 1856 the Government acquired the site
of the ruins from one Fergusson, an indigo planter
and after some further attempts, the work of ex-
ploration was systematically taken up by the
ArchcEological Survey Department of the Govern-
ment of India in right earnest about 1903-1904,
and the excavations were conducted under the
directions of Mr. J. H. Marshall and Mr. F. O.
Oertel and there were interesting finds in 1905 and
subsequent years as well that have amply reward-
ed their labours.

Success has, so far, attended their efforts as
will appear from the fine collection of hundreds
of relics and art-treasures of ancient times gathered
together under the roof of a small open Museum
a little to the west of the Dhamek, waiting their
removal ^ to the pretty houses of the new Museum

( 1 ) They have since been, removed to the pew Museum,

VI SARNATH 103

now being built for them further to the south-west.
The larger pieces lie strewn outside, all sorted and
numbered and duly catalogued, and up to 1904 —
1905 the figures showed 476 pieces of sculpture
and 41 inscriptions. A number of the earlier find;;
had been sent to the Bengal Asiatic Society which
they transferred to the Indian Museum at Calcutta ;
*^ome sent to the Queen's College here were lately
sent back to Sarnath under the directions of Lord
Curzon when he went to visit the College, and the\'
are now in the Museum near the Dhamek ; and
some others found their way to the Lucknow
Museum. It may not be out of place here to note
regretfully that over forty of the statues collected
by General Cunningham in 1835 — 1836 and unsuspec-
tingl) left here to wait removal to a better repo-
sitory, could not escape the inordinate zeal of a Mr.
Davidson, sometime Magistrate of Benares, who,
not having perhaps been blessed with any idea of
art or of the sacredness attaching to antiquity, or
perhaps nursing a supreme contempt for both,
hafl them carted away and thrown into the Barana
to serve as a breakwater under the arches of its
bridge !

We may now have a glance of the general
aspect of this locality. The grounds are undulating

and the Dhamek stands over a
Modern aspects hundred and twenty feet above the

general level of country (Plate VI I,. I).

I04 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) chap.

'\^\/v/%.'\/ V'>.'-v.'^.'VN-\ '\.' -^x 'V\.'\y v/vr\.'\.'^'W/-v /-vrvvx,'

The stretch of space between the Dhamek and the
Humayun Tower, half a mile in breadth, cover
stone debris and extensive ruins. The excavations
have laid bare what seem to have been the cells
and walls of a Vihara or chapel-mona.'-tery with
votive stupas and shrines. The remains of the
spacious structures extending over a wide area
agree well with the descriptions given by Hiuen
Thsang of the temples and build in;Ts and tanks in
the Deer Park. These cells and buildings seem, in
all likelihood to have been originally intended for
Buddhist monks who lived in solitude and engaged
in worship and divine contemplation ; and they
were later on enriched, enlarged and added to by
various Buddhist Kings of later times.

The destruction of the monastery and its aban-
donment had, according to Major Kittoe, been due
to sudden conflagration of which sufficient traces
had been found in tbe ruined chambers in the
shape of charred wood, calcined bones, hea{:)s of
ashes, remains of wheaten cakes, and hastily abandoned
uncooked food. Writes Major Kittoe : "All has
been sacked and burned — priests, temples, idols
all together ; for in some places, bones, iron, wood
and stone are found in huge masses." This must
have occured in the twelfth century when, according
to Mr. Neville, the Mahomedan iconoclasts under
Kutb-ud-din Aibak carried on their work of

VI SARNATH

destruction and devastation with fire and sword,
and sacked and destroyed the temples and shrines
at Benares and its neighbourhood.

Excavations have laid bare the foundations of a
conspicuous structure of massive walls lying to the
north-west of the Dhamek, about ninety-five feet
in length and ninety feet in breadth, which is now

styled the MAIN SlIRINE, still stand-
The Excavations ing eighteen feet high, with stumps

of the famous Asoka column in front
of it (Plate VII, 2). In one of the small chapels to
the south is a Stone Railing enclosing a stupa
like a square fence. It stands four feet and three
quarters high and is eight and a half feet in length
on each side. It is of yellow stone and has lozenge-
shaped cross-bars cut entire from one single block
exquisitely chiselled and polished and bears a line
of inscription placing its erection in or before the
first century B. ('. Somewhat similar to this though
of rough workmanship is the outer stone-railing of
the Bodh-Gaya temple which bears inscriptions of
Asoka's age. Nunibers of small chapels (Plate VI 11,3)
lie on every side of the Main Shrine and there
are some admirably constructed stupas at the south-
west corner. Several tiny Sea/s with miniatuie
inscriptions upon them were found to the we.^t o(
this Shrine.

Another iaj-gc monastery has been dug out further
to the north-east consisting of a fine block of

io5 JEEIICLY CITY {BENARES) Chap.

build ing^s with a spacious entrance facing the east
and a paved courtyard on the west. The whole
site appears to have been enclosed by a massive
circuit wall, and a section of it apparently, nine
feet thick and very solidly built, has been brou<^ht
to light alongside the Jhil lying on the west.

Exceedingly rich in sculpture these chapels and
the shrines must have been as the remains exhumed
from the ruins would clearly testify ; and all the
chambers had their full complement of large images
of Buddha in various attitudes, with his life-stories
beautifully figured in the old Indian style upon
stones imbedded in the walls. A full dressed life-size
image of Bodhisattwa is still to be seen in the
excavations there standing erect all these centuries
in the place assigned to it. But to have some-
thing like an adequate realisation of the ancient
Indian Art dating hundreds of years b^ck we
must return to the relics themselves in the small
Museum close b)-.

Here in this house you find a large number of
lovely images of Buddha, large and small, cut in

various kinds of stones — mostly
The Museum yellowish Chunar stone — posed in various

attitudes (Plate VII 1,6). Besides statues
of Buddha there are several of a number of gods
and goddes«:es as well — such as, Parvati and her
elephant-h-aded child Ganesh, Sarnswaii with
her Vina in hand, Marichi or Dawn with her six

I'l.ATI'. VI n

I. Bodhi Sattwa Statue, 2. Votive memorial.

3. Some Sculptures. 4. Buddha with alms-bowl.

5. Mara. 6. A group of Buddha btatues.

7. Sculptured fragment respresenting Ramagrama Stupa.

P. 107

VI SARNATH 107

arms^ and the fT^orgeoiisIy decked Tara. Small
figures of Dhvani Buddha have also been introduced
into the head-dress of some of the statuettes of
Tara. The stati.es and the bas-reliefs were for the
most part recovered from a chamber in the
monastery and a small detached building about
ten feet square, huddled up tof^ether showing as if
they had all been kept there in concealment to
save them from destruction during a time of panic
or persecution.

A large number of full-size Bodhi-sattiva statues^
some of them of colossal proportions, are noticeable
— especially one in red sandstone
Bodhisattwa ( Plate VI H, i ) standing nine and
statues half feet high and bearing an ins-

cription at the foot dated in the

third year of the reign of King Kanishka who
conquered Kashmir in the first century after Christ.
This is considered to be the oldest inscribed image
found ; and near it was lying a large beautifully
carved umbrella, also of the third year of King

Kanishka, and of the Kushana epoch.
The Umbrella It is of red sandstone and is ten

feet in diameter. The stump of the
tall round massive red sandstone pillar about five
feet high, which supported the umbrella stood in
its place between the Main Shrine and Jagat
Singh's stupa. This umbrella now lying upon the
the floor is partly broken but on the whole looks

loS THE HOLY CITY {BENARES) Chap

intact. It is a lovely work of art in the shape of
an inverted full-blown lotus with circular rings one
inside the other carved with figures of conch, fish,
fruits, and flower v-ases, the mystic symbols of the
Cross and the Triratna (the three Jewels — Buddha,
Dhanna or law, and Sangha or the Community
of the Buddhists), and also of lion, bull, camel,
antelope, &c. — numbermg two dozen in all.

Among a number of Buddha figures of all sizes
ranged on all sides, a very graceful seated figure
of Buddhi with a serene and benign look lighting
up a face full of beauty and dignity and reminding
one of the similar charms of the famous image o\
Prajnaparamita ( of the Mahayana Buddhists, Java )
seated on a lotus-bed, cannot fail to attract notice
at the very first sight (Plate VI). A large halo
{prabha niandal) highly decorated with
Buddha as floral embellishments is behind the
Teacher head ; it is also taken by some to

represent the symbolic Dharma-chakra,
the Wheel of Law. The attitude of sitting cross-
legged with the forefinger of the right hand
crossed over that of the left as if to accentuate
his reasonings and carry his agruments home to
the listeners, show that he is here represented in
the act of preaching or 'turning the wheel of
laiv as the phrase goes. The five disciples and
worshippers are seated below with joined palms
and two deer are on either side of the statue.

VI SARNATH 109

There are some other seated figures o.^ Buddha, but
with the left liand resting upon the lap and the
right touching the earth in what is known as the
Bkumi-sparsha Mudrd, as if to call upon her to
bear witness to the good deeds of his previous
existences when he was being assailed with temp-
tations by Mara, the Spirit of Evil. This is the
attitude in which Buddha is posed in the large
statue at Bodh-Gaya, and is by far the most fre-
quently to be met with.

Another seated statue finely decorated holding an
alms-bowl in front of the breast (Plate VIII, 4)
with a Dhyani-Buddha upon the crown of the head
and two figures male and female standing over the
shoulders bowl in hand, is taken to be a repre-
sentation of Avalokitesvvara and is in an excellent
state of preservation. So is another standing figure
of Buddha in spotted white sandstone in the
attitude of offering blessings. Numerous other seated
Buddhas are there with the usual Buddhist creed
ox gatkd inscribed at the foot —

' Ye dharma hetuprabhaba he turn tesham Tathagata

hyavadat.
Tesham cha yo nirodha evambadi Mahasrafnanah'

— which Hodgson explains as signifying that "of all
things proceeding from cause, their cause hath the
Tathagatha (Buddha) explained. The great Sramana

no THE HOLY CITY {BENARES) Chap.

(Buddha) hath likewise explained the causes of
the cessation of existence/'

Three lovely bas-reliefs (Plate IX, I middle)
carved with small figures illustrating incidents
in the life of Buddha, — the conception, the birth,
the flight from Kapilvastu, the temptations of
Mara, the contemplation under the Bodhi-tree,
the first sermon, and the death-scene or the
final Nirvana, — would hold your admiring
eyes captive for long. So delicate are the
delineations and done with such consummate
skill that the graceful expressions appeal directly
to the mind at the very first glance. One frag-
ment of a carved piece which probably decorated
some doorway calls for prominent notice. It
represents a beautifully worked stupa with an
elephant and a w^inged figure placing a garland of
flowers upon it, illustrating the legend of the
worship of Buddha's relics by wild elephants in the
stupa of Ramagrama. The floral ornamentations,
the lotus, the vine-leaves and grapes, and a tiny
parrot taking a bite with its beak at the dainty
fruits, look wonderfully fresh and clear (Plate

vni, 7).

A very interesting find is a large lintel five

yards long and over two feet in height in an

excellent state of preservation,

Khantlvadi depicting a few scenes from the

Jataka Khantlvadi fataka^ one of the most

VI SARNAIH III

remarkable birth-stories of Buddha that would

bear repetition. In one of his previous births

Buddha under the name of Kundaka Kumara

was living the life of an ascetic in the Himalayas

and used occasionally to come down to Be.iares

and take up his abode in the royal park. Kalabu,

the King of Kasi, then reigning in Benares, one

day came to the park surrounded by a company

of dancers and musicians who provided a musical

entertainment for him. While listening to them he

laid his head upon the lap of a favourite of the

harem and fell asleep. Thereupon, finding further

singing and dances useless, the singers and dancers

dispersed in the garden and betook to disporting

themselves. The Bodhisattwa being seated in the

garden they approached him and besought him to

give them a discourse. The King in the meanwhile

awoke, and finding the women had gone became

very wroth and came to the plact^ where they

were. He queried the Bodhisattwa as to what

doctrine he preached, and the latter answered, 'the

doctrine of patience. Your Majesty,' and explained

that patience was *the not being angry, when men

abuse you and strike you and revile you.' ' To see

the reality ' of his patience, the King had him

scourged with a lash of thorns all over the body,

and. * the outer and the inner skins were cut

through the flesh and the blood flowed.' On being

told that he still preached the doctrine of patience

113 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Ch.m>

V'^V^Vr^X/Vy^yN '

which was not merely ' skin-deep ' in him, the
King had both his hands cut ofif and his feet as
well, and at last his nose and ears, — each time
repeating his question as to what doctrine he would
still preach and being told in reply that his
patience dwelt not in the extremities of his hands
and feet nor in the tips of his nose and ears but
was seated deep within his heart, — whereupon the
King struck him above his heart with his foot
and went away. The Bodhisattwa exclaimed.

'Long live the King, whose cruel hand my body has thus

maned,

Pare souls like mine such deeds as these with anger ne'er

regard.'

But just as the King was passing out of the
garden, * the mighty earth that is forty-thousand
leagues in thickness split in two, like unto a
strong cloth garment, and a flame issuing forth
from Avici (hell) seized upon the King, wrapping
him up as it were with a royal robe of scarlet
wjol'.

Besides neatly cut figures and ornamental

embellishments ( Plate IX, 4 ), the finely chiselled

representations of the dancing girls

The Gupta waving their bodies gracefully to the

Lintel tunes of flutes and timbrels played by

their associates grouped behind them,

and of the ascetic with the light of divine serenity

upon his face preaching and being listened to with rapt

Vr SARNATH 113

attention by the women sitting in front, and of
the Bodhisattva being tortured and his hands being
chopped off by the executioner's sword as he
holds them forward in all meekness, — all exhibit
the high state of proficiency the artists of those ages
had attained and remind forcibly of the similar
subjects depicted in the lovely reproductions of the
Borobudur reliefs of Java in Mr. Havell's charming
book, The Indian Sculpture and Paintings and in
the photos taken by Mr. Percy Brown, Principal
of the Government School of Art at Calcutta, lately
on view in the last Allahabad Exhibition. The
figures are exquisitely fine and expressive and the
floral decorations wonderfully neat and beautiful.
This lintel has been ascribed to the later Gupta
age, and a portion of it to the left is blackened
and seems to bear m.arks of singeing by fire thus
proving the fact of the late conflagration. Another
large lintel has also been found, but the figures
thereon are mostly worn out and obliterated.

Two pieces of sculptured slabs evidently not of
Buddhist make deserve prominent notice as they

point to the presence and influence

Rama Laksman of Hinduism in the locality. One

Panel of them ( Plate IX, 3 ) is devoted

to Rama and Laksman with their
bows and arrows and Hanuman and the monkeys
busily handling large stone blocks, — illustrating,
perhaps, the preparations for the deliverance of

—8

114 THE HOL V CITY {BENARES)

Sita and the attempt at bridging the sea by
means of huge stones for the purpose of reach-
ing King Ravana's stronghold Lanka ( Ceylon ;.
Unfortunately, it is in a damaged state, for many
of the figures look mutilated and details have thus
beeii lost. The other one is a \'ery striking and
gigantic figure of Siva, crushing a
Siva Statue person crouched under one upraised
leg, and holding in one hand a trident
having a female figure surmounting it and in another
a human skull.

Various kinds of sculptures from floral and
artistic designs on friezes and cornices (Plate Vlll,
3) to heads of frowning lions and elephants (Plate
IX, 2) and even huge earthen pots and small lamps
and other household utensils, have been unearthed in
numbers, and art connoisseurs have ascribed thcni
to four distinct epochs of the Maury an, Kushana
and Gupta Kings and of years later tj t'.iem. It is
not possible for any but the artists ai;d antiquarians
to descant upon their significance in Art or to
discuss about their age as measured in centuries,
nor is that within the scope of a work like this.
So, here ends our pleasant visit to old Sarnath
which has furnished us with materials enough for
reflections regarding the Past and its lessons upoii
the insignificance and the transitory nature of ail
earthly grandeur and glory and. for leisurely cogita-
tions about the Future and its hazy outlook.

fiF^V

f> •— ._

P. 114

Chapter VH

MYTHS AND ANNALS
"So passes silent o'er the dead, thy shade,
Brief time ! and hoar by hour, and day by day.
The pleasin^jf pictures of the present fade,
And like a sun:imer vapour steal avva}'.''

— W. L. Bowles,

E must now return to our quarters
at Benares and brace up our
jaded limbs by taking- a little res:,
and as we do so we may indulge
in short chats about the various
i }}^ stages in the life-history of this
ancient city which, remarks Mark
Twain in his own piquant style,
"is older than history, older than
tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice
as old as all of them put together*

It is in the Kashi KPiandam^ a part of

the Skanda Puranam ^ that we find what

may properly be styled the my-

Kashi Khandam thology of Benares. In very ancient

times, so the Furana proceeds to

relate, — after the era of Swayambhava Manu, there

(^) Though it is hard to say anything definite as to X\vt

age of this Furana, it nir.y be noted that the earlie.s:

known manuscripts, of the Ksshi Khandam bear date

Saka 930 (x\. D. 1008), and a copy of the Skanda Puranam

dating from the seventh century was lately found in Nepal

by Mahamahopadhyaya Fandit Kara Prasad .Shastri.

it6 the holy CirV {BENARES) chap.

was a dreadful drought extending over sixty years,
which drove men out of their homes and caused
them to resort to the river-banks and to seek
shelter in the hill caves, and reduced them to the
extremity of sustaining themselves upon animal
food. At last, apprehending the destruction of
all life in the land, Brahma thought of the
great Raja Ripunja)'a, a descendant of Manu —
th.en engaged in tapa ( austerities ; at Kasi — as the
only person who could avert the calamity by
the strength of his righteousness and piety. He
requested Ripunjaya to protect the people of Kasi
b\- becoming its Ruler, for it was a virtuous King
alone upon whom the gods showered their bless-
ings in the shape of abundance and prosperity for
his people. He agreed, but on condition that while
he reigned, the gods, whom the beauty and sanctity
(►f Kasi had attracted to live there, must leave it
and go to the upper regions of heaven. *Be it
Sv>,' said Brahma, and Ripunjaya took up the reins
of government under the assumed name of Divodas,
aiiv"! his people became happy and blessed with
plent}'. On the persuasion of Brahma, Siva went
to live on the top of the Mandara mountain,
v.hither all the gods followed him.

Eighty thousand years thus passed and the
gods became impatient to return to Kasi which,
they loved ardenth-, and their yearning for it
increased with the progress of time. Finding,

VII MYTHS AND ANNALS 117

however, no fault in the virtuous Kin^ to warrant
his dislod£]^ment, they took recourse to subterfuj^es
and prevailed upon Agni (Fire) to leave his
kingdom ; but the King supph'ed the want of fire
hy his own supernatural powers. Siva and Farvati
also now grew disconsolate for the holy city that
lay ^floating like a lotus when the sky met the
waters in the great cataclysm.' Their ph'ghted
word, however, to stay in heaven as long as
Divodas reigned at Kasi, they found no means to
withdraAV.

So Siva first sent the sixty- four Yoginces
(female demi-gods"* in disguise to find out some
failings of the King that should justify his
expulsion from the city. This they could not do,
and anxious to hide their faces in shame and
enamoured moreover of the charms of the lovely
Kasi, they continued to stay there, and each
established an emblem of Siva for worship.
Waiting in vain for a year for their return, Siva
sent Surya (the Sun) in his chariot of seven
swift-footed chargers — the seven elementary colour-
rays of modern science (?) — only to court a similar
failure. Next followed Brahma, and in the shape
of an old Brahman requested the King to provide
inaterials for ten Asivantedha sacrifices — a seemingly
impossible task, which however the King accomp-
lished. Thus foiled, Brahma also resolved not to
return.

ii8 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) chap.

Siva then sent his unnumbered Ganas — his
attendant demi-gods ; but they also swelled the
ranks of those that had preceded and added to
the number of lingams there, each establishing^ one
for worship and naming- it after his own name
with the addition of an * — eswara' (god^ at the end
of it. Last went Siva's beloved child Ganesha, the
head of the Ganas, disguised as an old astrologer.
[le settled himself in diverse shapes in various
ulaces, and attained success bv befjuilin"- the
people with illusions and throwing their minds out
of balance by means of dreams which as astrologer
he afterwards interpreted in his own way. The
King sought his advice and was directed to abide
by the words of a Brahman who would come
from the north in eighteen days. This w^as Vishnu
who had come and ensconced himself in various
parts of the city under different guises. At his
bidding, the King erected a temple and established
an emblem of Siva there under the name of
Divodaseswara (the Iswa7'a or god of Divodas) —
famed to be the one still existing above the
present Mir Ghat. While engaged in w^orship, a
bright chariot alighted from above one day and
carried him off to heaven. And the gods returned
and continued to be here as before.

Here ends the mythical story, and thus

is the existence accounted for of the numberless
emblems of Siva and of the numerous images of

Vn MYTHS AND ANNALS 119

Ganesha and Vishnu, and of Durga, Annapurna
and Parvati under these different denominations in
various quarters of the city. It is mainly these
gods of the Hindu pantheon that are by far the
most often to be found represented here. The
shrines of Rama, Sita, Hanuman and of Krishna —
the only others to be met with here — though
held in much veneration, seem to be of later
times. In Anandagiri's Sankaravijaya dealing with
the times of ijis master Sankaracharya who lived
in the ninth century, there is no ^'allusion made
to the separate worship of Krishna, either in his
own person, or that of the infantile forms in
which he is now so pre-eminently venerated in
many parts of India, nor are the names of Rama
and Sita, of Lakshmana or Hanuman once parti-
cularised, as enjoying distinct and specific adoration.* *
This should go to indicate that they had not yet
come to be established here even in the ninth
century A. D. It is principally the Siva emblems
that occupy the whole of the Hindu portion of
the city, and numbers of such emblems are beings
constantly added in modern times as well ty
]:>ious old men coming to live here in their old age.

It may be interesting to note in this connection
that some consider the legend of the mythical King

{\^ H. H. Wilson's Religious Sects of the Hindi:*

(Tiubner 1861) p. 17.

120 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) chap

Divodas to be an allegory of the occupation of
Benares by the Buddhist rulers and
An Allegory its subsequent conversion to Brahmanic
Hinduism again when the Hindu
practices and observances were revived anev/. The
recital in the Kashi Khandam that Vishnu assumed
the form of Buddha to delude the minds of the
King and tne people and cause their fall from
Hinduism, tend also to indicate that the virtuous
Divodas and his people discarded the gods and
became Buddhists and continued to be so till
converted into Brahmanic Hinduism again. This
would go further to prove that this Purana cannot
claim antiquity to any period anterior to that of
Buddha.

''Its history is to a great extent the history of
India'/ remarks Mr. Sherring. From the earliest
periods of the Aryan colonisation in Hindusthan,
Benares was one of the first settlements to which
probably those ancient people had been attracted
by its pleasant site and the fertility of the soil
as also by the security as well as the immunity
from interference by the aborigines afforded by it.s
isolated position between the two streams, the
Barana and the Asi — which must have been of
much wider proportions then.

The great antiquity of this place can be ga-
thered from its being mentioned in the Satapatha

VII MYTHS AND ANNALS 121

Brahrna7ia of the Sukla Yajiirveda and in the
Kausitaki Brahmanopanishada as 'Kasi'
Antiquity the wide and holy land of ' Yaj'nas*
(sacrifices), as also in the great national
epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Before
the Aryan colonisation the Dravidians or the
Kolarians originally inhabited the Gangetic valley
and probably occupied this place too. The Knsis tribe
of the Aryans came from Northern India in the
later Vedic ages and ousted them and settled to
the South of the Ganges at some time between
1400 and 1000 B. C. The BraJnnanas and tb.e
Upanishads were taken to have been compiled
about this period, and Benares had then already
begun to be famous *as a great seat of Aryan
philosophy and religion.' A.jatasatru, king of the
Kasis, was a famous name of this period, as a
great patron of learning.

The Kasis owed allegiance to the kings of

Kosala (Modern Oudh) belonging to the Solar Race,

and Benares was then a large province

The City of extending up to Prayag ( modern

Kasi Allahabad). King Puru and his father

Yajati, 'Lord of all the Kasis,' mentioned

in the Mahabharata had their capital at Pratisthana,

the site of which was near modern Allahabad ;

even then Baranasi 'decked with beautiful gates

and walls' had acquired prominence as a town of

note and importance before it became the capital

122 THE HOL V a TV (BEJVARES) chap.

\y\.' \r\/\y\ '

(^f the provinc<\ In the first century A. D. Aswaghosha,
the GuTU (spiritual preceptor) of Raja Kanishka,
de«^cribes it in his Soundarananda Kabya as a city
enclosed by Barana and Asi ; and even so late as the
fifth century after Christ, the Chinese traveller
Fa Hian found the province and the city as ex-
tensive and prosperous as \x\ the 'ancicnf times.
The other Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Thsanor who
came here two centuries later observed that the
kingdom covered 660 miles in circumference and
its capital Baranasi lying 'near the Ganges exten-
ded over eighteen or nineteen // (above three miles)
in length and from five to six // (about a mile)
in breadth.

According to the Vishnu and Brahma'uda
Pnranas, Raja K^sk of the line of King Aiyu

belonging to the Lunar Race, was
me Early the first ruler of this kingdom ; and
Kin^ it was probably during the time of

King Ketuman, fifth in descent from
him, that the city of 'Baranasi' was established as
the capital of the kingdom. There was, later on,
a lengthy struggle for supremacy betwen this race
and the Haiheyas, and Ketuman, who is also
known by the name of Haryaswa, was slain by
the Haiheyas. His grandson Divodas, however,
fortified Benares, but he was defeated and expelled
by the Haihe} a King Durdama, who in his turn
was overcome and turned out of Benares by

VII MYTHS AND ANNALS 123

Divodas'*s son Pratardan. This latter re-established
the kingdom of Kasi and is supposed to have
been a contemporary of Rama the hero of the
<]^reat Epic Ramayana. This hne consisted of
twenty- ''our kings among whom King Dhristaketu
has been mentioned in the Bhagabadgeeta as
having been present during the Kurukshetra war
which took place between 1400 and 1300 B. C.
Eight and twenty Kings of the Haihcyas followed
this dynasty and were succeeded by five Kings of
the Pradyota dynasty who reigned for about a
century and a half.

A word here about the religion of the time
at Benares. Long before the advent of Buddha,

Jainism — founded, according to Cole-
Religion of the man, by Rishabadeva, — had first been
time preached at Benares by SUPARSHA,

the seventh of the four and twenty
faina Tirthankaras (saints), who was born at
Benares and who established and sj read the Jaina
religion here. ParSWANATH or Paresnatii, the
twenty-third Tirthankara, was the sen of Aswa-
scna, King of Kasi, and he relinquished the world
and became a preacher. The Bhelupura quarter of
the city is of great sanctity to tl e Jainas as
being the place where he was born. Jainism had
gradually been spreading and taking root at
Benares in his time and the influence of Hinduism

124 THE HOLY CITY {BE\ARES) cnvp.

was to some extent on the wane. He passed
away in B. C. yyy ; and it was two centuries
later, when Buddha arrived at Benares and fixed
upon Sarnath as the main centre from which his
new faith was to spread, that the first onslaught
upon orthodox Hinduism was really made in a
manner that was felt. Immense numbers of
proselytes from all parts of Kasi, Kosala and
Magadha were attracted by the simplicity and
beauty of his new doctrines as contrasted with the
mystery and rigidity of the multifarious observan-
ces then prevailing-. At the time of King
Bimbasara (532-485 B. O of the Sisunaga dynasty
of Magadha, Buddha came to his court at Raj-
giiha and was received with marked honor. This
King's son Ajatasatru afterwards conquered Kosala
and extended his Kingdom to the Northern India
and shifted his capital from Rajgriha to Patali-
putra (modern Patna).

King Jasha or Jasoratha who had succeeded after

the downfall of the Pradyota Kings, was about

this time the powerful monarch of Kasi.

King Jasha He attended the discourses of Buddha

and became convert to the new religion

along with his fifty-four royal companions and

princes and all the members of the royal family,

and his people also followed suit ; and Benares,

the holy land of Yajnair-^x rather the major portion

VII SARNATH 125

\ /A/\:<^/ v/\y-»

of it — was won over by the new religion and
remained for nearly eight centuries under the sway
of Buddhism. It was at this latter period that
the Buddhist city gradually spread from the north
of Benares all the way to Sarnath.

In the fourth century before Christ, Benares
along with the Kingdom of Kosala became subject

to King Chandragupta, who ascended
The Mauryans the throne ot Magadha in 320 B.C.

and founded the Mauryan dynasty.
It was during the reign of his grandson Asoka
who embraced Buddhism and lived in the third
century B. C. (260-222) that Buddhism ro.se to its
zenith and fulness of glory, and Sarnath came to
be enriched and beautified with numbers of Buddhist
shrines and memorials^ Buddhist missionaries were
then despatched to various distant places in and
out of India for spreading the religion, and among
them was Asoka''s son Mahindra \Vho with his sister
Sangamitra preached Buddhism in Ce}'lon. For a
century and a half since the deatli of the great
Master, according to Kalhana's Rajtaj-migini, Budhism
in its purest form held full away and then cam.e
the decline, and the high ideals of his doctrines
came to be lost in popular superstitions which
began to group around his personality and personal
relics, and his statues and statuettes were set up
in great abundance for wc rship. When Ai:oka's

126 THE HOL Y CITY (BENARES) chap

grandson Dasaratha reigned, the Jainas also roused
themselves to vigourous action and pressed on with
their work. Thus between Buddhism and Jainisni,
the Brahmanic Hinduism at Benares at this period
stood crippled as it were in the decrepitude of
age and fell to its lowest ebb, and each one of
them lost strength in the conflict and went below
its normal standard.

The Mauryan Kings held sway over Magadha

and Northern India till B. C. 183 and Benares was

subject to them ; they were followed

The Sun^as, by the Hindu Kings of the Su7?ga

Kanvas and and Kanva dynasties who ruled till

Andhras B. C. 26, and during their reign

Hinduism began to revive. The Afidkras

then conquered Magadha and ruled for four centuries

and a half till 430 A. D. Then came the downfall

of the Magadha empire, after which the Gupta

Kings of Ka7tquj^ came to power and obtained

mastery over Benares in the fifth century ; and

during their rule Benares regained its former

splendour and Hinduism was to some extent

resuscitated. King Baladitya Gupta made Benares

his capital and strove hard to restore Hinduism

to its former glory. He and his son enriched

Benares v/ith numbers of lofty temples and fine

edifices, and the latter in the sixth century A. D.

erected a large temple at Sarnath also for the

VII MYTHS AND ANNALS 127

/ \y\ y\y \j-\y\y\y v

worship of Vishnu. Benares then became subject
to the Km^s of Oujjein all of whom except the

great Vikramaditya were Buddhists.

Kin^of In the first half of the seventh

Oujjein century Benares was in the hands of

the great King liarshavardhana or
Siladitya II. (610-650 A. D.), and it was at this
period that Huien Thsang came to Kanouj and
witnessed the great Buddhist festival which this
King celebrated with great pomp and grandeur.
He found Hindu princes attending the ceremony
as guests and the followers of the two creeds
living together in good followship.

All the three religions of the Hindus, the

Buddhists and the Jainas, had, however, grown weak

in their struggles, and at this juncture

Sankaraciiarya arose the great Sankaracharya and with

his advent in the eighth century after

Christ' — followed an era of reformation and the

revival of old Hinduism in right earnest. Bhatta-

pada or Bhatta Kumaril, another great reformer,

who had preceded and paved the way for him, had

succeeded in drawing away many large provinces

from Buddhism and converting them to Hinduism.

(i) In an article on Sankaracharya in the "Indian
Antiquary", June 1882, the dates of his birth and death have
been computed to be 788 aud 820 A. D. respectively based
upon certain data contained in a Sanskrit work found at
Belgaon.

128 THE HOLY CITY {BENARES) chap.

The two met at Prayag- (Allahabad) just before the
former's death which occurred under extremely tragic
circumstances, for Bhatta Kumaril destroyed himself
upon the pyre by way of making a penance. Sankara
came to Benares, the present populous portions of
which were then full of patches of greenwood with
asrams ( retreats ) of Sannyasis and sacrificial altars
sheltered by pippals and kadambas occupying the
sites where now stand hundreds of lofty mansions.
The Buddhists had laid out their town at Sarnath, and
Sankara also bent his steps thither, and resided for a
time under the spreading branches of a banyarr tree
where his wonderful discourses attracted the great
Padmapada and others who became his disxiples.

Sankara^s philosophical teaching adopting all
Nature as but the manifestation of the Universal
Soul, and his wonderful solution of the problems of
the 'One in many' and 'Unity in variety' and his
doctrine of Non-dualism ( Advaitism ) or 'the inse-
parability of the human nature from the Divine
Essence" caused a great upheaval ; and the people
returned to their old religion and tlie worship of
Siva, and Benares regained its position as the
citadel city of Hinduism, which in spite of various
vicissitudes it has till now retained. Buddha himself
was taken in as an incarnation of Vishnu and was
then absorbed in Hinduism. The decline of Buddhism
which had already commenced and its final
overthrow in India now became inevitable.

VII MYTHS AND ANNALS 129

■ '>^\yvr^y\/V/' ,

Hiuen Thsan<^ who found only thirty San^haranis
or Buddliist monasteries inhabited by three
thousand monks in the whole kingdom of Benares
and a hundred temples of the Hindus with tea
thousand devotees attached to them, must have
been here during the decadence of the Buddhistic
faith, as is evidenced by the absence of any
mention of the existence of any sacred Buddhist
edifices in the capital of the province at the time,
while he noted that there were twenty Deva
temples in the town of Benares the towers and
the halls of which were of sculptured stone and
carved wood.

By the eighth century Jashovarma, King of
Kanouj, held mastery over Benares aud made strenuous

efforts towards the re-establishment of

Jashovarma of the Vedic Hinduism ; and Benares

Kanouj became the centre of Brahmanism

at the time. Then followed the Dark
Age of India from the middle of the eighth to the tenth
century A. D. whose history is shrouded in obscurity.
Alberiini, the Mahomedan scholar of Khiva who was
a prisoner of Mahmud of Ghazni, writing about
1030 A. D., however, records having heard of the
holy fame of Benares which he compares to Mecca
of the Mahomedans and remarks that Hindu
"anchorites wander to it and stay there for ever,
as dwellers of the Ka'ba stay for ever at Mecca/'
— thus proving that Benares had emerged unscathed

9—

130 7 HE HOLY CITY iISENARES) cnw

-and had retained its prestige and position intact
during those dark days.

Later on King Dharma Pal coiiquercd Kanouj,

and Kasi along with the Kingdom of Kanoiij

became subject to the P<7/ KiJigs of

Pal Kin^s of Gour in Bengal who were all

Bengal Buddhists as has been proved by the

inscriptions on the stone slab of King

Mahipal of 1026 A. D., found at Sarjiath. By the

beginning of the eleventh century the Kingdom of

Kanouj together with Benares fell into the hands of

the Garhirivdr Kings, and this city attained great

prosperity during their reign.

In 1019 and 1022 Benares was raided and

sacked by Mahmud of Ghazni, who is said to

have razed a thousand temples to

Mabomedan the ground. He was followed by

^^^ Ahmad Nialtigin in A. D. 1033 in

this career of destruction ; this,

however, was only a raid, and towards

the end of the twelfth century it fell into

the hands of Mahammad Ghori's general Kutbuddin

— who had also been credited with having deiTio-

Jished nearly a thousand Hindu temples, — after the

defeat of Raja Jaichand Rathore 0^94 '^' ^^O

who held sway at Kanouj at the time. Benares

v/as again rebuilt after such destrdction and this

process was undoubtedly repeated several times.

About I3'>0 A. D. Alauddin laid a thou--:nd
Mini-] t?'n )'-^ \\\ t\vy ^h: t : an:l t'-:;M!.:h t' ;:/

VII MYTHS AND ANNALS i;t

miiltipiied again an 1 even excce.-led their fonner
number,— for even in later times Emperor Jehaiv^ir
desi<riiated Benares as 'the city of temples,' — this

kind of vandalism was repeated ac^ain
TzmVZ' and a;.4ain, and two names that acquired
breaking} notoriety in this connection were

those of iiarbak Shah (1493 A. D.)
uid Soleiman Karrani (1580), the c^enerals of
Sikandar Lodi and Daud. Not content witli
mere destruction the later Moslem conquerors
went the lenf.^t!i of erectincj mosques upoii
the very sites of ihe temples they had destroved
What remained oi ancient Hindu architecture after
"lie raids of the Kl^ilji Kings were swept away
<hiring the Patlian rule and specialiy by the
vindictive bigotry of Sikandar Lodi. Tliere vvas a
lull for a time during the sovereignty of the first
Aloghul emperors ; and all through the tolerant
reign of Akbar there were even renovation and
restoration of tiindu structures. Emperor Akbar's
reply to Jehangir's query, noted in his Mcvioirs^
as to why he had prohibited ail manner of inter-
ference with the building of temples by the
Hindus, shows his principles of action and reveals
the inner nature of the man in him : " I find
myself a puissant monarch, the shadow of God
upon earth. I have seen that He bestows the
blessings of His gracious Providence upon all His
creatures without distinctioii. T|] ,c].r>n!fl \ disrl^''^-;.-:

132 THE HOLY CITY {BENARES) chap

withhold my compassion and indulgence from any
of those entrusted to my charge. With all of the
human race, with all of God's creatures, 1 am at
l^eace. Why then should I permit m\ self, under
any consideration, to be the cause of molestation
»>r aggression to anv' one f But his words of
wisdom had but little effect and were entirely lost
upon his son, to whose pergonal spite and animosit)'
tile commencement of fresii raids against the Hindu
temples was evidently due.

Temple-breaking reached its acme in the seven-
teenth century when, it is said, Aurangzeb in his
bigoted zeal began smashing shrines and altars
Jind destrox'ing numbers of Hindu temples, and
in his arrogance gave the holy city the name of
Muhainmadabad — which, however, never proceeded
beyond his official papers. How far Aurangzeb
had been responsible for all the destruction laid
at his door or whether they were the doings of
his over-zealous followers and provincial deputies,
is now open to question in view of the recent
discovery of a firman of that emperor referring to
tlie temples and Brahmans of Benares. ^ Be

(i) In course of my search after matenals for this work
1 came across an old FIRMAN of Emperor Aurangzeb at
Benares tending to show that he had prohibited all inter-
ference with the Brahmans of Benares who had been
disturbed by some Mabomedans in the exercise of their
religious rites, — a fact opposed to all accepted theories. I
gave a detailed account of this find in my paper rejld at the

VII MYTHS AND ANNALS 133

^.'^/'^y\ /\x\j \y \.

that as it may, though the Mahomedans converted
Hindu stones into Mahomedam mosques and
utilized the best of them for the purpose, and
though Aurangzeb's name has been connected with
the building of the highest musjid in Benares
with the very tall towers — known as Madhojl-ki~
d cora—xmoxx the ruins of the old temple of
Beni Madho and the erection of another over the
wrecks of the old Visweswara temple, still the
Hindus shut their ears to the call of Islam and
adhered staunchly to their old faith.

During the time of Emperor Babar most of the

meeting of the Asiatic Society of Beny^al on the ist. March
191 1 with a view to further researches being made in the
matter by antiquarian experts — which is reproduced here in
the Appendix with a translation of the Firman in question
into English. I may also add that in course of an interest-
ing conversation with an old Mahomedan gentleman of
culture, I was told that it was a custom in former times
to ascribe a mosque erected by any one in the kingdom
to the reigning sovereign as a mark of honor to him although th»^
latter might know nothing about it. From this he infers
that the mosque near the Jnan Bapi or that over the
Panchaganga or the Alamgiri Musjid in the interior was
never erected by Aurangzeb or any Mo^ul Emperor, for
they are so poor in architectural beauty and so small i;i
dimensions that they would hardly bear any comparison witri
tiiose admittedly erected by the Mogul Emperors at Agr;;,
Oelhi and other cities of India. 1 give the firman in ques-
tion and this opinion as they are for the scrutiny of the
scholars. I have, however, chosen to retain the popular
denomination of the mosques attributed to Aurangzeb for
their indenlification.

T54 THE HOLY CITY (BEAARES) char

places now occupied b}- stately temples and palaces
were covered witli jungles. It was about 1570

that Benares began to regain its
The Moguls ancient splendour during the regime

of a Rajput chief, Raja Soorjan of
]>oondee, who was entrusted by Akbar with the
government of Benares. According to the
Ayeen-t-Akbari, Benares m Akbar's time formed a
separate province under tlie Subah of Allahabad.
By the end of the seventeentli century it was a
ch'stinct Raj although subject to the Subadar of
Oudh. About 1722 A. D. it came to the hands

of Saadat Khan, the first Nawab of
later History Oudh after the disintegration of the

Moghul Empire ; and it was at last
ceded by the Nawab to the British in 1775. The
rest of the history of this city is intimately con-
nected with the house of the present Maharaja of
Benares to be resumed later on.^

For six long centuries now had the Mahomedans
held the city ; since its cession, liowever, it had a
quiet uneventful career with only one exceptional
occasion — that of the great Sepoy Mutiny of 1857,
when there was, as in other parts of India, some
disturbance at Benares as well, on the fourth dav of
June. Three regiments consisting of two thousand
sepoys rose in arms ; but the trouble soon
subsided after some bloodshed fpllovv^'ng the parallel

(i) See Chap. X^ post.

VII MYTHS AND ANNALS 135

in the rest of Northern India.

Reverenced as ever and held in the highest
sanctity throughout the whole of Hindu India,
Benares has since continued to enjoy peace and
prosperity and to be enriched with nnagnificent
temples, noble edifices and stately Ghats built by
the reises and Rajas and Maharajas of all parts of
this vast peninsula. Indeed there is hardly an
Indian prince of any consequence who has not a
residence of his own and a Chkatra or Dharmasala
here as a permanently endowed institution for
feeding the poor with large properties set apart for
the purpose ; for, this pre-eminently is the Puri
or city of Annapurna, the goddess of plenty, the
supplier of all world's food, where none must go
starving ! And even in the deep hours of night
pious people are met with going along the river-
hank with loads of eatables in search of the
liungry poor who might need them, and calling out
' Koi hhuka Jiai 7 — Is there anyone hungry?

PART SECOND

Chapter VIII

THE SHRINES AND TEMPLES

* I see him in the blazing sun

And in the thunder-cloud,
I hear him in the mighty roar
That rusheth through the forest hoar

When winds are raging loud.

I feel him in the silent dews,

By grateful earth betray'd ;
I feel him in the gentle showers,
The soft south wind, the breath of flowers,

The sunshine and the shade."

N impression that Benares is essentially
a city of temples large and small and
gardens wide and extensive, is what > ou
must have up to time been led to form.
But in the portion of the city we are
now about to visit — the purely Hindu one
of shrines and sacred spots that make
the holy Benares what it is, — it is only
temples and temples and the emblems of Siva
scattered about here, there and everywliere.
Nay, family temples abut even into portions of

138 THE HOL Y CITY {BENARES) chap.

residential houses, and small niches on the walls hold
Siva, — leading thus to the natural inference that the
predominant deity in Benares is Siva under this
symbolic form.

This form of worship, however, has not been
confined soleh' to the East, for, it prevailed widely
in the ancient times in Egypt,
Siva-worship Assyria and Babylon where emblems
similar to the Indian symbol have
been found in abundance. Osiris, who resembled
the Indian Siva in many respects, was also
worshipped under this form, and the city of
Memphis was exclusively sacred to him as Benares
is to Siva. The Romans also observed this form
of worship, and the Greeks worshipped Bacchus
under this symbol and set up numbers of such
emblems in many of the streets of their cities ; it
is also said that they used to carry a golden
emblem sixty yards in height in some of their
festive processions.^ In different parts of the
Western Hemisphere also, in Mexico, Peru, Yucatan
and Central America, many monolithic representa-
tions of the Lin^am have been found, and according
to the testimony of a companion of Fernando Cortez,
there was a large emblem in the temple at Panuco*.

(i) A. K* Datta's '' Bharatbarshiya Upasak Sampradaya,"

Pp. 145, 148.

(2) K. N« Bose's ''Hindu Civilization in Ancient America "
F, 10,

VIII THE SHRINES AND TEMPLES 1 39

\.r\.rsj\/-\/\/\/s.

In India, the worship of Siva became current
from the very eadiest of times ; and though this
emblem has no place among the types of the
mythos of the Vedas, mention has been made
of Siva therein under the denomination Rudra.
The Vedas, according to Max Muller, belong
approximately to 2000 B. C, while others ascribe
them to 6000 B. C. The renowned scholar
Bal Gangadhar Tilak, however, in his Arctic Home of
the Aryans, assigns the composition of the Vedas
to much earlier ages and places it in the times
when the Aryans were in the Arctic regions, his
theory being based upon some astronomical data
connected with the sunrise and the recurrence of
the seasons described in certain verses of the
Rig- Veda. In those early times, however, Siva appears
in the Vedas under the appellation of Rudra, the
father of the storm-god Maruta ; and thus the
worship of Siva seems to be almost as old as
Hinduism itself Later on in the sixth or seventh
century B. C. two kings of Kashmir named Asoka
and Jaloka were, according to the Rnj Tarangi7ii,
worshippers of Siva. Image-worship in temples,
however, was not in vogue in those early ages, and it
was through the medium of the sacrificial fire —
into which offerings made to the Vedic deities
were cast — that the}' were invoked and worshipped.
It was after the advent of Buddha in the fifth
century B. C, or rather, after the degeneration of

140 THE HOL V CITY (BENARES) chap.

his creed into the worship of his person and his
personal relics later on that image-worship of gods
and goddesses began in imitation of the Buddhists
and gradually supplanted the Vedic sacrifices
(Yajnas) at the household fire-side^.

That Siva was worshipped in his full-bodicd
image is amply testified by the existence of his
images cut in stone and by the glowing descriptions
given of him in the Puranas ; and even now the
practice has not grown quite obsolete. Iliuen
Thsang in his accounts mentions having seen a
statue of Maheswara Dcva in Benares a hundred
feet high ' grave and majestic, filling the spectator
with awe and seeming as it were indeed alive' —
which must afterwards have been destroyed by the
followers of Mahammad Ghori. The representation,
however, under the symbolic form seems to have
been noticed so far back as the fourth century
Vi. C. by Megasthenes when he stayed at the court of
Chandragupta at Pataliputra.

Worship under the impersonal symbol of the
phallus as connoting the first principle of animation
attributes to Siva the function of creation^ though
he is represented as the Destroyer or the dissolving
power in the Hindu Triad. This inconsistency is
usually sought to be explained away by saying
that according to the Hindu belief in the doctrme

(l) R. C. Dutt's History of Civilisation in Ancient India
P. 648.

VIII THE SHRINES AND TEMPLES 141

of repeated births and transmigrations, death or
destruction is but the opening of the portals of a
renewed existence. But the history of the origin
of this form of worship though shrouded in mys-
tery seems to f)oint to an interpretation very
different from what has been generally accepted
and suggests that the symbol far from having
origina/fy been, as is now supposed, a representation
ot the phallus was in reality that of a column of'
resplendtfit flames sanctified by being the abode of
Siva for a time. Prof Wilson in his Essays mid
Lectures 011 the Religion of the Hifidus remarks :
' It is not interwoven wirh their amusements, noi
must it be imagined that it offers any stimulus to
impure passions. The emblem — a plain column of
stone, or sometimes, a cone of plastic mud suggests
no offensive ideas.' In his preface to the Vishnu
Punina also he notes that ' there is nothing like
the phallic orgies of antiquity' even in the Lhiga
Parana, and that * it is all mystical and spirirual.'
It may be worth while to trace its mythical
origin and to attempt to draw out the original
conception from among the tangled masses of all
manner of stuff stocked together in the Puranas
which profess to narrate what had taken place ages
before their compilation.

When this visible world had not yet been
ushered into existence, there was even then the
all -pervading Radiance {Tefrs) that was Brahman

143 THE HOl.Y CITY (BEWARES.) Chap.

whose nature was Truth, Wisdom and Eteniitw
In Him arose a Desire ( for creation ) that took
shape and came to be known as Prakriti
What the or Maya ( ilhision ) ; and from the same
Pdranis say source from which iVakriti came, origi-
nated Punisha or Xarayana (Vishnu;.
This was the very first act in the great drama
of creation — the first manifestation of the Nirgmia.
or neuter and unconditioned Brahuian pa^sinc^
into a conditioned state. Then came liJralima
into beini^ from out of a lotus sprintrini^^-
from the navel of Vishnu as he rech'ned upon llic
body of tl'.e serpent Ananta (the endless, the
symbol of Eternity) and floated asleep upon the
billowy surface of the vast chaotic deep. Later on
lirahma and Vishnu confronted each other, and
there were heated disputations between them, each
claiming to be the source of the other's origin and
to be the sole lord of creation. In order to put
an end to their quarrels * there arose before them
a resplendent Sign {Lhigaifi) ^ of light composed of
thousands of burning flames like unto the conflagra-
tions of all-destroying time. Increase or decay it
had none, nor beginning, nor middle, r.or end ; it
was without a parallel, unascertainable, undivulged and

(i) Sign, token, emblem, anylliinnr which diytinguishe'^ >.r
tlcra'.es. -Sir .M'.^aier Williams,

VIII THE SHRINES AXD TEMPLES 143

the root-cause of the Universf^.' ^ Dismayed at
this incomprehensible manifestation, they attempted
to find out what this great pile of flame was, but
failed. Then, there formed up before them a
mii^hty figure of manifold beauty with five faces
and ten arms and of the delicate hue of camphor.
Him they came to realise as MaJieswara ^, the
Creator of the Universe. And as they bent before
him . and chanted hymns in his praise, ' the
Stainless one {Nira}ija)ia) ' was pleased, and in
the form of Sound Divine {Logos ?) immerged into
tliat same S/'c^-n and stayed there smiling -^.•'
l>rahma and Vishnu humbled themselves before
Him, and He explained to them that it was fr<Mn
out of ////// alone that they had Vjoth sprung into
being. He then assigned to Brahma and Vishnu
the duties of the creation and the continuation of
the universe, reserving to himself the Inunction ot

^^4^r§r^r*|-^^mf^JTV7[SrTsfr^*rrfl I

(2) An appellation of Siva.

(3) Lit, the stainless ; also, an appellation of Siva.

(4) ^»'??f|: ?gi^r«^Vi f%r of'9?lf''T?,^: I

144 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap.

!aya or making all things merge into their
perennial source. '

Such is the account furnished by the

Puranas in their chapters on cosmogony

n^garding the conception, of Siva as the very
first agent of the unconditioned Brahman in the
work of creation — his function as such ceasing with
the relegation of the task of continuing this work
to Brahma. Accepted thus to be the Creator par
excellence the cylindrical column of uprising flames
of fire wherein he had rested after he became
manifest came to be symbolised to represent
him — even as the sacred Cross upon which the
Messiah had last rested while passing away came
to symbolise his creed. A class of Sivaite ascetics,
the Jangams, carry this emblen pendent from their
necks as a section of the followers of Christ carry
small representations of the Cross in wood or stone
or metal upon their persons in the very same way.

The original conception of the symbol would
thus appear to be very different from its modern
significance. Besides representing the column of
flames, the Sign of Siva has also been described
as tnadhya-vrittam — which makes it of a round or
spheroidal shape — covered all over with fiery

(T) Vide Siva Puranam — J nana Samhita, Chs. II and III ;
Lin^a Puranam — Purva Bhaga, Chs- XVIII and XIX j and
i4l.'^o, Brahmanda Puranam, Chs HX.

VIII THE SHRINES AND TEMPLES 145

radiance. ' The word lingam itself had thus no
technical meaning exclusively attached to it, but
signified merely a sign or emblem. By association
of ideas the symbolic representation of Siva as iJie
first Creatof came to be connected with Xho. function
of creation. Hence, when the unmaterial column of
uprising flame was later on materialised by its
representation in jewels, stone or earth, it c(77ne to
be viewed as a representation of the phallus as the
animating principle in its grosser earthly aspect^ and
the agency of the Divine Will as the root-cause of
creation was thus entirely lost sight of and
forgotten. And as all things corporeal must have
supports to rest upon, an addition of a Vedi or
pedestal was made to it ; and — by further develop-
ment of the coarse idea — this appurtenance came
to be regarded as representing the goddess Gauri. The
fact that the Mahanirvana Tantram keeps the two
portions of the symbol altogether distinct * lends
support to the view that the latter was merely a
later addition. Thus what is ^low taken, no doubt,
as phallic emblem was in origin only a representa-
tion of a column of flames and one of the
purest conceptions of the Hindu mythology. Honi

(i) "b^* *{«?f^^ wm fsfypr^sf^nr 1

(2) XIV Ullasa, 24, 43 76,

146 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap.

soit qui mat y pense is, therefore, all that can be
said of its being viewed in any other light. So,
an enquiry into its origin before we start on our
pilgrimage in this City of Siva has not perhaps
been altogether profitless.

We may now dive into the interior, the mazes
of narrow lanes and by-lanes in which will be
observed to be a striking feature in this quarter.

There is no question of levels here—it
Benares Lanes is all ups and downs ! A short distance

forward as you advance half a dozen
or more of broad stony steps come to view along
the stairs-like stone-paved path which you must
ascend ; continue on your way, and perhaps there
would soon be some fresh ones to descend, followed
by some more leading you higher up ; and thus
it is all the way on, — especially in the eastern
quarter towards the river-bank ; and not infrequently
would you be taken aback on being confronted by
the remnants of the old ntuhulla ( ward ) gates at
the head of such lanes in the shape of narrow
openings with door-frames attached to them, and
apprehend that you are being led into the premises
of the private owners of some great mansion close by.
In former times, there stood real doors in those
frames, which used to be kept closed at night to
no little discomfort and inconvenience of certain
classes of the night-roving gentry. With superior
provisions for the safety and security of life and

VI I r THE SHRINES AND TEMPLES 147

property now, the practice has of late been
discontinued, and the doors have disappeared. Often
hardly wide enough for more than a couple of
human beings to w^lk abreast — not to speak of an
elephant or a camel of dece-Rt proportions— you
find such an alley often blocked by huge peregri-
nating bulls swaying from side to side in uncertain
drunken gait, for which you must make way by
standing aside. Emancipated from human slavery
by their masters' acts of piety and turned adrift,
they are now ownerless and roam faros naUircB, and
have quite a pleasant time of it — though often
calling forth unpleasant ejaculations far from being
pious from the profane lips of the keepers of road-
side stalls of edibles which they freely patronise.
The houses along these narrow lan-es^ generally
three to five stories higjj ( Plate XI, 5 ) with only
patches of the blue heavens peering overhead, cause
the lanes to look narrower and make a stranger
feel a sense of oppressive closeness. They impart,
however, a picturesque aspect to these winding
lanes, and one might fancy hirrsseif roving in an
old town of Spain or Southern Italy, thinks
Mr. Havell, were it not for the surroundings of the
temples and the people.

Perhaps this should suffice for a short sketch
of the general outlook ; and if your weariness i"S
off and your energy renovated by a night's sound
sleep, we may by your leave start on our rambles

148 THE HOLY CITY {BENARES)

to hav*e a look at the sacred shrines and temples

— which, according to Sir William

The Temples Hunter numbered 1454 besides smaller

ones, to 272 mosques of the

Mahomedans in 1885. It is said Raja Man Singh

of Jaipur, true to a vow he had taken, presented

Benares with a lakh of temples all built in a

single night, — these ranging from the larger ones

to the very diminutive models in stone you often

meet with everywhere l}'ing upon the ground, to

make i.p the number.

^5\

4i <^
c o

.'5 -^

^5^

^
3

Q ^

. p _^

. a.
"5 S

6 P
£ ^

P. 14(1

( 1 )

On The East

O start with then, we shall first
direct our steps towards the
DASASWA^fEDH Ghat ( Plate IV, I ).
The soft reddish glow on
Dasaswamedh the murky east is diffu-
Gliat sing itself into the dark

blue above following the
track as it were of the pioneering
Twilight, that like a gleesome virgin
had started in advance warbling in the voice of
the early cuckoo

*I come in the breath of the waken'd breeie

I kiss the flowers, and I bend the trees ;

And I shake the dew, which had fallen by night

From its throne, on the lily's pure bosom of white.'

The solemn hush that had preceded the approach-
ing dawn seems now to be breaking into a
soit murmur, and light footsteps are heard tripping
down the scone-paved stairs to the accompaniment
of the humming chants of sacred hymns. Up
betimes even before the waking day the pious and
the devout few have come from afar for their
.ea;"ly ,ip:iorning ablutions. Reverently they approach

TSa THE HOL Y CITY (BENARES) chap.

the haly stream', and preparatory tO' descendinar
into it bend down and touch the water with the
finger-tips and sprinkle a ^^w drops upon their
heads — for the i^^t must rrot corme in contact
with the holy water first.

The great orb of fiery r^d^ tes now half risen,
above the sky-line defined against the green tree^
tops beyond the spreaiding sands. With gentle
caresses does it rotl aside the white flimsy veil
of mist which half conceals the blushing looks of
the lovdy Ganges gliding like a msaiden coy in
her onward course. Presently across thee rippling
expanse of lier ample bosom, a stately column of
glowing crimson lies recumbent — in fruitless tremulous
attempt^ as it were^ to bar her passage. Thus
would fond Love ever strive to Iwld Life in close
embrace and arrest her wonted course ! But tide,,
like time, ever fbl'fows her destined course and
would tarry for none — realising whrch,. perhaps, the
shining pile thins a\¥ay m diespair^. the fiery orb
begins to recede and ascends higher amd liigher ; and
the freed stream proceeds antramimelled in her gltsten-
rng route. A mild perfume of agreeable incense
floating in the afr now diverts your attention and
regales your senses -, and soft and ^weet falls the
delicious nahnlrat music upK>n your ears borne on
the wind from some temples close by, interrupted
by occasional tinkling of bells and clanging of
gongs,: — a grand amd solemm welcome to the;

VIII SHRINES OJV 7 HE EA^T 151

coming day and announcement of early invocation
to the gracious gods.

Upon the spacious terrace of the lofty temple
standing prominent on the north of the ghat, the
cool morning breeze redolent with the odour of
sanctity jusr grazes by and gently fans your
cheeks. In the brightening light the long bridge
from Rajghat spanning the river looks clear and
distinct on the left, and towers and turrets come
out to view in a ruddy hue blended with radiant
white ; and to the right, the crescent bank studded
with temples and palaces on mighty foundations
of massive stone stretches out towards the
south till they merge away in the morning haze.
A scene of unique grandeur full-bathed in the
glamour of the day's opening eye unfolds before
)'our wondering vision : the tall turrets and gold-
tipped spires of unnumbered temples, the lofty
walls and lovely balconies of stately palaces, the
broad stone-paved stairs running along the numerous
ghat=; — all lining the great arc of the ancient bank
in a medley of variegated colours !

The day is now full awake and the Dasaswamedh
Ghat — hallowed by its association with the great
god Brahma's Ten-horse Sacrifice — seems now
to wear its every-day garb, crowded with thronging
bathers from far and near. Old men and young
are pouring in to take their accustomed dip in the
holy water, and matrons and young women and little

152 THE HOLY CITY {BENARES) chap.

' \j v/\ ^ r\j\y\/\,*\/ ^ v'\y\.' \-^ V.' vXvv^v/xy \^\

ones too in their robes of varied hues — the bright
red and green and yellow of the Southerners
mixing with the paler shades of the north-west
and the pure white of Bengal. Ablutions and
morning prayers over, and purified in body and
feeling a sense of sanctification suffusing their frames,
they would, most of them, now go on their jattras
or daily rounds of visit to the holy shrines. Some
over the edge of the water there linger awhile and
sit in their wet clothes immersed in devotion ; and
an interesting group of fresh-bathed elderly up-
country dames sit yonder in a circle and chant
hymns in soft mutters and throw flowers and
pinches of rice into a flat brass dish lying in the
middle.

We shall now leave this sacred ghat, the most

frequented and one of the holiest here, and follow

a batch of bathers to the Golden Temple of

Viswesivara^ the presiding deity and

To the Golden the premier god of all Benares. Up

Temple the steps as you proceed towards the

highway, flower-stalls prominent with
their wealth of golden marigold and barbers' shops
with their sundries ranged before them appear on
the right and left, as do also the platforms of the
ghatia Brahmans squatting under huge palm-leaf
umbrellas here and there inviting the patronage of
customers. A little further on, and the lame, the
blind, the leper and the decrepit line the path m

VIII SHRINES ON THE EAST 153

company with numbers of old wrinkled women and
beggars, all seated with small pieces of cloth spread
out in front of them, into which the pious — the
women-folk mostly — throw in pinches of rice or
pulse and sometimes a few cowries or pieces of
copper as they trace their way back after their
morning bath.

Emerging into the broad road and wending
northward, we leave the Phk-and-vegetable Market
on the right, and arrive at the entrance to the
narrow lane leading to the Golden Temple flanked
on either side with tempting sweets-shops bright
with their 'white and brown wares. An interesting
couple of small ill-clad urchins here stand hand in
hand a little way aside, and their lips water with
anticipations of untasted pleasure and longing as
they watch the customers handling the dream
objects of their paradise. Brahmans now and much
too many of them accost you here volunteering to
conduct you to the holy shrine — with sly expecta-
tions of being recompensed for their troubles at
the end. Glittering brass and aluminium and
German silver wares and cheap German imitations
of Indian paintings meet your ^y^s on either side
as you proceed up the lane.

Soon on the right in a small ill-lighted chamber
appears the white marble statue of Sankaracharya,
partly mutilated, and further on Kotilingcsivara Siva

154 THE HOLY CITY {BEAARES) chap.

in an unassuming niche by the road-side. On the
left, as you proceed, lies the temple of Sakshi
ViNAYAK Ganesha containing a large red image
of Ganesha in a spacious quadrangle to which the
pilgrims resort after visiting the other shrines in
order that this god may bear witness to the fact
of their having performed the pilgrimage.

In fact this lane and the next by-lane to the
right that curves towards the east from it, contain
sacred shrines too numero'is to mention. Just at
the entrance to this latter stands the red image
of DJmndhiraj Ganesha on the left and some flower-
stalls on the right, and the rush of pilgrims from
all India is thick at this narrow opening. The
stone-paved pathway as you dive into it is moist
with mud and water from the bare feet of thousands
of worshippers passing this way, the majority of
them with votive offerings of flowers, bad leaves
and water-pots in their hands filled from the holy
stream. Shops bright with miniature brass statuettes
of gods and goddesses and stone and crystal
emblems of Siva and sundry other appurtenances
of worship, line this by-lane till you arrive near
the famous temple of Annapurna.

The stately temple has a fine and very elaborately'
worked tower and a dome supported upon carved
and ornamented pillars. Admitted through the main
entrance with a pair of large brass doors with
highly finished repousse work upon them, the

VIII SHRINES ON THE EAST 155

floor of the open hall beneath the dome is
found to be a piece of beautifut
Arnapurna mosaic in white and black marbl?
It was about the beginning of the
eighteenth century that this temple was erected b>
the Raja of Poona ' and was later on greatl>
embellished by the famous Rani Bhawani of Nattore
in Bengal. The golden face only of the goddess
is visible from out of the profusion of garlands
of marigold covering the whole body. This in
sanctity is next only to Visweswara ; and
tradition runs that Siva had once been going
a-begging all over the three worlds but could find
no food an\'where, till at the advice of Laksmi
he came to this place where his spouse Annapurna
had spirited away all the provisions of the universe.
Here he was sumptuously fed by the latter, and
was so gratified and so much elated with joy that
he installed the image of Annapurna at Kasi and
founded the cit\' in her honor and for her worship.
This episode is graphically depicted in the Yomsrain
Temple founded by the late Krishnananda Swami
at Hous-Kattra in front of the Dasaswamedh
Thana ( Police Station ), where a picturesque golden
image of Annapurna is represented feeding Siva
who stands in front with a bowl in hand — one
of the very few full-bodied images of Siva to be

(i) According to Raja Jai Narain Ghoshal, it was erected
by a Marhatta named Vishnu Mahadec.

156 THE HOLY CITY {BENARES') chap.

met with in Benares. In the Annapurna temple
are also to be seen images of RadJia Krishna,
Ganesha, Hanuman the monkey-god, and the striking
figure of Surya-graha ( the sun-god ) upon his
seven-horse chariot Numbers of beggars daily line
the road outside the temple and obtain alms as a
regular institution.

Proceeding onward, your eyes light upon the
silver-face of the bodiless Sani-deva ( Saturn ) on
•^he right with garlands of marigold hanging below
It But soft, for, quite blocking the narrow lane
•"•here advances a light red and white purdah
enclosure held on by half a dozen or more of
liveried servants shining in scarlet and yellow. It
is some Rani or princess on a visit to the shrines
and bent on worship who has thus been effectually
shut out from the vuli^ar gaze of strangers and
aliens. Slow it moves, this lightsome fabric — and
lesser folks must wait till she walks away after
finishing her devotions.

So, after a brief haltage, you now approach the

far-famed Golden Temple lying to the left

dedicated to ViSWESWARA, the Holy

The Golden of the Hclies and the highest in

Temple sanctity in all Benares. The temple

propc^r would not be visible until you

pass through the gate and come to the quadrangle

where it stands with a golden dome between two

tall towering spires each fifty-one feet high ; and

VIII SHRINES ON THE EAST i^j

X /^'^ /% /^--vy W' v> \

the floor below is inlaid with black and white
marble — some of them covered with the names
of their pious donors. The spire to the right
with a golden trident surmounting it and a golden
streamer by its side is also shining like burnished
gold (Plate X, 6) ; the other spire to the left of
the golden dome is of red sandstone. The dome
and the spires are all richly carved with various
designs of flowers and foliage and images of gods
and goddesses executed in the old Hindu style.
Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the Lion of the Punjab,
was said to have been so impressed by the holiness
of the city that he covered the spire and the
dome of this temple with plated gold — some say,
thickly gilt copper — that dazzles the eye of the
visitor to this day.

The temple itself is said to have been built by

the Marhatta prince Peshwa Baji Rao about 172 1

and later on enlarged and beautified

Ahalya Bai at great costs by that pious Royal

Princess, the great Ahalya Bai, who

ruled at Indore from 1766 to 1795 and to whose

munificence Benares owes the magnificent ghat

which bears her name and some fine temples as

well. In other parts of India, too — notably in

Mysore, Malwa, Rameswaram, Kedarnath, Gaya

and Puri — are to be found numbers of temples,

Dharmashalas, wells, roads and other works of public

utility which immortalise the memory of this pious

! 58 THE HOL V CIT V (BENARES) Chap,

lady, the Vishnupada temple at Gaya among
these being the greatest and the grandest of them
all. The present temple of Visweswara is only a
poor substitute for the the original one that was
destroyed by the Mahomedans to make room for
their mosque ; the former was more spacious and
commodious as would appear from the stately
ruins we shall presently see in its old site close
by (Plate V,2). Mr. Neville writes that '' the
original temple, it would seem, was built on the
high ground occupied by the (Jarmichael Library,
and is believed to have been destroyed by
Shahabuddin Ghori in 1494. A second temple
was erected soon after between the Library and
the present structure : and this was destroyed by
Auran^zsb, who built a mosque out of the materials,
the walls displaying a large amount of old Hindu

Under the golden spire on the right inside the

hio-hly carved silver door-way is the famous

emblem in black marble — a plain

Visweswara lingam ef uncarved stone — of the

great god VlSWESWARA, the founder

of the holy city, in the low cistern-like seat on

the floor railed round in silver and filled with

water and offerings of flowers and garlands and

one/ leaves. Under the western spire are the

emblems Dandapaniswaj^a and Swayainbhu and

images of some other gods in the niches of the

VIII SHRINES ON THE EAST 159

apartment. In the open hall in the middle under
the golden dome is another white marble emblem
known as Vaikunteswara Siva. Four large bells —
the largest one on the north side a gift of the
Raja of Nepal— hang from the ceiling above. On
all sides of the quadrangle are open verandahs
filled with emblems and images, — the most important
among which, located in the four corners, are
Abiniukteswara Siva, Annapurna, Parvati in an
attitude of prayer, and Laks^ni Narain ; — and even
the courtyard below locate numbers of emblems,
S'.inischaresivara being one of them.

Passing out by a side-coor on the north-cast
corner^ numbers of stone emblems wht^le and
mutilated are observed lying strewn about in utter
disorder by the back-wall of the building ; the:^e
probab!}- belonged to the old Visweswara temple
that was destroyed. A little further off on the
left is a small house locating a large emblem
known as Dhanneswara Siva with a very large
number of smaller ones arranged in orderly rows
constituting what is known as the Deva-Sava or
Siva's court. In this connection mention may be
made of one other very sacred spot, nay, one of
the very highest sanctity, known as the Antargriha
( the inner home ) lying within the limits of the
four shrines at four corners — ^of Manikarnikeswara
on the east, Brahmeswara on the south, Gokar^ia
on the west, and Bharbhuteswara on the north.

i6o THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap.

'■\/-\J-\y'.J^r^r,

From the early dawn till the very depth of
night the temple of Visweswara is filled with priests
and devout worshippers from all parts of India
chanting the praises of Siva or merely uttering the
invocation, *Hara, Hara', 'Bom, Bom'. The rush
in front of the door of Visweswara's apartment is
extremely great and an eager crowd press and
jostle to get in and just have a glance at the
deity. The dim room where a light is ever
burning is rendered dimmer by the crowd flocking
at the door and is resounding with the chants of
mufitras as the worshippers bathe the god with
the holy water and present their offerings. This
duty over, they visit and pay their homage to
the other gods and goddesses located in the temple
and make substantial presents in small coins to
the priests sitting in front of them not forgetting
the beggars as well, and take last of all a few rounds
about the temple, pass out by the side-door, and
proteed to the other shrines.

The Arati — the evening invocation of Visweswara

—is a sight to see. The brightly illuminated chamber

is filled with the fragrance of burning

The Arati incense, and heaps of sweet scented

flowers and garlands almost shut out

the large emblem from view ; and as a dozen

Brahmans with the five-rayed lights {Pancha-

pradipd ) in their right hands and tinkling bells

in their left wave them in unison with the

VIII SHRIXES ON THE EAST i6i

solemn Vedic chants and keep on calling 'Sanibko\
'Sambho' ( an epithet of Siva ), the effect is simply
sublime, to say nothing of its being exceedingly
impressive ; and it is hard for one to avoid
being touched by the pervading religious fervour
and not to feel a sense of isolation from the
surroundings and the visible leading to the thought
of an invisible Presence beyond.

Whatever Hinduism is to casual observers, to
those who seriously study it as it is in the abstract

and as shorn of the grotesqueness
Hludu Ideas that time has undoubtedly attached to

some of its rituals and a portion of its
exterior, it is a religion embodying a profusion
of allegorical representations of the principles
manifest in the Universe leading to the
contemplation of the one Supreme Essence, the root

and cause of all, a religion pre-eminently fitting

all stages of life and all degrees of advancement,
ranging from the primitive simplicity — which
can hav^e no grasp of the abstract and for which
the attributes of the Infinite have to be materialised
within the circumscribed limits of visible forms
and shapes, — and rising to the highest culture of
the mind indulging in introspective vision and
dealing with the primal Essence, as in the case
of the great Vojs;-ees whose perception ranges in the
Beyond and to whcm the visible is but an unreality
and an illusion.

II —

i62 THE HOL V CI J Y {BENARES) chap.

In the dim beginning of the life-history of
Man, the Child in Nature finds the hideous gloom
of the night dispdled by the glorious sun-rise that
makes the Earth manifest to sight, and hears the
roaring thunder in the rolling clouds that melt in
welcome showers to cool the parched earth. He
watches the endless blue of the mighty ocean
surging mysteriously in immense billows and the
.rushing gale lashing the waves into masses of
ebullient foam. He feels the sweet breath of the
Zephyr bracing his frame and gladdening his heart,
and observes how the recurring seasons bring forth
fresh bloom to adorn the earth. In awe and
wonder he stoops to adore and pours forth a paean
of praise, — and up arise in his vision the glorious
configurations of Savitd, htdra^ Marut, Varuna, and
the other deities to bless and console and allay
the agitations of his mind. As nature's phenomena
grow familiar by repititions and orderly successions,
agencies regulating them come to be looked for ;
the mind begins to think, and — speaking in broad
generalisations, — the circle is narrowed, and the
mighty Trinity, Brahma, Vishnu and Siva stand
out pre-eminent above all, as the essential energies
of origination, preservation and transmutation of all
kinds. By a process of abstraction, as the mind
t:^rows maturer, the One above the Three, self-con-
tained and comprehending them all, the Supreme
Cause — Brahman, — void of shape or form,
beyond conception and comprehension glows out

VIII SHRLVES ON- THE EAST 163

and shines forth above all the rest as the
Creator as well as the subsisteiit Essence of all —
the all-pervading Universal Soul wherein all things
animate and inanimate hold their being as parts
of the Universal Whole. The mysterious voice of
nature — the booming '0-m* — suffusing the universe,
then sounds in his mental ear as the Mother of
all Knowledge, uplifting him above the material
world and holding out before his mind's eye the
glory of the Light Divine — even of " Him who,''
as tke Vedas proclaim, " exists by Himself, whom
the spirit alone can perceive, who is imperceptible
to the organs of sense, who is without visible
parts, eternal, the soul of all beings, and whom
none can comprehend." This, perhaps, is the
conception of the highest form of the living
Hinduism, where the much-dreaded idol does not
intervene.

All races and nations living under the sun are
struck by the phenomena of Nature in the primi-
tive ages in the self-same way or with but slight
variations. As the expanding wisdom of the parent
race is transmitted as a precious heritage to the
succeeding generations of communities as well as
nations, notions thus imbibed and ideas based upon
the knowledge of their fathers usurp and fa-^ten upon
their mind and are sometimes even improved upon ;
and the wonders of Nature gradually lose their former
glamour in their eyes and the manifestations of

i64 THE HOLY CfTY (/i/tXAK/iS) Cuaf.

Nature's God as sx-mbolised hy their fathers lose
all their [>()etry and charm. The later conceptions
of Zeus, Neptune, Hy[>erion ai.d the rest of the
gods of the Western pantheon — standing out in
most cases as but brotliers twin to their Eastern
prototypes, — and their subsequent disappearance
with the development of philosophical theology
leading to the contemplation of the Supreme
Essence, may serve as instances in point. Coming
to modern times, it is the Hindus only who
present the spectacle of the conservation of all the
various .stages of the development of their ideas
of the Divinity as being adapted to the capacity and
comprehension of the different grades of intellects of
their ma.sses, — while others have discarded all that was
old and have striven to stick fast to the later growths
alone, holding out the self-same ideal before all
irrespective of the question of their capacity to
grasp it. Thus it is that with the Hindus religion
has still been a matter of the heart and not of
the head ale re, and not a mere convention and
leisure-hour oKservance but a part of life itself, to
the man of the highest culture in the same way
as to (me of the weakest intellect.

A Hindu wlio has not attained the requisite
training for directing his thoughts to the concep-
tion of the Absolute, localises his contemplation
in visible .'^) mbols or material emblems,— much as
the veiic.<-t tvro falls if;cn his A'^I.a ar.d Beta to

VIII SHRINES OV THE EAST 165

enable him tc grapple with the hii^hest flights of
scientific formulae ; his mind, however, travels
beyond them and ranges higher above. But no
Hindu ever believes that this symbol or emblem
or image, be it earth, stone, or wood, is ever
the God he worships though he invests it with
the Spirit Divitte by a particular process of invo-
cation {Pmnpratishthd). ^ All the satne, however,
he comes eventually to acquire the same kind of
love and veneration towards these aids to his
devotions as the Christian has for his Cross or
the stone image of the Immaculate Virgin
or his revealed Scripture or the Buddhist
for his statuette of the Enlightened One, or the
Jaina for his Arhat, or the Mahomedan for his

U) It may not be out of place to quote Kere what
the Rev. E. R. Hull remarks in his le ture on "HINDUISM"
''As regards the use of idols or im-i<^es, it is well to
be on our guard against the somewhat naive idea of
*stock-and-stone worship' prevalent among many, viz., the
notion that image-worshippers really worship material
objects, viewing them at the same time simply as
such . . . Where concrete object is directly made an
object of adoration, that is always because it is viewed
not merely as the material thing which it appears but
because it is invisibly permeated or animated by the
presence of spirit, of which it is merely the dw( lling-
piace and vehicle ; Cf. the doctrine of consubstantiation
and transubstantiation in the Blessed Eucharist. Hindus
have their recognised ritual for inducing the prebence
^f (he God: and even of causing its cessation."

i66 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap.

Holy Book and the personality of his Prophet, — in
all .which cases of these aids to their devotions
tiie veneration meant for the Ideal is transferred
to the Viable and the Material, only in van-ini;-
clegrees. Their churches and mosques and shrines^
no less than the symbolic Cross or statuette_, are
held in sanctity not as the materfal dwelling-places
or representations of the Eternal One,— Z^?*' His
abode, according to all creeds, is the pervadiii^
universe and beyond, — but only as places of worship
or as repositories of relics, or as merely hallowed
by associations ; and so are the temples and
shrines of the Hindus enshrining His manifestations
under various allegoncal representations ; and theirs
is the sublime realisation that 'this vast universe
is the sacred temple of Brahman and the
mind itself is His sacred shrine". The tail
sticks of wax burning before the Crucified Son —
the glorious personification of man's suffering for
his brother-man^ — or the lights swinging from the
ceiling or the incense placed in censers in the
empty mosques and churches, shed forth the same
amount of lustre and fragrance, and the tolling
bells from the tops of the steeples and the Muezzins'
piercing call to prayer thrill with the same religious
fervour as do their prototj^pes in the Hindu temples.
Rites and ceremonials grotesque or otherwise
imposed by priest-crafts, and superstitions and
caste-prejudices hem round all religions in some
form or other» though their respective votaries

VIII SHRINES ON THE EAST 167

might be loth to admit ; but in spite of its having-
an ordered system of its own fitting in with all
grades of advancement, it is Hinduism alone that
is too often condemned and maligned for the simple
reason that it is misunderstood or not understood
at all b}^ the casual on-lookers who care not to
know and only confine their gaze to the merest
excrescences in its crudest forms. Mr. Burn^, an
alien authority, who made a special study of the
subject in course of the Census operations of 1901
remarks thus in respect to the faith of even the
commonest populace, subject among all nations to""
ignorant superstitions in the matter of their creeds
and beliefs : " The great majority of Hindus have
a firm belief in Ofie Supreme God, called Bhagwan,
Parameswar, Iswara, or Narain. . . . This involved
a clear idea of a single personal God, . . . This
is not limited to the more intelligent, but is
distinctly characteristic of the Hindus as a whole.*'
So, theirs is not a hopeless case altogether as
many are apt to think, and they may still
hope for salvation through faith and piety and
righteousness which are the common assets of all
religions and before which the varied observances
and conventionalisms of diverse creeds shrink into
trivialities and nothingness.

We have perhaps digressed a great deal, — have
we ? But this may to some extent help to palliate
our ruffled feelings if what we shall presently'

i68 THE HOLY CITY {BEXARES) chap.

observe in this quarter give us any moral shock
at the sight of what may look like rampant idolatory.
So we had better leave off reflections for the
present and look about.

By the back-door of the Golden Temple and
past the Deva Sabha we come to the spacious

court where lie the J NAN Bapi well
Jnan Bapi and Gauri Sinkar Siva, the seated

figure of Siva with Parvati upon his
thigh. Close by rests in blissful idleness the huge
stone bull Nandi, painted vermilion and about seven
feet high, presented by the Maharaja of Nepal, — a
bold and beautiful piece of sculpture. A block of flat
shapeless stone underneath the seat of Gauri
Sankar is venerated under the name of Tarakeswara
Sivn. The spacious temple sheltering the Jnan
Bapi has a colonnade of nearly a hundred artistically
carved stone pillars supporting the roof ( Plate X, i )
and was erected in 1828 by Maharani Baija
Bai, the widow of Daulat Rao Scindhia, an I affords
room enough to numbers of persons lur their
religious observances.

Iron railings enclose the raised walls of the
famous well going by the name of Jnan Bapi or
J'dan Kup ( the Well of Wisdom ) — wherein is said
to have been hid the emblem of Siva, the original
one of the old temple of V^isweswara, thrown in by
the priests when under Aurangzeb's orders the
Moguls were said to have destroyed the old

VIII SI7K/NES ON THE EA'^T 169

N,/xy N >^yN.'Ay %/\

temple. Legend relates that once in the olden
ages of the gods, 'when no clouds would pour on
earth, and no streams nor rivers were there, nor
water but in the seas «^alt and sweet, Ishana — the
Lord of the North-eastern quarter of the sky, — in
course of his rambles arrived at Kasi then known
as Ananda Kanan ( the Bower of Bliss ) and found
a resplendent lin^am shining in its brilliance'.
Wishing to lave it in cold water he took Siva's
trident and gave a thrust at this spot, and water
'clean and pure like the hearts of the good and
white as the bright moonshine', welled out in
abundance. Thus came this well into existence
and being sacred to Siva became famous as the
' Well of Wisdom' — for the word 'Siva' also signifies
Jnan or 'wisdom'. By the side of the well sits
an old Brahman with a pitcher and a spoon ready
to deal out the water of wisdom to the devout
who reverently accepts it in his open palm held
cup-shape and sips a i^w drops therefrom.

An open courtyard outside this temple with

another banyan tree and the image of Gangeswara

Siva at its foot, formed at one time a debatable

ground over which the Hindus and the Mahomedans

fought for long until the Magistrate of

Aurangzeb^s Benares interfered. And as a result, a

Mosque do.)i-u^ay erected by the latter along

the enclosure wall of the. a Ijoining

mosque to overlook the courtyard had to be clo^eJ up

170 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap.

\r\ /N /^yNj^yXy \yXy-v/Vv.'\^^' V% /V/N./^ y

with bricks, and remains to this day in that state.
Above a raised platform stands this mosque with
a small reservoir of water in front, and the
popular belief is that Aurangzeb ca-ised it to be built
about 1669 upon the site of the former Visweswara
temple after its demolition. ^

The remains of the old temple ( Plate V, 2 ) now
existing in the ruins, — into which the western wall
of the mosque has evidently been built, — go to
prove that the old one was much larger and more
spacious and imposing than the present Golden
Temple. The elaborate and highly ornate carvings
upon the ruined wall and the arches of the door-
way are still to be seen at the back of the mosque ;
and the traces of a c Duple of peacocks and a pair
of parrots scooped out of the carvings upon the
central arch of the wall — still clearly visible in
outlines — point to their undoubted Hindu origin,
for the Mahomedans would not allow any represen-
tation of an animate being — the handiwork of the
Almighty — to be made upon their structures. The

(i) According to General Cunningham, however, it was
Jehangir who 'destroyed the great temple of Visweswara which
was built by Raja Man Singh at Banaras at a cost of 36
lakhs of Rupees and built the Jimi Musjid on its site.'
Evidently, he must have meant the Adi-Visweswara temple
over the other side of the Chauk Road near to which is a
small mosque reputed to have been built by Jehangir upon
the site of the old temple. Vide Cunningham's Archaeological
Survey Reports Vol- III, p. 7.

VIII SHRINES ON THE EAST 171

-^/-..y^_/-^y-v./\^-v ■V'V'-V'-'w--\yvyv/v/ ./'^y^^' -^""v/'-y ^

existence of the ruined wall impresses one with
the idea that the builders of the mosque suffered
it to stand to serve as a memento of Moslem
triumph in this the most sacred spot of the Hindus.
The terrace which is about five feet higher than
the courtyard upon which this mosque stands, would
seem to have been erected upon some pillars of
Buddhistic design. Cell-like recesses, as are found
in temple-monasteries of the earlier times, are to be
seen here also below the terrace and tend to show
that there had once been a Buddhistic structure
on the spot over which the Hindu temple must
have been erected after the fall of Buddhism, to
be supplanted in its turn by Aurangzeb's mosque
later on.

Coming out of this lane into the broad road

leading to the Chauk, we may have a look at the

temple of Adi-Visweswara— a large

Adi-Visweswara Siva emblem — to the north-west beyond

Aurangzeb's mosque upon a terrace over

a small rising ground, a little way off from the

Carmichael Library. It is about sixty feet high and

is said to have been built after the demolition of the

magnificent temple erected by Raja Man Singh of

Jaipore at a cost of " nearly thirty-six laks of five

methkally ashrefis." Jehangir notes in his 'Memoirs

that after throwing down the said temple, '* on the

spot and with the very same materials, I erected

the great mosque, because the very name of lslc«m

172 THE HOLY CITY {BENARES)

was proscribed at Benares, and with God's blessint^
it is my design, if I live, to fill it with true
believers." Xear it stands a small musjid built
with the materials of Hindu architecture which supplies
the basis for the popular belief that the site of
the original Visweswara temple was shifted from
this place when the mosque was erected.

A short distance to the east of the temple of
Adi- Visweswara is what is known as Kashi Kariuat.

It is inside a small building, snd
Kasi Karwat through its square vertical opening

looks like a well underground much
below the floor of the house, but it has no water,
nor is it connected with any water-channel. Upon
the stone-paved bottom below stands a large
emblem which can be approached from above by
a stairway. It is said people formerly believed
that death at this place would immediately lead to
emancipation from the chances of re-birth. Some
persons availed of this easy means rather too
literally, and the Government had to close the top
with iron gratings allowing it to be removed only
once a week.

( 2 )
On the North

NTO the labyrinths of narrow lanes
and alleys in the eastern quarter lying
along the river-side we
SankataDevl now dive and find it
full of shrines and sacred
places and temples at very short inter-
vals of spaces. A very popular one
is the temple of Sankata Devi — an
image of Durga in brass — with a figure
of Ganesha and a crouching stone lion in front of the
entrance ; and any morning you may find numbers
of devout reverend-looking Brahmans sitting cross-
legged in a line in the hall in front and reading
the sacred Chandi in praise of the goddess. Near
it is the large emblem Vires wara Siva with the
representation of a hooded serpent above it.
Another temple not far from it is that of
Siddhesivari — another figure of Durga— with a well
in the centre of the compound sacred to the Moon
and known as Chandrakup,

The next temple of importance is the exceed-
ingly rich and highly tr.ccwcd GgI'AL Kx\MIR

174 THE HOL V CITY (BENARES) chap.

containing two golden images of Krishna and
dedicated to his worship. It stands
Gopal Mandir upon a very high and spacious
terrace trelissed with white and black
marble, and is approached through a lane lined
with tinsel-shops on both sides. The decorations
and the ornaments of the idols here are of the
costliest nature and the. ways and bearing of the
Mohunt, the guardian of the temple, quite regal.
A small house behind this temple is said to have
been the abode of Tulsi Das; there is, however,
another connected with his name near the Asi
Ghat, which is of greater importance.

To the west of the Gopal Mandir and the
north-east extremity of the Chaukhaniba Gait — so
called from a building here supported on four low
massive pillars — stands an ancient mosque with a
corridor supported upon twenty-four square pillars
of peculiar design 'probably adapted from some
older Hindu edifice.'

Not very far from the Gopal Mandir, as you

penetrate the narrow lanes where sun-rays seem to

come down quite subdued, appears the

Bhalronath temple of Bhaironath — the dreaded

attendant of Siva, — considered to be ,

the personification of Siva's anger and the reputed

guardian of Siva's city, whom our European friends

delight in styling the Spiritual Magistrate of Benares,

The god in visible representation is a stout-looking

VIII SHRINES ON THE NORTH 175

image in black marble painted deep blue, — sometimes
wearing a silver mask on the face, — with a dog
beside him and holding a massive club in his
hand. This temple was erected by the Peshwa
Baji Rao of Poona, nearly a century now, on the
site of the old temple which was a much smaller
one. The temple looks fine, but is very much
cramped for space. This shrine is a very popular
one and numbers of people daily visit it. Priests
sit upon the verandahs to purge you of all sins
of omission and commission by a light tap of the
bunch of peacock feathers they hold in their
hands, expecting no doubt a consideration for this
act of merit ; and it is interescing to observe how
eagerly the elderly men and women hold up their
little innocents to be thus cleansed of imaginary sins they
have not yet grown old enough even to conceive of.
A short distance to the east along the road
is the shrine of the nine planetary gods, — the

temple of Naugraha or Navagraha.
Naugraha It has a small room and through

the fretted stone screen on the wall
you can have a peep at them lying arranged in
a row.

Further on, lies the shrine of Dandapani — a
thick round rod of stone set upright and standing

about four or five feet high with a
Dandapani silver mask at the top. This is

considered to be the cudgel with which
Bhaironath, the guardian of Siva''s city chastises

176 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) chap.

the wrong-doers who have the misfortune of incurring
his displeasure. Across the room on the left is
the noted Kal Kup or the Well of Fate, reputed

to presage death within six months
Kal Knp to those who do not see their

shadows reflected upon its water at
mid-day. The sun-rays are at this hour admitted
for a short while to alight upon the water
through a curiously cut hole upon the trellis-work
near the top, and hence the mystification. Within
a stone enclosure adjoining the Kal Kup is what
is known as the Pancha Pandava which is nothing
but five Siva emblems lying there within a stone
enclosure.

Not very far from the temple of Bhaironath i*^
a signboard upon the threshold of a small house

pointing to you the last place of
Trailanga Swami abode of the saintly Paramhansa

Trailanga Swami who passed away
about a quarter of a century ago at a fabulous
old age. He is said to have beea born at Holia
in Vizianagram in the year 1529 Sam vat of a
devout Brahman family and to have relinquished
the world at the age of forty-eight when he lost
his mother. He travelled from Rameswaram to
Tibet and Mansarowar where he practised Yoga,
and then came to Benares. He stayed near the
Dasaswamedh Ghat, ^nd for a time at the Asi
and Tulsi ghats as well, aid at la^t btttlcd duvai

VIII SHRINES ON THE NORTH 177

^^'NTvyv/W'V.'X/^/

here in this Asram (retreat) above the Panchaganga
Ghat. He was profoundly learned and has left
his Sanskrit work 'Mahavakva Rainavali' ; he used
to talk but little except to his disciples and is
said to have wielded miraculous powers and saved
many persons from untiqaely death by simjly
touching their forehead with a little earth from
the Ganges when they had apparently been given
up for dead.

Popular tradition runs that he used to float
upon the water of the Ganges seated with legs
crossed for two or three days at a stretch even
in the depth of the winter ; and that on one such
occasion an officer of the Ramnagar Raj saw him
and took him up in his boat. While examining
the officer's sword the Swami inadvertently dropped
it m tiie water when in mid -stream. The former
was rather annoyed at this^ whereupon the sage
dipped his hands into the water and brought up
three swords exactly identical with the one he had
dropped. As the officer was unable to pick out
his own, the Swami gave him one and threw the
other two into the water. On another occasion, a
man from Serampore then living at Benares, felt
very much distressed at heart without any apparent
cause, and alarmed at the premonition approached
the sage, v^-ho closed his eyes and sat meditafng for a
few minutes, and at last broke the news to him that
his eldest son had that morning succumbed to cholera

12 —

178 THE HOL V CITY (BENARES) Cupl^.

at Serampore, hundreds of miles away, — which came
out to be correct. Mystical as things like these
might have seemed a few decades before and
hard for any but the most easy credulit)- to gulp
down, perhaps in these days of psychic researches
and latter-day developments of occult science they
would be viewed in a different light and take a
different complexion.

Trailanga Swami's was a towering figure in
Benares and a name widely known and respected
throughout the length and breadth of India for his
wisdom, learning and saintly life. The sign-board
above the threshold leads you into the courtyard of
his humble retreat, and in a narrow apartment
under a low roof lies his statue in black marble
representing him seated in padmashan with legs
crossed as he used to sit in life and looking
before him with piercing eyes. His own string of
rudraksha is on the neck of the figure, and his
wooden sandals and seat and old books have been
preserved here with loving care. A very large
Siva emblem lies in the courtyard and an image
of Kali stands behind the statue. There are some
stone slabs with mystic symbols and lotus and
chakra (circle) irt^ribed upon them, and one of them is
named Ravi Tarak Yantra. Hallowed the spot
that Was the abode of a holy man !

Coming now to the road leadinc; to Rajghat
we fisid the Machchhodari Tirth—?^ .mall tank

VIII SHRINES ON THE NORTH 179

of oval shape in a large compound now being
converted into a garden. Near to it is
Kameswara the temple of KaMESWARA Siva with an
emblem in a railed cistern and another
copper-plated one named Dtirbasscswara after the
Rishi Durbasha whose image is in the adjoining
temple of Naleswara Siva. The temple of
Kameswara is a very old one, and \\\ its compound
is a very large cluster of small temples on all
sides filling up every available nook Besides the
large number of Siva emblems located in them,
there are also the images of Rama and Sita,
Narasinha, Laksmi and Surya Narain. A large
peepul-tree in the middle of the small courtyard
with its gnarled trunk and overspreading branches
and a few tiny birds perching and frisking upon
them in the noon-tide sun, and the subdued
brightness of the flitting sun-rays alightini; through
the thick rustling foliage upon numbers of emblems
and images grouped around it, make the scene
one of idyllic restfulness.

Proceeding towards the north through a quarter
inhabited mostly by Mahomedans of the poorest
class we come to the small isolated temple of
SJwJm^esuHxya Siva with a well in front of it in the quiet

silence of the neighbouring fields. Here
Shoha^eswara are remains of sculptured stones

scattered about, and numbers of them —
probably parts of friezes of some building with carved

i8o THE HOLY CI J Y {BENARES) chap.

figures thereupon — lie beside a peepul tree near
the temple. This is not very far from the Arhai
Kanj:^ura Mosque, and so the remains may relate
to those of the Hindu structures that were used
also in the construction of that mosque. One in-
teresting object here is the large stone figure,
evidently of V^ishnu, partly mutilated but still showing
enough of its neat execution. To the left a little
off is the temple of Oinkareswara Siva upon a
slight eminence amidst a dense growth of jungles
extending far and away. Close by on the right
is a ruined old well which is pointed out as
containing a very large lateral cave underneath
and a passage leading to regions unknown.

Back southwards to the Raj Gliat road^ we
proceed to the western quarter towards the
Municipal Park where a large number
Kirtibaseswara of ancient temples lie close to one
another. The first, then, is the old
temple of Kirtibaseswara to the right upon a
slightly rising ground with a small garden in front
and a small tank known as Hans Tirtha behind it.
This temple is of later construction and its former
site where the emblem was enshrined was at the
place where the Alamgiri mosque now stands. Passing
along the road you find the small twin temples
of Ratneswara Siva ^nd Hanumanjiy the letter contain
ing a large image of Hanuman, and both standing back
to back and almost encroaching upon the road itself,

MI SflRLVZS O.V THE NORTH i8i

, -\y\/^^-\J^J%J\r\

A few paces off is the Alamgiri MoSQUE named

after Aurangzeb who is reputed to have caused it

to be erected upon the remains of the old temple

of Kirtibaseswara in 1659— as would

Alamgiri appear from an inscription in Arabic

Mosque to the effect : *'Turn your face towards

the sacred mosque. 1077 Hijira." The

massive capitals and the rows of lofty pillars with

the carvings at the base, pojnt them out to be

materials of the old Hindu temple it had displaced.

The Rev. Mr. Sherring ascribes them to some

date five or six centuries back and they are interesting

and striking as fine examples of the Hindu art.

Somewhat to the north-east of the Municipal

Park stands the oldest of the existing temples in

j^cnares — that of Briddhakaleswara. It is a very

plain temple with a couple of spires

Briddtaa- containing the emblem within a stone

kaleswara cistern a little below the level of the

floor. In the adjoining compartment is

the Omkareswara Siva. The temple is famed to

have been in existence from the middle Brahmanic

period between the thirteenth and the fourteenth

centuries and is said to have been erected by a

Raja of Nandibardhan m Southern India named

Briddhakal and to have formerly possessed a dozen

separate courts. The important one among them

in existence at present is where a small circular

tank of foul water about two yards in diameter

lies in the middle. It goes by the name of Amrita

icS2 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap.

Kup, and its water is supposed to be efficacious
in curing various skin-diseases. Close by lies another
well with water fit to drink, and to the north of
it in another court approached through a narrow
corridor and enclosed by old walls are the temples
of Marke7tdes%i^ara and Dakskeswara Sivas said
to have been established by Rishi Markendeya
and Daksha Prajapati. The whole is, however, in
a ver}^ neglected and woe-begone condition and
overgrown with weeds. A little to the west of the
temple of Briddhakaleswara is the temple of
Alpamriteswara^ also known as Mrityunjaya Siva.

Further off to the west and on the western
side of the Municipal Park is the temple of

Bara Ganesha standing upon a high
Bara Ganesha terrace above the level of the street

where stands a beautifully carved
Sati stone with a pair of quaint youthful figures
in a standing posture. This temple locates a very
large image of the elephant-headed god painted
deep vermilion with silver hands and feet.
Worshipped at the commencement of all ceremonies
and believed to bring every undertaking to a
successful issue, the fane of this god is approached
by numbers of people on all occasions. A rather
g-iant of a rat, also painted red and of the size of
a full-grown dog, stands in the verandah in front.
This temple is said to have been erected about
seventy years ago> but the image is many centuries

VIII SHRINES ON THE AORTH 183

old.'* Adjoining this is the temple of Hanuman
and at some distance is that oi Jagannath.

We next pass on to the temple of Jageswara^

the Lord of Sacrifices, lying towards the north-west

The emblem here is a large round

Jageswara tall piece of black stone, so called

from its origin in course of a great

sacrifice. It is of great sanctity and held in . high

esteem, and people of all classes great and small

frequent the shrine in numbers. Close to this is

the large Iswarganji Tank. :. .••...

The temple of Kasi Devi, the tutelary deity of

Benares, is also very near and is considfired to be

the Central Spot of Benares. A few

Kasi Devi steps off are the Karrmghanta Talao

with its stone stairs leading to the

water below and the temple of Veda Vyas containing

his image upon its southern bank. A little to

the north of the temple of Kasi Devi lies one

containing the image known as Bhut-Bhairo^ and

near to it is the large Jyestheswara Siva.

<i) In this connection it may be interesting to note that
the ceiebrated traveller Alexander Von Humboldt came
;across an old Mexican painting when he was in
America representing the head of an elephant on the
body of a man, which made him remark : 'it present£
some remarkable and apparently not accidental
resemblances with the Hindu Ganesh.'

1 34 TH2 HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap.

Advancing further northward we catch sight

or the temple of Bageswari. The goddess is

seated upon a crouching lion and her

Ba^eswari silver face only is visible, the rest of
her body being covered by a profusion
of garlands. A number of Brahmans here sit
f5:itia_^ M mtras in praise of the goddess, and a
large white lion of stone presented by Raja Lai
Bahadur Singh of Ahmety frowns in front in the
quadrangle. There are images of Rama, Laksmana,
and Sita as well in this temple. Very close
to this lie the temples of Jwarahares'wara and
Siddheswara Sivas.

A short distance off is the Nag Kua, or the
Serpents' Welly in the quarter bearing its name

and considered to be the oldest
Na^ Kua historical place in Benares. The stones

used in the well are supposed to
show marks of great antiquity, and a Raja is
reputed to have repaired the well in Sam vat 1825,
The bottom of the v/ell is reached by a series of
steep stone stairs ver)^ solid in make ; and there
are three serpents carved in a niche in the weil
and a Siva emblem.

Here, perhaps, we have reached the northernmost

point of Benares containing Hindu

Kapildltara shrines and temples. There is one

other some distance off on the

north of the Barana known as KnpHa Tirtha or

VIII SHRINES ON THE NORTH 185

Kapildhara situate on the Panchkoshi Road
limiting the sacred ten-mile radius of Benares.
The legend connected with this holy tank runs to
the effect that five cows came down from Golok,
the abode of Vishnu, after Siva had returned to
Kasi from the Mandara mountains. And as he
cast upon them his kindly look, milk began to
from flow their udder in copious squirts and thus
came a pool into existence, now transformed into this
tank of sweet water in this Kali age.

(3)
On the South

OW with our pilgrimage to the southern

quarter. Bending our steps towards

!>Xi^i'^l t^Wmi ^^" south-west and passing close by

^feP^M^^P^ ^^^^ Queen's College, we soon have

a glimpse of the spacious
Pisach Mochan grounds of the residence
of the Maharaja of
Hutwa on the western part of the
Behind it lies the PiSACH MoCHAN tank— a
expanse of clear water — famous as the site
where Bhaironath had decapitated a pisach (demon)
who had attempted to effect a forcible entry into Kasi.
When the head, which had retained its animation
and had not lost its power of speech, was presented
before Visweswara it prayed that it should be allowed
to stay at Kasi and that pilgrims to Gaya should
be enjoined to visit this tank — into which Bhaironath
was to throw the head — before starting on their
journey. Both these prayers Visweswara was gracious
enough to grant, and hence arose the sanctity of
this place. A few small temples stand on the bank,
one of which h?»d been erected by the famous
Mira Bai, the Queen poetess of Udaipur, who according

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SHRINES ON THE SOUTH 187

N/N.'NyX/V/V ■

to the Vaishnava work '' Bhaktamdla^' had to leave
her royal palace as she would not abandon the
worship of Krishna. There are a number of images
of various gods and with them in an open verandah
is the large stone head representing the pisach in
question.

As we emerge into the high-road a dozen
men in an orderly line — sojourners evidently from
a great distance — precede us bearing straw baskets
slung from poles upon their shoulders with small
red pennons flying above them. With great care are
they carrying the sacred water from the source of
the Ganges, wh'ch they have brought from distant
Hurdwar in the Himalayas with the object of
bathing the great god Visweswara therewith. Further
to the south is the large tank with stone stairs

known as PiTRl KuND with three

Pitrl Kund and Siva temples on the north bank, and

Matri Kund a little to the west is the Matri

Kund so called on account of the
oblations offered here to the manes of the paternal
and maternal ancestors. The latter is of an irregular
shape and is in an exceedingly bad condition being
almost filled up with refuse on one side and thus
reduced to a very small pool of very foul water.

Further south still is the SURAJ KUND with a
small temple erected by the Raja of Kota Bundi
and dedicated to the sun-god containing the symbolic

i8S THE HOL V CITY {BE.VARES) CfiAP.

image of Surya Nafain.'^ This shrine is also called

the Sambaditya Temple as having

SuraJ Kund been built by the mythical prince Samba

who is reputed to have also erected

the wonderful Sun-temple at Kanarak in Orissa —

(i) Though this is the solitary temple at Benares set
apart for the worship of the Sun, still the Sun is daily
invoked by every Hindu, even allegorically in reciting the
sacred Gayatri. It may not thus be out of place to quote
what Prescott in his flowing language wrote in his 'Conquest
of Peru' regarding Sun-worship in that portion of the globe
in the most ancient times : "The most renowned of the
Peruvian temples, the pride of the capital, and the wonder of the
ein[)ire, was at Cuzco . . . The interior of the temple was
the most worthy of admiration. It was totally a mine of gold.
On the western wall was emblazoned a representation of the
deity, consisting of a human countenance, looking forth amidst
innumerable rays of li^ht, which emanated from it in every
direction, in the same manner as the sun is often personified
with us. The figure was engraved on a massive plate of gold,
of enormous dimensions, thickly powdered with emeralds and
precious stones. It was so situated in front of the great
eastern portal that the rays of the morning sun fell directly
upon it, and at its rising, lighted up the whole of the
apartment with an effulgence that seemed more than natural,
and which was reflected back from the golden ornaments
with which the walls and ceiling were incrusted. Gold, in the
figurative language of the people, was the tears wept by the
sun, and every part of the interior of the temple glowed with
burnished plates and studs of the precious metals. The cornices
which surrounded the walls of the sanctuary were of the same
costly material, and a broad belt of gold work let into the stone
work, encompassed the whole interior of the edifice,"

VIII SHRINES ON THE SOUTH 189

' yj'\j'\y\.^y yv/^.'

,'^_'*^ '\/\y\yK/'\.

still a marvel of the sculptor's art. A mutilated
figure, Ashtanga Bhairab, is in another temple near to
it, and at a little distance is the Dhrubeswara Siva,

Next, on the north of the read leading to
Dasasvvamedh ghat, lies the Laksmi Klkd, a large

tank of good clear water with paved
Laksmi Kund banks and with stairs running from

the middle of each of them. On
the north bank is the temple of Mahalaksmi ,
in which are the images of Laksmi with a
golden face and of Mahakali and Saraswati on the
two sides and Laksvit Vznayak Ganesh in a niche in
the wall. As )'ou pass through the close narrow lane
and emerge in sight of the large expanse of clear
water bounded b}' the paved banks, the whole
scene smiles as it were with its sunlit brightness
and there is a pleasant sense of welcome relief
after the dust and dirt of the winding streets.

Past the borders of the quarters of the Theo*
sophical Society, we now turn westwards. Very calm
and quiet, and interspersed with numbers of gardens
and sparse habitations is this retired quarter. To
the south of the road a little into the
Sankaraclrarya interior lies the piuth of the great
Sankaracharva erected by the Maha-
raja of Nepal in the midst of a large garden of
plums and guavas whose drooping branches arp
holding forth bunches pf bright tepipting fruits.

190 THE HOLY CITY (BEWARES) chap.

Born at Kalpi in Kefala or the Malabar District
in Southern India of a family of Nambudri Brahmans
this great champion of Vedantism and Advaitism
had become a Sannyasin on the anniversary of
his ninth birth-day; but unlike Buddha who slipped
away unseen in the depth of night, he relinquished
the world after taking leave of his mother and
persuading her to permit him to do so. When
only twelve, he commenced writing his famous
Commentaries upon Sfeemadvagavat Geeta and the
Upanishads and other works which have been the
marvel of all ages as intellectual achievments of
the very highest order. The precocity of his master-
intellect unparalleled in the history of the world
was almost supernatural, and we have the wonderful
spectacle of the vast mass of his philosophical
writings being completed by his sixteenth year.
At the very young age of thirty-two he obtained
his final emancipation at Kedarnath in the Himalayas,
and in course of this brief span of eternal time
alloted to him he had travelled all over India and
established the order of the Dasnami Sannyasis
( the ten sects ) and founded four imiths — the
Sringeri in Mysore, the Gobardhan at Puri in Orissa,
the Sarada at Dwarika in Kathiwar, and the Jos hi
at Bddrinath in the Himalayas, — placing four of
his disciples at their heads. The first three have
still retained their ancient glory, and the one in
Southern India going by the name of Sringeri

VIII SMRINES ON THE SOUTH 191

\/^X'^^^./^y\

muth ^ at the source of the Tungabhadra in the
Kadur district of Mysore with an estate of Rs 45,000
a year, is the most famous at the present time.
The most learned among his disciples, Mandana,
was placed at its head and a temple dedicated to
the Goddess of Learning, Saraswati, was erected
by Sankara and under the name of Sarada the
Goddess is still the presiding deity of this muth.
It is the residence of the head of the order who
adopts the name 'Sri JagatgUru Saitkarachary a* and
is accepted as the religious head of Hindu India.

This temple in Benares contains a very beautiful
white marble statue of this regenerator of Hinduism
(Plate IV, 2) in a sitting posture with his dcxnda (rod)
and kania)ida!u (Water-pot) — symbolic of the order of
the Dandis to which he belonged— lying oy his side.
A calm and placid expression and an air of grace
sit upon the )'outhful face and eyes. Far away from
all noise and bustle of the city, this is indeed a
veritable retreat for calm and quiet contemplation
and reminds one of the beautiful lines of old
Chaucer:

" Wav'ring as winds the breath of fortune blows,
No power can turn it, no prayer compose.
Deep in some hermit's solitary cell,
Repose and ease and contemplation dwell."

(Modernised).

(i) A portion of it was lately destroyed by a disastrous fire
on the 2Sth February 19 ii with a number of exquisitely carved
ancient pillars.

192 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap.

Towards the south-east the small shrines of
Batiik Bhairab, Kawachchha Devi, and Baidyanath Siva
are passed in quick succession along the winding
lanes. This last has a temple with fine carved stone
pillars and mythological engravings upon the walls.
A little further off is Bhutnath — one of the very few
full-bodied images of Siva in Benares. Most of these
temples have atithisalas for sheltering pilgrims
attached to them, and all of them lie to the south-
west of the Central Hindu College.

A little way off, to the south of the Bhelupura
Waterworks is a fine large tank known as Sankudhara

also called the Dwnraka Tirtha, because
Sankudhara of the tradition that Krishna killed

the demon Sankasura here. Upon
a rising ground on the east is a large Vaishnavite
vmth of the followers of Ramanand and Ramanuja
Swami containing a large image of Krishna styled
Divarakadhiswara and several other smaller ones.
The same temple also locates the image of Hanumanji.
But the most interesting object here is the large
piece of black sculptured stone standing \\\ the
veranda to the left of the doorway of a small
temple of Siva just over the eastern bank of the
tank (Plate XI. 4\ A finely cut and elaborately deco-
rated image of the four-armed Vishnu known as
Tribakra Narayan or Laksnii Narayan stands in the
centre of a group consisting of a couple of female
figurps standing on either side, and a pan and 4

VI I r SHRINES ON THE SOUTH 193

vvomin posed at the further ends in the attitude of
prayer. A. few smaller figures with .palms joined
together sit below upon the pedestal. Three arms
of the central figure are broken or mutilated, but
it is still a fine example of the Hindu art. It is report-
ed to have been found in the bed of the Ganges
by a former Mohunt of the Vaishnavite muth and
placed here in this temple. This resembles the
fine standing figure of Vishnu with four arms found
by General Cunningham at Devathala or Devasthah
on the road to Dinajpur, 15 miles to the north of
Paridua. ^

Eastwards hence to the large shady grove in the
middle of which stands a two-storied building con-
taining the images of Radha and
Gurudham Krishna — known as Giirudhmn connected
with the memory of Raja Joy Narain
Gliosal- and owned by the Raj family of Bhukailas
of Calcutta. The approach to the house from the
road is a fine long walk through an avenue of
shady trees. At a short distance from this is what
is known as Menaka Bart,

Next comes the beautiful temple of KUMAR-

ESWARA Siva containirg a number

Kumareswara of very fine artistically worked statues

Siva of various gods and goddesses, all

in pure white marble, ranged along the

inner walls. In an adjoining chamber is a beautiful

(i) See Plate XXVI T, Cunningham's Arclxseological Survey
Reports, Vol. XV ( 187^.80 ), ■

13—

194 THE HOL V CITY (IllLVARES) CHAP;

white marble statue of Swami Bhaskaranand, perhaps?
the best one in Benares. In rem ^m 'trance of the
good the Swami had don^ her, the Rani of Barahar
in Southern India made him an offering of a hikh
and a half of rupees, add 017 his refusal to accept
the same, she caused this f^ne temple and the ad--
joining atithisala for pilg:rims to be erected in
response to his wishes.

Now into a narrow laiie and throttgh a \o\v^
♦md tortuous pathway inside a large greenwood
till we arrive at the temple of ^an/cai
S&nkat Mochan Mochan (deliverer from danger), a name
applied to the monkey-god Hanuman foi'
the very substantial help he bad rendered to Rama in his
troubles. Ho^ry peepuls overhung with thick clustering
creepers dangHng from their branches overshadow
the locality ; on the left appear.*^ the temple of
Hanuman with an image of large proportions^ and
©n the right another with images- of Rama, Lak.^mana
and Sita. The inner walls and the ceiling of this
latter one are literally covered over xvith brilliantly
coloured scenes from Rama's life and mythological
pictures of the ten Avatars and the ten Mahavid)'a/*;y
iiiparting a very gorgeous look to it. The im?lge
©f Hanuman is said to have been established hei>;
■ by Tulsi Das^ whose own statue is pointed out
testing upon a lotus-shaped marble-slj.b under a
round canopy beliind this temple. Though in a very
Included nook and far away from the public thorough-
fare^ it is rxBe the less popular an€l largely visited.

VI 11 SHRINES ON THE AORTH 195

Back to the broad road, and after a visit to the
Rani of Barahar\s fine temple ( Plate XI, 6 ) ofSita,
Rama and Laksmi Namyan, we approach the DURGA
KUNI) and the famous TEMPLE OF DURGA by its
side. Amid a dense conglomeration
Temple of of fine f^old-tipped cupolas symmetrically
Durga arranged, the lofty steeple of the
temple surmounted by a golden trideiTt
rises high in a very pleasant manner. The temple
and the fine tank ( Plate XI, 3 ) with runninL;.
stairs and monkeys sporting upon them are both
of them gifts of Rani Bhawani, the widow o\
Maharaja Ramkant-a of Nattore in Bengal. The
temple is in the quadi-angle and is much visited
by pilgrims, and is next in importance only to
those of Artiiapurna and Visweswiara. This in all
Benares is the only shrine where sacrifices are
offered, and there is none other where slaughter,
in any shape takes place, A tail pillar with the
figure of a Hon upon the top stands in front of
the temple, and covered verandahs running all round
afford shelter to pilgrims and devotees. Finely
sculptured bas-reliefs decorate the temple aii4 its
arches, and a number of beautifully carved ]Mllars
line the porch (Plate XI, /}, t^e iloor of \d3id1
is inlaid with black and white marble. It has also
acquired the name of the Monkey Temple on account
of its being infested with monkeys — quite a number
of families with little sucklings holding fast to
the older ones as the latter skip from place to ]>lac.e.

tq6 the holy city (BENARES) chap.

They keep to the traditions of their race for froh'c
and mischief and are not in the least disinch'ned
to accept your bount}- in the shape of anything
eatable }'ou may like to favor them with. As you
hold out your hand with a few g-rains of pulse in
}'Our open palm, up scampers a big fellow, catches
hold of it with one hand and with the fingers of
the other picks them up and throws them deftly
into his mouth till the side-pouches fill and bloat
out, and then leaves }'ou without any sign of offering
the poorest of thanks for the treat, and walks
av^'ay munching and munching and poking tl\e
grains out from beneath the jaws with the
finger-tips.

To the east of the temple of Durga lies Rani
Bliawani's square tank Kunikshctra Talao and 'the
Ananda Bag garden formerly belonging to the
Marhdtta Chief Amritalal Feshwa. This latter after-
wards passed into the hands of the
Biiaskaranand British and was sold after the Sepoy
Mutiny to the Raja of Ahmet}-. This
is the famous osravt or retreat of the saintl}-
Paravihansa SWAMI Bhaskaranand SakasWATI,
the glory of Benares and held in high esteem not
only in India but also m Europe and America.
On account of his vast erudition and piety his
name had attained such wide celebrity that most
o-f the eminent visitors to this city — even from the
most distant and out-of-the-way corners of the world

Vlir SHRINES ON THE SOUTH 197

like New Zealand, Iceland and China, not to speak
of almost all parts of the far-off Europe — came to
see him under his humble roof at this place ; and
the present Czar of all the Russias while visiting
India as the Czarevitch in 1890 reckoned himself
amongst the number of his visitors. He was a
Kanouj Brahman born in A. D.1833 at Maithilalpur
in the Cawnpur district, and even from his childhood
a supreme indifference to all worldly concerns
characterised all his actions. His loving parents
anticipating the bent of his mind got him married
and attempted to bind him down to his home
by ties of love and affection ; but he s<3on
tore himself away — even on the very night" his
only child was born — like the great Buddha, and
renounced the world and plunged into the diepths
of the night all alone though he was but eighteen
at the time. He became an ascetic and entered
the order of Sannyasis when he was twenty- seven,
and travelled all over India on foot for thirteen
years. On his arrival at Benares, upon the earnest
entreaty of Raja Lai Madhav Singh of Ahitiety,
he consented to reside in this garden and lived
liere for twenty-six years till he passed away in
samadki ^ in 1899. He left an invaluable work in
Sanskrit, ' Sivardjya Shiddhi Nayakd.

(i) "Samadhi js the state in which the ascetic loses the
consciousness of every individuahty, including his own. He
becomes the All ". — H. P. Blavatsky's *' Voice of Silence ".

193 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap.

In this quiet quarter and far away from all
bustle and comn:>otion of the cit>\ the holy man
lived amidst the peaceful surroundings of this garden.
A statue in white marble faithful to his emaciated
frame rests in a small house for the present and
awaits removal to the beautiful mausoleum of milk-
white marble ( Plate XI, i ) with a fine dome and
gilt spires in the centre of the compound erected
upon the spot where he had been buried. Inside
the silver doors is a marble vcdi ( altar ) beneath
v/hich lie his remains, and behind a screen of
fretted white marble is the room set apart for the
location of the statue. An air of peace and purit>"
soothes the mind as you rest here for a while
and look upon this most handsome ancl artistic
marble edifice that cost about a lakh and a quarter
and is perhaps the only one of white marble of
note m Benares with the exception of the small
temple of Saras waii in the Central Hindu CoUege
(Plate III. I ).

Bhaskaranand used usually to lie immersed in
devotion in some underground cell inside the
building and his orders on such occasions were to
let in none into the garden. It is said that a
powerful Indian prince once went to see him, and
finding the gate closed and wo*ild not be opened
at his bidding, had it forced open and entered
tlie ho'vver of Ketaki flowers where Bhaskaranand
was at the time. Here he found what koked

Vni SHRLYES ON THE SOUTH 199

\j\.r\r\j\.^r\^s_r^r /^ ^- /^ '^.''v'N.'V^jfv/-v/\'V/"L

like a couple of lifeless bodies — lying stretched full
length upon the ground — of Bhaskaranand and
Trailanga Swami, the latter having been there on
a visit to him. He waited for a time, but there
was no sign of animation, and then he touched
the body of the latter. At once as if oy an
electric thrill passing through the frames of both,
they began to breathe heavily, woke up and rose
to their feet, and looked at him with eyes of fire,
so angered they seemed at this intrusion. The
Raja fled before them in fear, but could not proceed
farther than a few steps, fell down senseless and
thus he lay for fully half a day ! On another
occasion while expounding the falsity and illusory
nature of all earthly objects to Sir Romesh Chander
Mitter, the late Judge of the Calcutta High Court,
he is said to have vanished away thrice into the
air even as he sat, thus giving a practical exposition
of what he had been saying j Such are a couple
of anecdotes out of numbers connected with his
name. VV^hether high development of occult powers
makes miraculous actions possible is not a subject
we can just now pause to consider. Trailanga
Swami had also been reputed to have similar
powers, and with another holy personage, Visuddhanand
Saraswati — the trio formed the last connecting
link with the age of the ancient Rishis and
were the veritable landmarks of Benares, whose
abodes were as much frequented and held in sanctity
as any temple here.

200 THE HOLY CITY {BENARES) chap

'■>^'W'^ .'■\/'\/' V ^yW^.^ V v-' V>'Vr v/ V^vr> y

From here to the Jagannath Temple is not
a very far cry, and with it you reach the point
in the farthest south of this city
Jagannath where all temples end. Calm, cool
and quiet is the large compound of
this solitary temple standing by the side of the
Asi streamlet. A long shaded walk along the outer
court brings you in front of a large bell suspended
a little way off from the low gateway of the
temple. Inside stand Ja^annath and Balabhadva
with Shubhadra between them even as they are
represented at Puri. In the four corners of the
court are the images of Krishna pla)'ing upon a
flute, of Krishna seated upon the hood of the
serpent overpowering the Kalia Nag, of Rama and
Sita gorgeously decked, and of Laksmi Narain.

In another temple just at the back is

the gigantic white figure of the lion-mouthed

Nara-Sinha^ the avatar oi Vishnu

Nara-Sinha who killed the dreaded Demon-king

Hiranyakasipu to save his son Prahlad.

This young prince had turned a worshipper of

Krishna against his father's will and had at his

bidding been thrown into the fire and the sea

and under the feet of an elephant as well, but

had every time come out unscathed. Fabulous no

doubt all this reads ; but fire-w^alking has been

exhibited with success in course of the last few

years, and anent this last elephant incident, the

VIII Sf/i'ZLVES ON TII2 SOUTH 201

achievements of a present-day youth of Vizianagram
tend to foster the belief that though much mixed
up with poetical exaggeration all the recitals in
the Puranas are not always absolute myth. The
youngest among three brothers and only twenty-
nine and every inch of him a remarkably well-bred
gentleman of good education, Prefessor Ramamurti
Naidu, looks no way much above the ordinary run
of men in make and stature. Yet he has repeatedly
astounded all observers by allowing a tJircc-ton
elephant to walk across his breast before
thousands of people in most of the important cities
of India. By such feats in these degenerate days,
and emerging unharmed like Prahlad from beneath the
elephant's feet, he proves the possibility of the
doings of much greater thmgs in the blessed ages
of the glorious past. It is not animal strength
alone, but the concentration of physical powers by
will-force coupled with the culture of the moral
faculties and Yoga observances that render the
performance of all such exploits possible, — he once
explained in answer to our queries as to the
secret of his success. His regrets were sincere as
with mournful looks he deplored our degeneracy
ascribing it to our neglect of our own old systems.

As we come out of the Jagannath Temple and
walk northward, we leave on our left the Bhaskar
Pushkar Tivth — two adjoining wells joined together
at the bottom. And further on, we find the notable

202 THE HOL Y CI J V (BENARES) chap.

LoLARKA KUND with a beautiful temple just

to the South. This also is a double-

Lolarka Kund mouthed well and has two shafts leadinp^

to the water below, which pass through

an arch in the wall and connect the contents of

both. The water can be approached by three flights

of stairs running down from above. This Kund

lies to the north-east of Kurukshetra Talao and has

a peculiar appearance.

Xow towards the very thickly populated quarter
bordering- the river and extending a considerable
wav towards the west. This is popularly known
as the Bengalitola from the fact that the Bengali
population settled in Benares is thickly clustered
in this quarter, the selection of this locality being
due to their anxiety to live near the holy Ganges
and to have the full secular and religious benefit
of a daily bath in its sacred water. Among the
very large number of temples and shrines here the
most important one is that of Kedar7mfh upon the
river-bank which we shall visit in course of our
trip along the river.

The TiLBllANDESWARA SiVA in this quarter
locatec4 in a temple in a narrow lane on our way
is a prominent one. It is a huge round dome-
shaped black uncarved marble four and
Tilbhandeswara a half feet high and quite fifteen in
diameter — supposed to be increasing
in bulk by the size of a /// ( sesamum ) every

YIII SHRnVES ON THE SOUTH

day. It almost fills up the small chamber where
it stands ; and a large stone bull reposes in front
of it on the veranda outside. Numerous emblems
and imagoes lie all about the house, and beneath
a peepul-tree outside are numbers of carved stones
strewn about around its trunk. One among them
is of much interest — the remnant of an image up
to the waist in very finely cut and chiselled black
marble, partly mutilated in the face and arms and
st\led Birhhndra, the attendant of Siva. The temple
and its enclosure stand much above the level ol
the street and is well worth a visit owing to the
association of great antiquity with its images and
sculptures ; and so is the temple of Muktesivara
lying near the south-west of it.

Walking in a north-easterly direction and jostling

your way through the thick crowd of passers-by

along a very narrow and tortuous thoroughfare,

you come to the large tank excavated b}- Raja

iNlan Singh and known as Man

Man Sarowar Sakowar. It is a fine tank with

numbers of small temples all around,

the major portion of them crowding upon the

northern bank. But it is in a rather neglected

condition and its stairs are sadly in need of repair.

Another object of interest in the Bengali quarter

is the small temple of Agastyesivora Siva under

spreadhig necms at the Agastya Kund Muhulla.

Inside is a large emblem with images of Ganesha

504 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap.

and Lopamudra Devi, the wife of Agastya, in
the niches of the wall. It is associated
Agastya Kund with the Kund of this name which
was in front of it, but which is
said to have been filled up and a building
erected on its site. Thus runs the Pauranic tradition
in this connection : The Vindhya mountain jealous
of the superiority of the Sumeru distended itself
so far and raised itself so high as to block the
path through which the sun daily coursed. There-
Jpon, the great Rishi Agastya, who had his
'.lermitage here, left Kasi at the request of the
gods to humble Vindhya's pride. The mountain
bent down before him in obeisance as soon as the
holy man approached, and the Rishi said, "Rest
as low till I come back," and went away towards
the south never to return. Hence is the popular
phrase 'Agastya Jaitn! — meaning the starting on a
journey never to return.

Thus far we have travelled all over the interior
of the city and visited all the principal shrines
and notable temples Though numerous enough to
tire out our patience, our catalogue has by no
means been very exhaustive. VVe have still to see some
very important shrines along the river-bank above
the several sacred ghats that pave the major portion
of its lengthy expanse with their massive solid
running stairs.

So, coming eastwards and threading our way

VI r I SHRINES ON THE SOUTH 20=

through a large svstem of mazy crowded lanes
with all manner of ups and downs along short
flights of stony stairs, we pass towards the river-
side and emerge into the open upon the broad
terrace of Ahalya Bat's Ghat with the glittering
mass of the moving ripples rolling along. The
white marble statue of that renowned Marhatta
princess — who had erected the ghat that immortalises
her name — posed in the act of worship with a
small Siva in hand, \s in a niche in the' inner
wall of the temple of Siva standing on the
left. On the right, high above the
Vishuddhanand water is another, and by its side
Saraswati is the building where lived
SwAMi Vishuddhanand Saraswati —
a Brahman from Kalyan in Southern India and a
revered sage of great erudition who died in 1898 at the
advanced age of ninety-three. His sandals, a large,
conch, and other knick-knacks have been preserved here
as the valued relics of the holy man upon the
spot where he used to sit. There is a gu/id or
cell inside the building with a small entrance
which is pointed out by his followers living there
as the place where the saintly personage used to
lie in saraadhi. Ahalya Bai's Chhattra where a
number of people are daily fed adjoins her temple.

Down the fine broad stairs we descend and.
approach the small fiat-roofed temple of SiTALA.
Devi just above the water's ^^z<t, containing a

206 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES)

large Siva emblem on the floor and the carved
figure of Sitala Devi on the north
Sitala Devi and of Siva and Parvati sitting together
in the western corner of the temple.
During the rains when the river is swollen the
images are all submerged and almost the whole
of the body of the temple goes under the water.
The Dasaswamedh ghat whence we had started
on our pilgrimage lies just to the north, and as
we prepare to approach it, behold, a couple of
up-country women advance towards the temple
and stand at the entrance like a pair of delicately
carved statuary in their picturesque drapery of
pink and light blue set, as it were, against a
background of the a^ure sky and the greenish
stream. And soon in ardent fervour and with
glistening eyes they begin to chant some hx-mns
and sing feelingly in their sweet silvery swelling
voices filling the air with melody and the hearts
of the listeners with an indescribable pathos. No
wonder that we linger here a few minutes longer
than our leisure should permit, thus bringing this
much of our pilgrimage to a musical termination,
with our recollections of what seemed incongruous
and fantastic melting away in the sweet cadence
and harmonv that ever refjulate the universe.

I. A Road to the (.hat 2

3. Ganga Mehal Ghat. 4.
5. Bathing Scene' 6.

Women's loathing Ghat.
Manikarnika Ghat.
Ikuning Ghat.

P. 207.

Chapter IX

AtONG THE RIVER

"The Ganges that flows— it is God ; the ocean that roar's— it is
God ; the wind that blows — it is Him ; the cloud that thunders,
the lightning that flashes, — it is Him. As from all eternity
the universe existed in the spirit of Brahma, so to-day is all
that exists His image*"

-^The Veda.

liE sacred bathing ghats, .some sixty
in number--the major portion of them
dating from the eighteenth century— linr
the sloping western bank surmounted
by lofty temples and palatial buildings.
A pleasant bracing breeze passes
across the glistening water bearing
patches of stray fleecy clouds above
and toning down the heat and mellowing
the glare of the shooting sun-rays. The Dasaswamedh
ghat is astir with crowds of people in motley groups
hurrying to the boats about to move away from
the bank. Rival boatmen oars in hand keep shouting
at the top of their voices luring passengers with
promises of immediate start and no tarrying ; and
each is so earnest that the bewildered customer
does not know which among them to patronise.
A river-trip in one of the bhaolia boats, alv;a;>"S
Ig be found here in plenty, would be \tty pl^^^sknt

2oS THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap.

and enjoyable, and we should in the first instance
instruct our boatmen to row us down the river
towards the north to enable us to have a look at
some very interesting scenes and important shrines
along that portion of the river-bank. Frequently
should we have to step ashore at the important
ghats where our interest centres most, and on
our way back we must go far up the river and
land at Ram n agar to see the Maharaja's Fort and
garden and his fine Temple of Durga. Before, howev^er,
you undertake the trip southward, it were but fair
that you should be enjoined to take every possible
care of your precious limbs and be warned against
taking a dip into the eternity even by accident on the
portion of the other bank of the river going by
the name of Vyas Kasi, for if } ou do, }oi, will
ernerge in your next birth in a form far from
being pleasing or desirable.

A tale hangs by it to the effect that V}asa,

the compiler of the Vedas, had once quarrelled with

Siva who turned him out of Kasi for

The Vyasa reviling Vishnu and laying a curse upon

Episode * its people that any sin committed here

would be beyond atonement. Vyasa

thereupon resolved to build a city like Kasi and

of -as great religious eminence as Siva's Kasi itself,

which had the merit of translating men to heaven

and of making them merge in Siva \{ they happened

to die within the five cros of its sacred precincts.

VIII ALONG THE RI VER 209

'^.'V^^/\/•\^V^.'X'

\^\'asa succeeded after infinite troubles in buildingr
a city on the other side of the river, but he har
to seek the aid of the goddess Annapurna for
conferring upon it the potency of making those
who die there turn to Siva. This boon the goddes?
was rather loth to grant ; but being attracted by his
devotions she approached him in the shape of ?
very repulsive decrepit old woman, and — as ths
great immortal Bengali poet Bharat Chandra so
i^raphicaily and humourously describes, — artfully
enquired of Vyasa numbers of times as to what
became of men dying there. Vyasa answered patiently,
once, — twice, — thrice, expatiating upon the meiits of
his city, — but she feigned deafness and kept on
repeating her query ; till at last the exasperated
\'\ asa roared out ar.grily, "Whoever dieth here,
hccometh an ass,'' — \vhereuix)n the old woman
promptly rejoined that she had heard quite enough and
vanished saying, "Be it so" ! and left the crest-fallen
\^\asa utterly dumb-founded ! — Hence my caution !

Fortified thus against all ills threatening us on
the other shore of life, we may now start. The
water is clear and crystalline and of a greenisli
tint sparkling and glistening. A wide expanse of
sand spreads up to the eastern bank and Ramnagar
Fort looms in the farthest south-east. Passing
midstream, the eje takes at a single sweep
the vast panorama of the crescent-bank studded
with myriads of tall spires plain and gilt and lofty

14—

2 \o THE HOL Y CITY ( BE MA RE S) c\\ a p.

temples and beautiful palaces three to six stones
high. Far off due north runs the network of the
3Jufferin Bridge holding the two banks of the hoi},'
stream in its iron grip ; and as you turn your eyes
about, prominent among the clustering structure.^
appear the twin towers ot lieni Madho dominating
the neighbourhood. Magnificent palaces of white
and yellow towering upon their precipitous foundations
of massive stone rising sheer out of tlie water
iapping at their feet and inter^[>erscd with towering
temple-steeples shooting towards the sky, make a
scene of unsurpassed splendour and unparalleled beauty.
"For picturesqueness and grandeur**, writes Mr.
Sherring, **no sight in all the ivorld can wej] surpass
that of Benares us seen fruni the river Ganges.'^

(1)

Northward

SMALL colony of ash-smeared Skadhu:^
( ascetics ) burdened with heavy matted
locks have pitched their improvised tents
of large portable cloth umbrellas of quite
modern pattern and are sitting cross-leggtu'
in front of smoking logs of wood with
an air of perfect self-content close by the
Dasasvvamedh Ghat ( Plate IV, i, 3 ). Brakmcswara
and DasasziHiiHtdhesioara are the important Sivas of
this Ghat, and to the north is another — Sulatankeswara—
of immense proportions that lies submerged durini;
the rains. The broad stairs of the ghat rising tier
upon tier look exceedingly solid. But nearly all
of them together with the shrines on the edges
lie under water and buried in the silt during the
rainy season when the Ganges rises some forty
feet higher than its winter level and rushes along
in her fall expanse in mighty torrents, and the
water dyed muddy yellow approaches the floor oi
the houses above and almost reaches the terrace
of the lofty temple yonder abutting towards the
water. After the floods subside people have a great

212 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Cftap.

deal to do for months together in removing the
thick deposit from the steps and digging out
the shrines.

As you proceed northward, you cannot fail to
notice large quantities of stone slabs, mostly from
Chunar, lying piled in heaps or laden in boats in
the river — intended for the erection of imposing
buildings that beautify the cit\% — and they give you
some idea of the commercial activity in this quarter.
The long stairs of the Man Mandil Giiat ( Plate
FI, 3) now appear with the walls of the structure
above furnished with some remarkabl}' fine oriel
windows* Near to this are Dalvesii^ara and Someswara
Sivas, the former said to have influence over the
rains and the latter famed for curiiig all manner
of diseases.

Above the Trifura Bhairabi Ghat lies the
temple of the goddess of that name in a lane,
and here is the quarter known as the Brohvtapuri —
a number of houses erected by the famous Rani
Bhawani and dedicated to the use of tlie Brahmans
of Benares,

Then comes the MiR Gil AT, in a house above

which resided Mir Rustum Ali who was the Governor

of the province before Bulwant Singh,

Divodaseswara the father of Raja Chet Singh. The

Siv« temple of Divodaseswara Sz'va famed to

have been established by Raja Divcdas

of old is in the lane above this ghat. It is a

VIII ALONG THE RIVER— NORTHWARD 213

small temple among a cluster of similar ones under
the cool shade of spreading banyans. A very sacred
well known as the Dkarma-Kup enclosed by a high
stone railing is in front of this temple in the
centre of the courtyard, A few steps off from this
is the temple of Viskdtakshi Devi —
VishalaksW an epithet of Parvati — finely sculptured
Devi above the entrance and famed to be

standing on the place where Parvati's
Kundala ( ear-ornament ) fell. For a slight to her
divine spouse by her quondam father Daksna she
had cast her life away, and the disconsolate Siva
went roving all over the three worlds with her
iifeless frame upon his shoulders. Vishnu cut ic to
pieces by his discus, and the various members,
according to tradition, fell upon fifty-one places on
earth that became sanctified as pithas or sacred
spots ; and this in Benares is one of them. The
image of the goddess is gorgeously decked, the
floor is of black and white marble, and the ceiling
and walls are painted and embellished with various
decorations in bright colours. The building was
enriched by a Chetty of Nathcote a few years
ago, and the whole has a very opulent look. In an
adjoining chamber of the same house with humbler
decora':ions is the imaqfe of Mahalaksmi.

Djwn the steps of Mir Ghat with some more
shrines on the left — one of them being of Radha
Krishna, — we pass by the Lalita Ghat. Above the

2T4 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Char

NapALESE Ghat not far off, lies In a shady corner
the picturesque Ncpakse temple of PasJmpatinath
Siva with its two-storied roof and its s^ilded

top and a pair of boldly executed

The Napalese h'ons near the entrance. It is a unique

Temple structure of its kind in Benares bein^

made entirely of wood with profuse
and elaborate carvinj^^s beautiful and bold, repre-
senting- various ^ods and goddesses neatly sculptured
in wood and other fine ornamentations executed to a
nicety. But the effect is much marred by some
unsiorhtly and indelicate incong;ruities disfiguring some
{>ortions of them. In a recess just above the stairs
of the ghat is the shrine of Ganga — the presiding
deity of the river seated upon a crocodile {makar).

We next come over to the Jai.asain Ghat^
so called after Vishnu who reclines upon the
water of the ocean whence the name Jalasain. It
is used as a cremation-ground ( Plate XII, 6 ),.
and is in fact the continuation of the famous
Manikarnika Ghat where we have now arrived. This
massive stone ghat as well as the two fine temples
standing to the north and south were built by
the famous Ahalya Bai. The high cremation-
ground above made of stone and enclosed and
protected by a stone wall has been recently
constructed to avoid the difficulties of cremation
during the rainy season when the water approaches
its foundation and submerges the ground below.

VI n ALONG THE RJVER—AORTHWARD 215

The fine temple of Tarakeswara Siva stands
almost in the water in front of the ghat. During

the rains the upper portion of it

Tarakeswara only is left to tower above the large

Siva expanse of the rolling water which

strikes it on every side and isolates it
as it were from the bank (Plate IT, i). It is
believed that this god recites in the ears of the
dying the Mantra (text) that gives salvation to the
soul. The sincere belief in the Hindu world is
that persons dying at Benares are freed from the
liability of being born again and are merged in
the God Siva. Hence it is that a large number of
devout people from all parts of India flock to
this place in their old age leaving home and
family behind them and take up residence here
with the object of passing the last days of their
lives in this holy spot, — thus realising in a manner
the Banaprastha Asram of old in a modified form
in this age.

Towering above this ghat and reached by the

steep steps leading into the street above is

the spacious red-domed temple of

The Ahmety Balatripjirasundari Devi — a name of

Temple Durga— known as the AllMETY

Temple. This fine and artistic structure

with goFd-tipped pinnacles standing in the

middle of a large and neat courtyard was built

by the Raja of Ahmety in Oudh, and is strikingly

THE HOL Y CI J Y {BENARES) Chap.

^.'-%J•^-/*v>-^^^ y xy^v.'X'X/ \

beautiful and will fully repay a visit. The most
iioticeable feature of this temple is the group of
charming figures of the winged Gandharvas and
Apsaras, the musicians of the gods, posed very
gracefully in lines underneath the main cornice
(Plate XI, 2). Near to it, further up, is the
temple of Siddhi Vinayak Gan-esha with the images
of Siddhi and Buddhi Devi (Success and Wisdom)
by its side.

The Maj^ikarnika Ghat (Plate Xll, 4) is the

general cremation -ground of all Benares, and any

time you may find half a dozen or

MantkanOka more corpses blazing at the same

Ghat time upon the wide steps near to the

vvater^s *i6gQ and being resolved into

their primal elements. Numbers of S(iti Stones —

upright slabs placed in memory of the faithful

wives who had followed their husbands even into

death upon the funeral pyre — here bear wiiiiess to

the Hindu ideal of love and life which even

death cannot sunder.* A beautiful embodiment of

( I ) To prove that the same spirit lives and controls the
livis of the Hindus up to the present times, it may not be
uninteresting to note the very latest case of Sati that occurred
at premises No 9, Charakdanga Road, lielliaghata, Calcutta,
on the 20th April 191 1 in a highly-connected Kayastha family.
The lady, Saibalini Dasi — a neiceofthe late Mr. R, C. Dutt
( lately Commissioner of Burdwan and Orissa and Dewan
of the Gaikwar of Baroda ), — came to learn from the physician
in attendance that her husband then lying in his mortal

VIII ALONG THE RIVER-NORTHWARD 217

^^ V'\X\/-V%y'\^%y-

this in the shape of a youthful couple carved
very gracefully in relief on a large piece of Sati
stone is to be observed near the Harisk Chandra
or Maskan Ghat, the cremation ground in the
southern end of the town, besides the one on the
street outside the temple of Bara Ganesha. A
Charan paduka or Vishnu's foot-prints carved upon
a white marble block rests over a black pedestal
upon a large lotus-shaped slab of stone on the
pavement. Vishnu has been reported to have
alighted here and hence this spot is regarded to
be of exceptional sanctity, and is esp'^cially reserved
for the cremation of members of noble families.

Higher up above the flights of stairs is a
rectangular well or tank famous as the Manikarnika
KUND, variously styled as Miikti Kshetra ( the seat

illness had but a couple of hours at best to live. Just half an
hour before his death she went upstairs, and having shut herself up
in her roon dressed in her best and drenched her apparels with
petroleum. Then, having set fire to her garments and being
enveloped in violent flames and with a copy of "Geeta" held m
her joined palms she approached towards her husband's room
before anybody could be aware of what had transpired, but
dropped down dead at the verandah before she could reach
him. The two bodies were then cremated together upon the
same funeral pyre on the bank of the sacred Ganges. This
may be termed a determined felo-de-se or a temporary
aberration of mind, but mark the inherent spirit that led
to it !

2 18 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) chap.

\r\/^ /\j'\r>^r\ f

of liberation ) and Purnastibhakaran ( complete

source of felicity ). It \9. enclosed by

Manikarnika iron railings on al! sides and stone stairs

Knnd run from all its banks to the bottom,

and all devout pilgrims usually bathe

in it. Some images of gods and goddesses are in

some of the niches by the side of the stairs, and

this in the whole city is considered to be the most

sacred spot which all pilgrims must visit, and hence

tlie crowd here is always the thickest. Thus runs

an inscription upon a white marble slab attached

to the railings : "In 1887 A. D. the Jubilee year

of Her Most Gracious Majesty, Victoria, Empress

of India, was inaugurated the scheme for restoring

the 'Ganges' at Benares to its native purity.**

During the ra'ns the tank goes under water and

barely a portion of the railings remain visible, near

to which the people then bathe and perform their

religious rites.

Thus it is that the Puranas ascribe to this Kund
the greatest sanctity and antiquity :

Said Siva to Parvati, — 'In the vast nothingness —
no land, nor water, nor air. nor fire was there,
nor night nor day, nor sound nor shape. Darkness
was all around. And the great Brahman, incompre-
hensible and unknowable, created me and vanished.
His image am I, the God of the Simple, and they
call me the ancient Pimisha. Out of me did I
bring thee forth, Mother of the Universe !' — Such

VIII ALONG THE RIVER— NORTHWARD 219

/^/^y■^/•^/v^rv/~«.r»y^.'^/^x^ '^r'^..'"^/^.'^-^^/'v/V^

v/as the Hindu idea of the Supreme Essence,
Brahman, the God of the (^^ods, transcending all
m;, th ascribed to popular Hinduism and all worship
of images and deified heroes, — The expanse of
five cms of space underneath his feet, — the episode
proceeds, — Siva converted into the land of holy
Kasi. It was set neither on earth, nor in the sky,
but upon the top of Siva's trident ; and as in
the time of the deluge marking the change of cycles
water overran the universe in one vast ocean, this
spot ever continued to rest high above the rising
flood. Siva and Parvati looked forward benignantly
and out came a four-armed Being into existence.
They named him Maha- Vishnu, and saying that
the four Vedas would emanate from him for the
guidance of all living beings they disappeared. Upon
this, Vishnu excavated a tank with his discus and
sat there for fifty thousand years in tapa ( practice
of austerities \ and the heat generated by his
arduous observances caused him to perspire profusely
till the tank was filled. Siva came back attracted
by his devotions and was highly pleased ; and as
he leaned forward to look into the tank a jewel
{mani) pendent from his ear {karna) dropped
into it. Hence arose the name Manikartiika. Later
traditions add that goddess Gans^a ( Ganges ) on
her way to effect the deliverance of the ancestors
of prince Bhagiratha was greatly impressed with its
sanctity and entered this Kund, and thus enhanced
its sacredness. This is one of the five most holy

220 THE HOL y CITY (BENARES) Chap.

,/X/^/^/^w'^/'\/\-'^^>'V'^^/\rx.'\r^^^/x/ s

places in Benares which all pilgrims must visit, —
the other four being the Asi- ^angam, the Dasaswainedh,
the Panchganga and the Barana-Sangam ghats, — the
whole going by the name of Pancha-Tirtha ( the
five holy places of pilgrimage ).

As you now advance northward you cannot fail
to notice a sinking temple and a massive broken

structure over the SciNDHIA GiiAT
Scindhia Ghat (Plate V, 3). The huge stone pile

leaning a long way out of the per-
pendicular looks exceedingly striking in the
simplicity and beauty of its execution. The ruins
of this noble edifice have the appearance of being
torn from the very foundations and lie slanting
towards the west. Baija Bai, the Gwalior Queen,
began erecting the mansion and a ghat, but the
heavy weight of the massive stone-work caused the
foundations to sink, and the whole structure toppled
over as if by a shock of violent earthquake. And
thus have the ruins stood and kept their grounds
to this day a hundred years, grand even as they
are in the midst of the architectural grandeur all
around. Thus runs a curious story noted by Mr.
Neville as to the cause of the subsidence : In
attempting to trace the source of a small stream
of water that hampered the workmen, they opened
a cavern where was discovered an old man. *' The
latter questioned them on current topics, such as
recovery of Sita by Rama of Ayodhya, and on

PLATE XIIA

P. 221

VIII ALONG THE RrVER— NORTHWARD 221

hearing of the events that had occurred during his
long retirement and that Benares was in the hands
of another race, he forthwith leaped into the
Ganges and was seen no more."

The towering pile of the Raja of Nagpore's
large building standing upon its steep stony
foundation and crowning the BhoNSLA Ghat
appears next. The ghats after this are not of
much importance till \ ou reach the Panchaganga.
So we pass rapidly b)- the SankaTA Ghat
leading to the temple of the goddess of that
name. Gakga-Mehal Ghat, Ghosla Ghat, Ram
Ghat, Baji Rao Ghat, and Chor Ghat are
passed by in succession. This last ghat is said to
have been so called on account of its association
with the adventures of a chor (thief) who used
to come to bathe here at dead of night in the
olden times presumably to wash away his sins.
The Baji Rao and Ghosla Ghats are surmounted
by two fine structures high above their precipitous
stone-work, and the towering palatial building of
the Maharaja of Gwalior look exceedingly grand
and prominent (Plate XII, 3'.

Past the MUNGLA GaURI Ghat, we arrive at

the Panchaganga Ghat i^Plate I),

Panchaganga also known as the Patichanada or

Ghat Dharnianada Tirtha^ with its five

stately flights of steps — a place of

pilgrimage as the meeting-ground of the Ganges with

222 THE HOLY CITY (BEXARBS) Chap

■ ^'\j^\/\j\y^ \

four of her tributaries, the Dhutapapa^ the
Kirananadiy the Jamuna^ and the Saraswati,
reputed to be flowing underground, no traces of
which are, however to be found xn this Iron Age.

Right upwards the stairs run into a narrow
lane high above, and you come in front of what
is known as Madhoji-KI-Deora, the Mosque of
Aurangzeb, — also known as B:?ii M idJiavs Dhwaja
(ensign). As you enter the wide stone yard buiit
high above the level of tiie neighboaring houses,

the twin tall turrets look taller still

Madhoji-kl- and rise to a height of a hundred

Deora and fifty feet sheer above the floor

and to nearly double that height
from the bed of the Ganges. Bishop Herxir
notes in his Journal that according to common
report, 'the Himalaya may be seen from the
top of the minarets' in the morning when the
sky is perfectly clear. It was at the latter end of
the seventeenth or in the beginning of the eigh-
teenth centur>^ that this mosque was erected with
the best of the materials of the ruined temples
upon the site of the old temple of Beni Madhav
which was said to have been pulled down by
Aurangzeb to make room for it ; but it looks
quite solid and strong still. It is said that the
minarets were originally higher by fifty feet more
and were latterly reduced to their present height
to give them greater stability. A couple of per-
secuted lovers have been said to have stayed upon

VIII ALONG 1 HE RIVER -^NORTIIWARD 223

one of the towers for a time and afterwards thrown
themselves down to be freiJ from the panics ^f
despair.

You may now go inside and ascciid by the
s]3iral stairs of over a hundred and twenty steps
tiil you reach one of the minarets above. As yon
come up to the topmost balcony of the minaret
arid emerge into Hc^ht from out of the semi-
darkness, a ^rand panorama of exceeding brilliance
i\.\\(\ beauty flashes upon your entranced vision
(Plate X, 5). The sparkiinj^ waters of the holy
river to the east seem to run b^low in a mi'4hty
curve extcndin^,^ towards the south till the chain
of buildings and towers and temples fades away
in a mist near the mouth of the Asi with the
hary outlines of the Ranmagar Fort discernible on
tiie other bank of the Ganges. To the west arc
observed the well-wooded gardens and palatial
mansions beyond the thickly populated quarters
with their house-tops alive with sportive monkeys
frisking about upon them and swarms of pigeons
lluttering high above * like clustering white lotuses
iloating in the heaven's blue.' The distant
Dhamek and Humayun's Tower look clear-cut
against the blue sky with their crests upraised above
the neighbouring greenery. On the near north the
river winds beneath the fine bridge looking rather
slender and takes a mighty curve towards the east.
The sight is really an enjoyable one, and upon

224 THE HOL Y CITY {BENARES) chap.

the dizzy height and * far from the madding crowd's
ignoble strife/ you feel for the time eh'minated as
it were from all things mundane and resolved into
a non-material entity |

Back to the earth down below, — to the west of

the lane at the foot of the mosque, stands the

present temple of Beni Madhav ( a

Beni Madhab name of Krishna >, also known as

Bifida Madhav after the Rishi Agni

Bindu who established the shrine. It also contains

in another apartment Panchagafigesvcaia Siva and

the images of Ganga, and of Rama, Sita, Laksmana

and Hanuman in white marble. A little further

off through another lane }ou may have

Lasmanbala a look at the Lasnianbala Temple

Temple above the river containing a gorgt^ously

decked image of the four-armed Vishnu

holding the conch, the discus, the club and the

lotus, with the discs of the sun and the moon on

either side in their respective gold and silver

colouring.

As you step down the stairs of the Pancha-
ganga Ghat on your return, you find a small
house on the right containing among a number of
images and emblems upon a stone platform what
is reported to be the Chara7i-Padu}ca of RaMANAND
the great Vaishnavite teacher who lived about the
fourteenth century and set up the worship of Rama
as the divine Vishnu. His residence was at Benares

VIII ALONG THE RIVER— NORTHWARD 225

at the Panchaganga Ghat where existed a muih
or monastery of his followers said to have been
destroyed by some of the Mussalman princes.

The plain white tapering pinnacles of some Jain
temples next appear above the jAiN MANDlk Ghat,
and passing the Gau Ghat with the figure of a
colossal cow upon the steps, you arrive at the next

ghat of importance, the Trilochan
Trilochan Ghat Ghat where Vishnu is fabled to have

offered one of his eyes in lieu of a blue
lotus missing out of a thousand while he was
engaged in worshipping Siva — who had thus an
addition to his visual organ and became Trilochan
or tiiree-eyed. By the side of the steps in a small
house are Hiranyaga7'veswara and Narniadeswara
Sivap, and up above in a courtyard full of various
images is the temple of Ti'ilochan Siva with Parvati
in front. In a niche upon the wall is an image
of Ganesha in white marble, and in a room of a
building in the same compound is Baranasi Devi
established by King Banar. To the south of Trilochan
is Kotilitigeiwara^ so fashioned as to look like a
cluster of numerous emblems in one, and a number
of other images. Further off are the temples of
Nirbuddheszuara and Adi-Mahadeo, and in a dark
room of a house in a lane is a well which is
known as Pilpilla Tirtha, a name which is extended
to the Trilochan ghat itself.

jl^^ck to the boat, we now glide by the TiLLlANALA

226 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap.

and Prahlad Ghats and beneath the grand Dufferin
Bridge at Raj Ghat ( Plate X, 4 ) — on the high
bank above which was old King Banar's fort, — till we
arrive at the northernmost point of our journey at
Barana-Sangam, where the Barana streamlet empties
itself into the Ganges. At this place too, it is said,
once stood a small fort, traces of which are visible
on close observation. The high bank on this side of the
Barana with the moat-like streamlet at the foot
makes it eminently fitted for a strong defensive position.

The bank of the Ganges stretches northward
plain and unencumbered with masonry save for a
few small straggling houses afar, and
Barana-Sangam then takes a majestic curve at the
distance towards the east. As you step
out of the boat and look northward, a sense of
calm pervading restfulness fills your heart and makes
you linger a while watching the pastoral loveliness
of the locality. On the northern bank of the slender
streamlet flowing from the west, beneath the $hade
of the large tree in the distance, lies a cow
ruminating with legs doubled up and eyes half-closed
while her tail keeps flapping at the flies and
occasionally making a hit at the naughty crow as
it hops about and attempts to settle upon her
plump round belly. Close by strolls a pJax'Tul heifer
now browsing quieth-, then frisking up to its dam
in ex iberance of spirits. The little dusky hc'-lf-clad
lad leaning against the tree-trunk has fallen asleep

VIII ALONG THE RIVER^NORTIIWARD 227

with his stick lying by his side, forgetful of his
charges grazing peacefully around. A small boat
moored near the bank over there with a few clothes
and bundles in it lies waiting for its owner ; and
up the stream farther off a matronly woman is
engaged cleansing the family linen and is bending
patiently down upon her work. The green shrubbery
on the left lends a pleasant colouring to the charming
scene so serenely calm and noiseless and peaceful.
Presently there comes a lively dog yonder, dips its
mouth in the water and laps it for a while, and
turns round and scampers away in a hurry as if
busy on some urgent errand, and reminds us that
we too have our own business to mind.

So we turn back and observe up above the
steep bank some temples erecred by a Dewan of
Maharaja Scindhia about a century and a half ago,
which may be approached by some high stony
stairs. The first, as you rise to the top is a small
temple in which are Nakshatresivara and Vedeswam
Sivas. In a recesss of the wall is an image of
Gancsha and by its side a very beautifully carved
small image of Brahma with four faces seated upon
a lotus — all in white marble. By the side of this
temple is the entrance to the loftier one adjoining-
it. A large standing figure of Vishnu
Adi-Keshav in shining black marble known as
Adi-Keshav is in a room and in front
of it is a spacious porch with a number of beautifully

228 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES)

carved pillars supporting a lofty dome. There are
some other temples too, clustering together there,
the one of importance among them being that of
Sangameswara Siva. In the quadrangle also is
another image of Vishnu in Chunar stone in a
standing posture st}'led the Jna7i Keshav. As you
come down, a number of Sati stones with figuies
in pairs carved upon them and set upright upon
the grounds above the end of the creek on the
Ganges side would be sure to attract your attention.

As you stand upon the eminence of this steep
bank beneath the broad canopy of the blue heavens,
with the slender Barana making for and at last
reaching and nestling in the bosom of the mighty
Ganges and the unified stream gliding along peace-
fully, with the vast expanse of the sun-lit vista
stretching before you far as the e\e can reach,
what a strange undefinable impression of the grandeur
of solitude fills the mind and makes it realise the
solemnity of the scene !

(2)
Southward

I ME enough, and now to return. Up
U the stream our boatmen ply and soon
; do we begin to trace our way back.
A booming muffled sound makes you
look ahead, and there goes a long-
drawn railway train heralded by puffs
of whitish smoke as it rolls over
the Dufferin Bridge towards tne Kasi
Station. Below the bridge and past
R^jg-hat, we move away from the bank and run up
midstream to take from the distance a comprehens've
view of the temples and turrets and ghats and
palaces at a single sweep. Trilochan and Gau Ghats
are soon passed ; and up the high steps of Pancha
Ganga, Aurangzeb's lofty mosque rears its head
with its high minarets serving as landmarks for
several miles around.

The white spires of the Jain temples set off
agains^ the blue sky and the lofty palace of the
Nagpore Raja also move rapidly away. But soft,
what is that small boat laden with a couple of

230 THE HOLY CITY {BENARES) chap.

/\j\.'\/\.,\yK/^

long stone slabs with something between and the
whole tied round with heavy ropes ? The five
Dandi ascetics occupying the boat^ presently rai?e
it up with care and lay it across the edges of the
boat, and then silently lower the whole down
into the water below which eddies a little and
then closes up. It is only the mortal remains of one
of their associates in life which are thus consigned
to a watery grave ! Mother Ganges is capacious
enough to hold all that seek refuge in her cold
bosom. Such is death — a vanishing into the dark
recesses of time ! And life ? Who knows ? Perhaps
but a child^s play under its boding shadow \

Hard matter of fact would^ however, brook no
brooding. Look up, and there from the sloping bank
above the Ram Ghat stares a gigantic mud figure of
B/mJzay the second of the Pandava brothers, painted
white and yellow, lying on its back under the open
canopy of heaven with its head propped up and
gazing towards the river with a pair of large dark
eyes from beneath jet-black eyebraws and looking
fierce and frightful enough in all conscience. Bhima
is worshipped at the end of Kartik (November) when
his image is made on the river- bank which lasts
till the next rains dissolve it.

The stately ruins of the mighty piles slanting
landward in the Scindhia Ghat (Plate V, 3) and lying
m wild confusion still attract the eye by the
sjrandeur of the massive stone-work and the beauty

VIII ALOI^G THE RIVER— SOUTHWARD 231

.-"v^^'V'' \ ^ -./^^ \ AV/^ '1

of its architecture. The grand stairs and the lofty
temples over the high embankments of the Mani-
Karnika — the central one of all the ghats in Benares,
— look trembling behind the filmy screen of smoke
rising in wavy wreaths from the funeral p}Tes
blazing upon the steps below. Disconsolate women
with their hopeless eyes half turned away to avert
the blaze and sitting with their pallid faces resting
upon their knees, the crowd of bathers making
their customary ablutions a little way off heedless
of the solemn dissolution taking place so close at
hand, and the motley groups of men and women
passing by and casting awed looks toward the weird
scene, — combine to make up an impressive sight
that lives long in the memory.

From here to Dasaswamedh the whole bank
is full of bathers resorting to it for ablutions and
devotional purposes ; and from morning till late in
the afternoon large concourse of people always
throng the bank employed in various pursuits.
Down to Kedar Ghat the crowds continue, but
beyond that point their ranks thin and melt away.

We leave the Mir Ghat and the lofty Man
Mandil and drift on opposite the Dasaswamedh Ghat
(Plate IV, I ) once more. In very old times it was
styled the Rtidra Sarowar Th-tha, but the name
that now passes current is associated with Brahma's
Ten- horse Sacrifice performed here in the mythical
ages. Temples cluster thicker over this bank than

232 THE HOL V CIJ V {SENA RES) chap.

elsewhere, and the largest numbers of bathers flock
to this ghat for the observance of religious rites
and duties. Constant bustle and motion along these
ghats make the scene one of intense animation.

But slow your boatmen must ply their oars if
you would take in all the ever-changing kaleidoscopic

variety of scenes shifting swifth' along

Scenes on the the Ghat. Numbers of boats of diverse

bank sizes and shapes painted green and

yellow, and some of them looking
roomy and commodious with pretty cane chairs
and lounges placed upon their flat railed roofs lie
moored all along the bank ; and numerous- similar
crafts flit about and make the river lively with
their brisk movements. Huge palm-leaf umbrellas
with long bamboo-shafts stuck in the ground or
tied to posts afford shelter from the scorc'iing sun
to various classes of people on the bank — beggars
and barbers, priests and flower-sellers, ash-smeared
Sadhus and devout lay-worshippers, and perhaps
idlers as well like you and me. Under some
of these sit the ghatias upon their broad wooden
platforms to take care of the clothes and other
belongings of the bathers and to supply them with
oil and sandal paste and other toilet requisites for
some little remuneration. No distinction of rank
seems to stand in the way of the mixing up of
this medley of men in these ghats ; and you find
the rich and the poor bathing side by side, and

VIII ALONG THE RIVER—SOUTHWARD 233

the high-class Brahman in close proximity to the
despised Sudra without the least fear of contamination
( Plate XII, 5 ). From various parts of India far
and near are they all there, males, females and
children of all ages and all castes.

Look at the old men sitting upon the steps
in their wet clothes reciting mantras and making
offerings of flowers to the gods, which thrown into
the water float away afar in a long trailing line
down the placid stream. See how merrily are the
youngsters over there talking and laughing and
groups of females chatting incessantly — as is thtir
wont all the world over — while bathing in a corner
of the ghat ( Plate XII, 2 ). Yonder are the
frolicsome children swimming and spkshing water
in innocent glee caring little for the quiet their
elders so badly want. In a retired corner a little
way off are persons quietly offering libations of
Ganges water to their dear departed ones and
performing other rites enjoined in the skastras for
their good in the world beyond, and making gifts
and presents to Brahmans who are everywhere in
evidence. Mark the man there immersed to his
waist, standing with his palms joined and muttering
hymns in a singsong tone half aloud and bowing
often as he looks to the resplendent sun-god in
all his glory in the east.

There goes a batch of pilgrims, — the grave-looking
pater-fainilias leading, and the cheerful old dame

234 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap.

behind with a merry twinkle in her eyes that
h'ghts up her jocose rotund face dragging along a
playful little urchin of a grandchild. With a wriggling
restless little one pressed to her bosom by her
encircling left arm decked with golden bracelets, a
young mother comes along in the train of the old
lady, clutching by the jewelled fingers of her right
hand the fringe of her laughing sister-in-law's apparel
and casting bashful looks of eager curiosity from
beneath the half-drawn veil which shades her pretty
little face. And those two young men — who bring
up the rear and carry the vessel of the sacred
Ganges water and votive offerings of green bael
leaves, pink roses and yellow marigold, — must be
brothers to all appearances. A guide — a Jattrawaliah
or Gangaputra ( son of the Ganges ), one of a
class of Brahmans who earn their livelihood by
this calling — directs their movements and points out
to them the various sacred nooks and corners
where they must pause to make an offering in the
shape of small coins or cowries in the temples
and shrines and to the swarm of pestering beggars
and mendicant Brahmans hanging about ever} where.

Venerable old men fresh from a cleansing dip
in the holy stream go along in their daily round
of visits to the important shrines, clad in plain
white with painted 7ia77iabali sheets — stamped with
the names of Rama and Hari and with the imprints
of Vishnu's feet upon them — thrown round their

VIII ALONG THE RIVER—SOUTHWARD 235

necks, and their foreheads and arms daubed with
streaks of the sacred Ganges earth and sandalwood
paste. Their teeth chatter with cold as they move
along muttering snatches of mantras and sprinkling
drops of sacred water from the Kaina?7daius
( water-pots ) in their hands upon the numerous
emblems of Si\a h 1^ abcut their paths.
I'athetic, very rruch, is the sight of that fragile
withered old lady — perhaps a lonely widow the best
part of her life — now bent double with age and
almost in the last stage of decrepitude, plodding along
wearily with the hejp of her trusty old stick, probably
her only support in this world now, and shaking
and shivering for the early morning bath. Verily, it
was a sight like this that moved the poet as he wailed

'When one by one our ties are torn,
And friend from friend is snatch'd forlorn.
When man is left alone to mourn.
O, then, how sweet it is to die !

When the trembling- limbs refuse their weight,
And films slow-gathering dim the sight,
When clouds obscure the mental light,
'Tis Nature's kindest boon to die !'

Longingly does she look up to that welcome liberation,
and bears up still through the strength of her implicit
faith in the virtue of the sacrevi water to effect
her salvation and places her unswerving reliance
upon the Great Lord to secure for her the be on
of freedom from the interminable rounds of births
and transmigrations should fortune be so favorably

236 THE HOLY CITY (BENARE";) chap

disposed as to enable her to cast out her last
breath in this holy city.

But we must not loiter much longer, for we
have yet to go a long way to reach Ramnagar
and have, further, to go up above some of the
southern ghats as well. So, leaving the Sitala
and Ah ALVA Bai'S Ghats behind, we pass by the
MUNSHI Ghat erected by Munshi Sridhar, the
architect of Ahalya Bai, and Ran A Ghat with
the palace standing above it of the Maharaja of
Udaipur who traces his descent from Rama, the
immortal hero of the Ramayana. Next comes the

Chausatti Ghat and up its flight
Chausatti Ghat of stairs is the temple of Chausatti

Devi built by Bengal's last independent
King, Maharaja Pratapaditya, towards the end of
the sixteenth century. The image is a representation
of Durga with her feet upon a crouching buffalo ;
and the stately figure of a lion, another present
from Lai Bahadoor Singh, Raja of Ahmety, stands
in the quadrangle. An image of Bkadrakdli is also
in the san.e compound.

We leave Pande and Narad Ghats behind,
and come next to the Chauki Ghat. Above it
stands a lofty peepul tree near the trunk of which
on the round stone pavement are numerous Siva
emblems and figures of hooded serpents. We then
float along by the Kedar Ghat with its splendid
stairs which in loftiness are next only to the ghat

VIII ALONG THE RIVER—SOUTHWARD 237

above which stands Aurangzeb's towering mosque. At
the top of this ghat is the large domed
Kedarnath temple of Kedarnath Siva painted red
and white. It stands amid four smaller
ones, locating a large number of images of various
gods and goddesses, among which are Annapurna^
Laksmi Narain, Ganesha and Bhaironath. A tank
called Gauri Kund^ sacred to Siva's spouse, is at
the top of the first flight of stairs. It is said that
a Brahman ot Oujjein named Vasishta had resolved
to go on yearly pilgrimages to the temple of
Kedarnath in the Himalayas as long as he lived.
He did so sixty-one times, and though grown very
old prepared to make a fresh start. Upon this
Kedarnath became very propitious and manifesting
himself to the Bramhan in a dream promised to
stay in Benares for all time. Like Gauri Kund^
Hansa Tirtha and Ganga in the Himalayas, all
the three are represented here as well.

Proceeding further up upon the bank on the
right appears another figure of Bhima, and soon

after this we reach the Harish

Harish Chandra CHANDRA Ghat or Mashan Ghat —

Ghat the cremation-ground of the southern

quarter of Benares. No flights of
stairs or stone pavements mark the ghat here.
Several Sati stones upon the bank in this place
mark the spots hallowed by the self-immolation
of disconsolate widows. This jjhat is connected

238 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) chap.

with a thrilling incident and is famed to be the original
cremation-ground of Benares, where in the Epic
ages Raja Harish Chandra was engaged by the
Chandala owner of the ghat to work as his servant.
True to a promise he had made to Viswamitra
to give whatever the Rishi desired to have, he
made him a gift of all he had and vacated his
kingdom at his bidding. Even this, however, would
not satisfy the Rishi who demanded the customary
dakshina or fee in money that a Brahman usually
obtains as a concomitant to a gift of lands.
Bereft of all world's material goods he had thus
no other means left but to attempt to raise the
requisite funds by selling his queen and his little
prince into slavery to an old Brahman. Even this
course failed to raise the adequate amount, and he
had to sell his own self at last to the Chandala
who owned this ghat and who employed him to
collect rates from the people who came to burn
their dead here. The home of the once happy
and powerful king thus broken up by a freak of
fortune for a plighted word, the unlucky King and
his unhappy consort passed long years of suffering
in strange places engaged in strange vocations.
To add to his miseries, the story runs, it so
happened that the little prince was bitten by a
snake while plucking flowers for the old Brahman's
devotional offerings. The poor mother brought down
the body of her darling to this very ghat for
cremation and lay wailing and disconsolate, with

VIII ALONG THE RIVER—SOUTH WARD 239

the dead prince in her lap and the lurid flames
of the burning pyres imparting a ghastly look to
her wan and pallid face distorted by grief. From
out of the night's somore gloom rendered fearful
by the ruddy half-lights, who should now emerge
with his heavy rod but the erstwhile King and
now a dirt-begrimed slave to claim the usual
rate ? A i^v^ brief minute's parley, a lifting of
the mist of years and the assertion of the natural
ties of blood, — and mutual recognition followed
soon enough and the inevitable scene of heart-
rending distress. Overwhelmed and blinded by
grief, as mai: and wife were about to plunge
themselves into the funeral pyre with their dead
child, the sage Viswamitra appeared in the very
nick of time and restored life to the prince and
the queen and his kingdom to the King. Highly
dramatic is this episode and thrilling with intense
pathos as you find it narrated in the Ramayana.
The large stone building above the ghat is pointed
out as belonging to the descendants of that same
Chandala, and a Siva emblem near the water's
cd^Q as established by Raja liarish Chandra.

Up a flight of high steps to the south above
the Hanuman Giiat stands the large image of the
monkey-god near the entrance to the /una akhcra.
This ghat is associated with the
Ballabhacharya memory of Ballabhacharya, the
founder of the Ballabhachari or the
Rudra sect of the Vaishr.ava>, Born at Benares in

240 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap.

1479 A. D. of Brahman parents, he set up the
worship of Krishna as Balgopal. It was a period of
great reHgious activity all over India and Europe,
and his contemporaries were Chaitanya (1484- 15 27) at
Nadiya in Bengal and Nanak (1469- 15 39) in the
Punjab, and the great reformer Martin Luther (1483-
1546) had also been then at work in Europe. He
passed his last days at the Jethanwar quarter in
Benares where he founded 2. imith and died in 1530.
There is a legend connected with his death to the
effect that he descended down the steps of this
ghat into the water below and disappeared. Soon
after this a flame of fire issued out of the spot
where he had gone down which was seen ascending
heavenward till it passed away into the blue sky
above.

Close by is the Dandi Ghat (PMate X, 2) and
beside it the SiVALA Ghat above which on the
northern side are the two muths of the Naga
Sannyasis, the Nirvani and the Niranjani. To
the south of this is what is known as the
Sivala Fort where Chet Singh, the Raja of Benares
resided till 1781. It was built by Baijnath Misr,
and the solid foundation rising out of the water
erect and upright impart to it a look of considerable

strength. The spacious grounds above
SivQla Fort now contain a small garden. Through

a small window overlooking the river on
the north Raja Chet Singh is said to have let

IX ALONG THE RIVER— SOUTHWARD 241

himself down into a boat below and crossed over
to Ramnagar when he was beset by British
troops under orders of Warren Hastings. ^ After this
the fort was confiscated by the British Government
and remained for many ye^rs in the occupation
of the descendants of the Emperors of Delhi who
were allowed to reside there. Only recently has
this reverted to the present Maharaja of Benares.
The houses in the outer and the zenana quarters on
the south with five temples alongside the river as
well as the old Dewan-khana further off, are all
now in a sadly dilapidated condition. Their repairs
had lately been taken in hand, and eleven temples
with lofty pinnacles, standing together to the south
of the Naga Akheras and utilized by the Mahomedans
as store-houses, — have now been restored to their
former condition.

A little to the south is the TULSI Ghat named
after the great poet Tulsi Das, who was a contem-
porary of Shakespeare and was reputed to have

lived in a house above this ghat for
Tulsi Das a long time. Here it was that he

wrote his Hindi version of the Ra7nayana
in 1 574 A. D. His father Bhanu Datta was a Kanouj
Brahman, and he was born about 1533 at a villaife
in the Banda district called Rajapur lying to the
vvest of Prayag ; some, however, assign his birth-place

(I) S^e Chap. X, post

16—

242 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap.

to Tari in the Doab. ^ He lost his father when
very young and was brought up by an ascetic,
and stayed for about twelve years at Benares engaged
in study. After this he returned home and married
and settled there. Report has it that he had grown so
inordinately fond of his wife that he could not bear
separation from her for any lengthy period of time.
In course of his temporary absence from home
on one occasion, she had gone to her father's house
on a visit. Apprised of this upon his return, he
bent his steps thither ; but when he accosted his
wife, the latter felt much ashamed and annoyed at
being followed about that way and pointed out
that the highest and the purest bliss should have
been his if he had but diverted that same love,
that he bore for her transitory frame of flesh and
blood, towards the divine Rama the Lord of the
three worlds. This rebuff had a chastening effect and
cooled the ardour of his love and made him relinquish
the world and turn an ascetic. He came away to
Benares and travelled to Ajodhya, where according

(i) Prof H. H, Wilson in his 'Religious Sects of the Hindus' notes :
Tulsi Das was a Brahman of the Sarvarya branch and a native
of Hajipur, near Chitrakut ; when arrived at maturity he settled at
Benares, and held the office of Dewan to the Raja of that city ; his
preceptor was Jagannath Das, whom he followed to Govardhan
near Brindaban, but afterwards returned to Benares and there
commenced his Hindi version of the Ramayana in the year of
Samvat 163 1, when he was thirty-one years of age. He continued
to reside at Benares where he built a temple to Sita Ram, and
founded a muth adjoining, both of which are still in existence (1861).

IX ALONG THE RIVER—SOUTHWARD 243

to some he published his Ramayana. After staying-
there for a time he came back to Benares and
lived there till his death in 1623. His immortal
work has a place in every Hindi-speaking household
in the North-West, like Kirtibash's Ramayana in
Bengal and Sridhar's Marhatta version of the same
in Western India, and is a source of solace and
a guide in shaping the course of daily life to the
high and the low, to the rich and the poor, and
to the grihastha who sticks to his home as well
as the Sannyasi who has renounced the world.

In a small low-roofed room on the upper story
of an old building above the river are carefully
preserved a pair of sandals said to have been worn
by Tulsi Das and a piece of rotten wood said to be
a part of the boat by which he used to cross the
river and an old quilted bedding pointed out as
the one on which he used to sleep. As to the
antiquity claimed for these relics, however, it is hard
to form any estimate. In another apartment is the
image of Hanuman said to be the identical one he
worshipped ; and a small space upon the floor
where lies a black stone slab with lines of letters
carved upon it is pointed out as the very
spot where he had composed his Ramayana. There
are also several images here along with those of
Rama, Laksmana and Sita.

The Tulsi Ghat is also associated with the
memory of many of Chaitanyd s followers who

244 THE HOL Y CIT Y {BENARES) chap.

had their abode here. Chaitanya also lived at
Benares for a time where he had his religious and
philosophical disputations with Prakasanand Saraswati,
the greatest of the Benares Pandits of the time,
and defeated him.

We now arrive at the last of the bathing places —
the Asi-Sangam — where that small streamlet empties

itself into the Ganges. After achievinjaj
Asi-Sangam her victory over the demons Sumbha

and Nishumbha, Goddess Durga is said
to have thrown her sword ( ast ) away and it fell
here and carved out the Asi channel. Here ends
in a manner the holy limits of Benares and bej-ond
this to the south there are no more ghats and
stone revetments of the bank or temples and
shrines any further.

Having thus far seen the holy shrines and ghats

in Benares we may — as our boat heads slowly

towards Raoinagar — talk about one more and a

rather arduous duty the pilgrim has to perform,

viz., to walk along the Panchkoshi

Panchkoshi Road enclosing the sacred precincts

Road of Benares on the land side, — starting

from Manikarnika Ghat as the centre

and going round at a distance of five cros or ten miles

from it. This road was repaired by Rani Bhawani

who had erected the Durga Temple ; but portions

of it and many of the temples and tanks lying

along it lately fell into very bad condition again.

IX ALONG THE RIVER—SOUTHWARD 245

> XyV/ v/ v^v/ vy \r vr \

It may not be out of place to mention in this
connection that through the exertions of an old
Brahman of Benares named Pandit Dwarlanath
Dube, a thin wiry old man of great earnestness
and energy, a committee has been formed under the
name of '^Kashi Tirtha Jirnoddharini Sabha*' for the
repair and restoration of old Tirthas or places of
pilgrimage at Benares. The committee have succeeded
in making improvements to the Panchkoshi Road
repairing the bridges along the same and making
provision for street-lights at Bhimchandi, Ramesvvara,
and other places, and also by cleansing and restoring
the Gandharba Sagar tank at Bhimchandi and a
well near the temple at Ramesvvara. The old temples
of Adi-Mahadeo, Nirbuddeswara, and Kameswara
near the Trilochan Ghat and also of Briddha-
kaleswara and Daksheswara in the interior were
also repaired by some reises of Benares through
the persuasions of the committee. In respect of
these repairs and restoration of old temples and
resuscitation of old shrines, Dwarkanath has
merely been following in the footsteps of a Guzrati
Brahman named Pandit Ramkrishnaji Dichchhit
Gorji whose disciple he professes to be. Even
before Pandit Gorji, two Bengal Brahmans, Pandit
Ram Chandra Vidyalankara and his son Pandit
Uma Sankar Tarkalankara, had taken the initiative
in the matter and set the movement afoot and
had done much in this direction.

From the Manikarnika Kund, the road runs,

246 THE HOL Y CITY (BENARES)

along the ghats southward towards the Asi-Sangam
and thence passes towards the west and the north,
through a wide and wonderfully picturesque and
delightful area in the interior. It has five halting
stages — the first being near the temple of Kardam-
eswara Siva in the village of Khandwa said to be
of very great antiquity, the next near the temple
of Bhimchandi Devi in the village of Dhupchandi,
the third at Rameswara, the fourth near the Panch
Pandava tank in the village of Shibpur and the
fifth near the Kapildhara tank to the south ol the
Barana. This takes the pilgrim five days, and on
the sixth he comes back to Manikarnika via
Barana-Sangam having covered a space no less than
fifty miles in length. Circumambulating thus round
the whole of the holy area with all its numerous
shrines and sacred places, one is said to acquire
in a compendious form all the merits and benefits
to be obtained from visiting each of them individually.

I'LATE Xiri

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\ 247

Chapter X

RAMNAGAR

" There is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them
how we will."

— Shakespeare.

ETVVEEN green banks rich with fertility

flows the vast sheet of water. About a

mile off to the left now appear the

massive buttresses and the rounded walls

and thick battlements of the Ramnagar

Fort (Plate XIII, 3), solid and strong

and rising straight out of the water ; and

fine windows and stately balconies above

overlook the river and have a look of quiet and

peaceful opulence. Important as the residence of

the present Maharaja, the traditions of whose

family is said to relate to the eleventh century

A. D., it is also closely connected

Mansa Ram with the history of Benares. It was

Mansa Ram, the head of the

Bhuinhars and Zemindar of Gangapur — a village

ten miles west of Benares — who was the real

founder of the greatness of the Raj family and

the architect of its fortunes. The great Mogul Moon

had been waning after the death of Aurangzeb,

and the Nawabs of Oudh began to gather strength

during the effete regime of his mediocre successors.

248 THE HOLY CITY {BENARES) chap.

Thus it was, as has been traced before ^ that in
1722 the Benares province came to the hands of
Saadat Khan, the first Navvab of Oudh. It was then
sublet by him to Mir Rustom AH who governed it till
1738. Mansa Ram took service with him and gradually
drew the reins of government into his own hands,
and after the expulsion of the former in 1738, he
was, according to Dr. Hunter, allowed to step into
Rustom AH's place. He made his possessions
secure and in course of time acquired the Fort of
Jaunpur and obtained the grant of Chunar and
Benares for his son Bulwant Singh and secured
for him the title of Raja. According to another
authority, however. Emperor Mahammad Shah of
Delhi being willing to place Benares in the hands
of the Hindus made Mansa Ram Raja of Benares
in 1730.

Upon the death of Mansa Ram in 1739, his
son Bulwant Singh succeeded and strengthened

his position by erecting this Fort at
Bulwant Singh Ramnagar ; and in spite of the

attempts of Nawabs Safdar Jung and
Shujauddowlah to bring him under control, he
made himself practically independent oi the Nawabs
of Oudh, and further added Chakia to his patrimony
in 1754 and obtained Korh as a Jagir from
Nawab Shujauddowlah. Later on in 1763, he
joined the Emperor Shah Alam of Delhi in his

(i) Vide p. 134, ante.

X RAMNAGAR 249

expedition against Mir Jafar, the Nawab of Bengal,
the former being backed by Nawab Shujauddovvlah
and the latter by the British. Then was fought
the momentous battle of Buxar in 1764, and after
the defeat of the Emperor Bulwant coolly went
over to the side of the conquering British. In
1764 Emperor Shah Alam ceded the Benares
district to the English, but under the terms of a
subsequent treaty in 1766 with Nawab Shujauddowlah
it reverted to the hands of the VVazirs of Oudh.
Owing to the support of the English, however,
Buhvant's possessions could not be interfered with
by the VVazir.

On his death in 1770, Chet Singh, son of
Bulwant by a Rajput lady, succeeded ; and the
VVazir of Oudh having eventually
Chet Sln^h ceded the province of Benares back
to the British in 1775, the Government
of John Company confirmed him in his place in
1776. He could not, however, pull on well with
Warren Hastings who was hard pressed for men
and money owing to the wars with the Marhattas
and with Haidar Ali in Mysore. Complication j5
arose, and in 1778 he was called upon to pay for
the maintenance of three battalions of Sepoys and
in 1780 to make additional payments for cavalry
for general service of the State. For a time Chet
Singh complied, but held back afterwards. At last
in 1 78 1, matters came to a head when he was

250 THE HOL Y CITY (BENARES) chap.

'V/>.' \^^^^./■\

called upon to pay the sum of five lakhs of
Rupees for failing to furnish a thousand horsemen
to fight with the French. As he would not do so,
Hastings came over to Benares and took up his
quarters at Madhudas's garden ^ and asked him
to explain his conduct. As his attitude did not
impress him favorably he issued orders for placing
the Raja under arrest m his own residence at the
Sivala Fort, and two companies of sepoys under
three British officers were detailed off to mount
guard there. They went, but by some mistake
without ammunitions, and took their stand on the
small square to the west of the eleven temples
still existing in the fort. A number of the Raja's
retainers who had been apprised of the circumstances,
now crossed over from Ramnagar and put all of
them — two hundred and five all told — to the sword ;
and during the 7nelee the Raja escaped by lowering
himself down by means of some turbans tied together
into a boat below from one of the five windows
in the fort lying above the river on the north side.

This was in 1781 ; and at a little distance to
the west of the Sivala Fort, in a quarter inhabited
mostly by Mahomedans now, is a rectangular platform
raised above the level of the adjoining road and
enclosed by a railing, inside which are three plain
white tombs with a brass tablet recording thus:

" This tablet has been erected by the Govt,
(i) Vide p. 52, ante.

X R AM N AGAR 251

of the N. W. P. to preserve the last earthly
resting place of Lieut. Arch : Scot, 1st Battalion

Sepoys ; Jer : Symes 2nd J. Stalker,

Resid : Body-guard who were killed August 17,
1 78 1 near this spot doing their duty/'

Far from the scene of the carnage, however, and
near the Cheti^unge Police Station and next
to the fine large garden-house of Hon. Munshi
Madho Lai at Benares is the place where the
remains of the Sepoys were buried which was later
on enclosed by a wall built in 1862. An inscription
upon a slab outside marks the spot as Hhe
burial place of brave me?i who died in the performance
of their duty.*

An attack upon Fort Ramnagar followed this
and was repulsed costing the life of Captain
Mahaffre who led it. Chet Singh now prepared to take
up the offensive and attack Hastings in his quarters
at Madhudass' garden at Benares, but the latter
thought it prudent to make a hasty retreat to the
strong fort at Chunar. ^ Chet Singh then raised
an army of over twenty thousand regular troops
besides about the same number of irregulars, but
he was eventually turned out of his strongholds
and had to flee to Gwalior where he ended his
days in 18 10. He was formally deposed and
Mahip Narain, son of Bulwant Singh's daughter
Golap Kumari was placed on the throne in September

(i) Vide p. 52, ante.

252 THE HOLY CITY (BEN ARE '^) chap.

1781. Since then till now the succession has

b^en unbroken and it has all

MahipNarain along been a piping time of peace

and prosperity. His son Udit Narain

succeeded in 1795 and was in his turn followed

by his son ISWARI PRASAD in 1835.

It was during Raja Mahip Narain s regime
that the Civil and Criminal Administration of

Benares and the Criminal Administration
Administration of the province were taken away

by the British into their own
hands. In 1794 the lands held by the Raja in
his own right were constituted into his Family
Domains with his own courts for the trial of

civil and revenue cases cropping up
Prabhu Narain therein. The present Maharaja H. H.

Sir Prabhu Narain Singh, G. C. I. E.,
who succeeded in 1889, has lately been the recipient
of signal honors from the government of Lord
Minto, having been invested with the full administrative
powers and dignity of a Ruling Chief in
respect to the perganas Bhadohi and Kera Mangraur
of his Family Domains as well as the tract comprising
the Fort of Ramnagar and its appurtenances which
are now to be termed the STATE OF Benares.
A profound scholar in Sanskrit and a patron of
learning, the Maharaja is one of the principal
benefactors of the Central Hindu College. His
v/ork*: of charity are various and extensive, and he

X RAM N AGAR -?53

enjoys a wide and well-deserved popularity.

From the landiiig stage, you come to the front
of the lofty gate leading to the spacious courtyard

of the Maharaja's Fort and Palace.
Ramnagar Fort The two large courts inside the walls

are capacious enough to accomodate a
vast concourse of people, and thousands had in fact
stood here in martial array and sallied out hence
in their offensive errand to fight their foes. The
whole locality, however, now wears a lively appearance,
when, on the auspicious tenth day of the waxing
moon during the Ram Nabami festival in autumn
every year, the Maharaja goes out in procession to
proceed to Chitrakut, about a couple of miles off,
to witness the Bharat Milan, the meeting of Bharat
with his exiled brother Rama — that great dramatic
event depicted by the immortal Valmiki and so
full of intense human interest and pathos. The
front-gate of the fort is then blocked with crowds
of people mixed up with the Maharaja's guards
pouring out of tlie Fort in an incessant stream.
Dense expectant throngs line the broad pathway,
and mounted sentries here and there make but feeble
attempts to keep up a semblance of order. The whole
of Ramnagar clad in holiday attire, and a good
portion of Benares too, turn out here at the time ;
and as they press and jostle to have a peep at
the front, pleasant jokes and good-humoured
witticisms flit along and keep the company merry,

254 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap.

Presently, there is an unusual stir and the gorgeous
cavalcade advances. A party of horsemen with
pennoned lances strut by upon their prancing
chargers, a line of richly-caparisoned elephants with
their swaying trunks and broad foreheads painted
white and vermilion wave onward in their measured
gait, and troops in red uniforms and with tall
matchlocks follow them on foot. Beautiful gold and
silver tanjams upholstered in crimson velvet and
other paraphernalia of royalty are carried along,
couples of horsemen in quaint old-time coat
of mail and iron helmet of the olden days pass
by and evoke admiring comments from the merry-
makers ; large parties of horsemen in modern uniform
and armed with carbines now appear and solid
phalanxes of men on foot fully accoutred and
furnished with present-day weapons. Soon enough
the princes come forth, tall and slim and fine youths,
riding gracefully upon their high-mettled steeds.
Stately elephants with necklaces of gold and silver
and coverings of cloths of gold bear gold and silver
howdahs of various artistic designs seating the Dewan
and the high officers of State. Soon as the Maharaja'*s
elephant passes out of the gate the crowds grow
exultant and vociferate shouts of welcome, cannon
thunder forth the salute, the Maharaja nods and
bows gracefully, the attendant behind his throne
of silver waves the white chamara in his hand and
the pearly fringes of the broad glistening white
•silver umbrella overhead rock and quiver and look

X RAMNAGAR

255

extremely picturesque. In his robes of spotless
shining^ white silk, with his jewelled necklace decking
his breast, the Maharaja looks on the other side
of fifty with a fine physique and a kind benevolent
mien and dignified bearing. Other elephants follow
and some more troops and attendants, and a large
multitude of various grades of men bring the show
to an end. Onward the procession moves, the
crowds wait a while and then disperse.

Shall we now have a peep at the stately palace ?
We must then cross the courtyards and go in.
The main hall inside is bright with the shooting
brilliance from the pendants of the beautiful crystal
chandeliers emitting rainbow colours on the least
motion. The floor is inlaid with fine trellis-work
of dainty marble, and rare art curios and various
knick-nacks adorn the tables. An interesting series
of large portraits in oil colours of the Rajas of
the Benares family decorate the walls, and prominent
among them look those of Rajas Chet Singh,
Mahip Naraiii, Udit Narain, Iswari Prasad and the
present Maharaja. Raja Iswari Prasad Singh was
reputed to be a poet and an artist of a very
high order and much of his fine handiwork are
preserved in the palace, and among them are some
dainty flowers in ivory placed underneath the glass-cases
upon the side-tables. There is a room adjoining
the hall, the four walls of which as well as the
ceiling are literally covered over with scenes m

256 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap.

colours from Kalidasa's glorious drama Saktmtala.
Indeed, the whole history of her charming life is
to be observed here depicted in beautiful paint
and is well worth the trouble of studying. One
very interesting treasure in the palace is an old
hand-painted and gorgeously illuninated copy of
Tuist Das' 9 Ra7nayana with profuse illustrations—
which can be viewed only with the Maharaja's
permission.

As you stroll along the verandahs and stand upon
the balcony facing the river, you catch a glimpse of
the stately structures of the Benares bank in the
distance, and a fine vista of unusual beauty opens
up before your absorbed vision with the crystal waters
rolling on in a mighty sweep and set against the
luxuriant green of the broad eastern bank. As the
horizontal rays of the afternoon sun tinge the
white walls of the palace with the hue of pale
vermilion, it is pleasant to watch and take a retrospect
of what had once been and reflect upon the
significance of the past over the present.

In one part of the fort in a small shrine facing
the river and just above it is the white marble
image of the four-armed river-goddess Gcutga Devi,
the presiding deity of the Ganges, seated upon a
crocodile — a beautiful image with a fine expression
upon the face. There are other shrines in the fort,
but the main object of interest is the temple of
Veda Vyasa containing ^n emblem known ^5

RAMNAGAR 257

Vy^seszvara Siva said to have been established by
Vyasa, which people from distant parts come to
visit.

Coming out of the fort and striking into the

interior you pass by the side of a lofty gateway

along a broad path fringed with shady

Janakpur and trees, and drop in to see the JANAKPUR

Girijaya TEMPLE containing beautiful images

Temples of Rama and his three brothers and

their spouses, all in white marble, and

also the GiRlJAYA TEMPLE with the image of

Dtirga and a Siva emblem inside and a stone lion

at the entrance, — both of them in the middle of

cool shady spacious groves.

Next comes the very best place in Ramnagar

which makes it worth while coming so far from

the blessed city of Benares and which makes full

amends for all the troubles you have taken.

Something over a mile from the

Temple of Maharaja's palace is the Temple OF

Durga DURGA with the fine tank in front

and the garden adjoining it ( Plate

XIII, I ). Far from the clamour and bustle of the

city, an atmosphere of calm repose and serenity seems

to pervade this sequestered nook and breathes a

sense of peace and contentment into the heart ;

and the quiet environments make you feel as if

you have nothing else to desire for and can smoothly

17^

258 THE HOL V CITY (BENARES) chap.

sleep the rest of your life away here immersed in
a pleasant dream.

Just as you enter the temple compound, your
eyes light upon ^ beautiful little white figure of
Kamald Devi ( one of the ten Mahavidyas ) seated on
a lotus-bed with an elephant on either side bathing
her by jets of glistening water issuing out of its
trunk — all in white, the symbol of purity. Beyond
this is the lofty temple, a hundred feet high, with
its floor and verandahs upon a high terrace. The
principal figure inside the temple is the marble
image of Durga covered all over with gold and
wearing a yellow scarf. On the left is Saras wati
seated upon a goose m white marble, and on the
right Radha and Krishna. In front of the main
entrance lies a winged lion, and facing the two
side-doors are the figures of Garuda and Nandi,

The temple is said to have been built by Raja
diet Singh nearly a century and a quarter ago,
and the spire worked with modern floral designs
have been added much later and completed only
about 1850. Over a hundred niches grouped in
five rows decorate the four walls outside and
hold neatly executed bas-reliefs of mythical gods
and goddesses sculptured in Chunar sandstone in
every one of them. A line of little birds nestle upon
the edges of the roof, beak to beak, and many
of the godheads of the Hindu pantheon are there
with their exploits depicted in stone too numerous

X RAMNAGAR 259

to mention. In addition to Brahma, Vishnu and
Siva, and Rama, Sita and Hanuman usually to be
seen, there are also Indra, Surya, Agni, Vayu and
the thousand-armed Kartavirjyarjuna. The figures
of Krishna holding Govardhan and of the ten-armed
Durga are very striking. The style of architecture
is a blending of the genuine o!d Indian and the
comparatively modern art and has a very pleasing
effect. Isolated by its position from all other
architectural piles and situated in a spacioiis green
lawn in this retired quarter and fanned by the
gentle breath of the evening breeze coming through
the neighbouring groves, this grand temple in its
faint yellow tint looks exceedingly picturesque in
its solitary grandeur and stands out in bold relief
against the blue background of the distant sky with
its loft> pinnacle and graceful sculptures mirrored
in the clear water of the lovely tank in front
( Plate XIII, I ).

Close to the temple lies the Maharaja's beautiful

garden with an entrance from the road and a large

mansion at each end of the two

y Maharaja's pathways crossing each other in the

Garden middle. Just over the crossing in the

centre is a nice open marble resting-

hall with a beautiful roof fashioned like a canopy

and supported upon chastely carved pillars, — all of

delicate white marble from the roof to the floor

and a masterpiece of tasteful design. The garden

26o THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap.

V /\/\y^ r^>y^y\y^/\y\y^/\/^^^^>^/^^r^^/^>^./Ay^>'\/^y•^yv^\r^ /\>'^y \y\/\/

itself has also been nicely laid out on either side
of the pathways and is exquisitely beautiful and
pleasing in its effect^ and the whole has a look
of neatness and refinement not frequently to be
met with. At some distance from this is a temple
of Siva, a place of pilgrimage to the devout, and
some retreats of Sannyasis as well.

Work enough perhaps for a" hasty visit. The
sun has now set behind the distant greenery and
the ruddy glow has disappeared. The shades of
evening are gathering fast, and there is a hard
conflict between the thick veil of darkness descending
to envelop the earth and the pale but brightening
glimmer of the rising moon attempting to lift it
up. Even thus between light and darkness in conflict
does the world hold on its course towards eternit}-.
The outlook grows dim and hazy, and it is now
time to return.

So, after a brief rest for a while we come back

to the river-bank and rouse up our boatman from

his evening nap. Though our boat

Night on the plies through a dense fog shutting

River out the face of the moon and reducing

it to a hazy glamour of dirty yellow,

and thojgh the lights on the other bank as we

approach it peep Mntly with a misty halo round

each of them, still can we picture to ourselves the

splendour of the resplendent orb shining in all its

glory overhead with its silvery sheen playing upon

X RAMNAGAR 261

\/\r'^\y\r\r\y\y\/\/\f\j\^-\,--^-\y\r^j-\yK/^\/^/\/^r\y^.fK/^rsj^,r\/^r\j^j\j-Kr\r

the ripples of the greenish water rolling in waving
sheets of emerald and bathing the great crescent
of the Benares bank in a splendour of bluish-white
brightness, with its towers and temples and spires
silhoutted in the distance against the pale blue
sky, — conjuring up before the mind's eye a fairy-land
of dream nestled in the sweet strains of nahabat
music wafted from the distant temples and encased in
the illumined fringe of lights on the western bank that
have been amplified into flashing gems and brilliants
\\\ the reflections below — as \i the stream had borrowed
the glittering stars from heaven to heighten
the effect !

A night's quiet and well-earned rest amid pleasant
dreams and gladsome visions ; and in the morn
following we take a stroll through the Sikrole quarter
to have a look at the courts and other public
buildings, the Chapels and the Cemetery, the Bank
and the Old Mint and the hotels — Clarke's and
Hotel de Paris — which, pretty in their own way, are,
however, of the usual type to be seen in most
Indian civil stations of the modern times, the only
place of interest here being the Nadesav House —
noticed before '-^belonging to the Maharaja of
Benares.

This brings our delightful tour to a close. (9//r
Guide^ a jolly old gentleman — a pensioned veteran

{i) See p. 54, ante.

262 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap.

/^y^-'■v'^.'^''\,'V^yVvy^y-v,.'^^^/\/^y-V/^/^/^/\>'vrw^y

of His Majesty's Royal Mail — who combines in
him the old lore with a sprinkling
Our Guide of the modern, and to whom we are
thankful for our hurried experiences,
tells us that there are very many things in Benares
to be seen and enjoyed and thought over, for it
is not for nothing that this sacred city has been
famous as the home of Indian wisdom and learning
from the very earliest of ages and earned the
well-deserved name of 'the Athens of the East\
He urges us to make a more intimate acquaintance
with the holy city. But time at our disposal hardly
allows that. He adds he had anticipated this and
his object in showing us round in the way he
did w^as to give us some idea of Benares that
should interest us whether we were religiously bent
or were mere curious sight-seers like so many
other sinful mortals that frequent this holy place.

Our rambles now over, we come to a halt at
the Cantonment Station. Shrill whistles the
parting signal, and puffing and heaving the iron
horse approaches, and emits a prolonged sigh. All
enjoyments have an end and all pleasure, and here
we must now part and put a period to our sojourn !

X FAREWELL 263

Farewell, Holy City ! Long will the few brief
hours of fleeting time passed in thy fostering
bosom linger in the mind as a pleasant memory ;
and in the solitude of coming days will fancy
often call up the flimsy fabrics of a fascinating
dream woven with the soft impressions of thy
variegated scenes. Full as is thy large expanse
covered over with the ancient shrines of olden
times, the towering temples of the middle ages
and the splendid present-day palaces and charming
gardens replete with all the comforts the hand-maids
of modern civilization could invent and furnish, — it
is pleasant still to contemplate the times when,
three thousand }'ears ago, the revered Ajyas found
thee clothed with the verdant green of thy pristine
forests luxuriating in the fertility of the tri-fold
streams, and looked entranced upon thy wavy eastern
limb laved by the holy Ganges, that had travelled
all the way from the snowy heights of Gangotri
where she had descended to bring salvation to the
doors of all sinners who believed. In the dim
twilight of the early dawn, as the bright and revered
Ri's/n's spt lining the silent bank near the river's
edge alv oibed in the contemplation of the Supreme,
after their sanctifying ablutions in the sacred stream,
— how charming did the lovely Usha ^ look in

(I) Dawn

264 THE HOLY CITY (BENARES) Chap.

her roseate robe of subdued brightness as she
chased the fast receding gloom to usher in tlie
glorious Savita ^ ; and what a day was it that
dawned when they hailed the darting rays of the
rising sun — ^just resuscitating as it were thy wondrous
crescent — with the welcome chant of the choral
hymns in their grand and sonorous voices to which
the sounding conches added a solemn grandeur !
And as the dazzling noon approached, how thick
the smoke from the circling hovia * fires — lit
underneath the spreading branches of the giant
forest-trees — twirled upwards in wavy wreaths and
made the air redolent with the sanctified perfume
of the burning habih ' and suffused the surroundings
of their peaceful hermitages with an incense of
holiness and purity ! And when the pale twilight
on the west had merged into the heavenly blue
and King Soma * shone forth fn his glory of
soothing white with myriads of his twinkling retinue
peeping slyly from the azure above, what a music
it was that floated in the air as the joyous notes
of the Sama Veda hymns rose up in a chorus of
praise and adoration in their full manly sonorous
voices which the answering echo sweetened and
mollified by contact with the smooth water below !
Skipping over a few scores of Yiigas, ^ —

(i) The Sun. (2) Sacrificial fire.
(3) Clarified butter. (4) The Moon.
(5) Yuga— a cycle of twelve years.

X FAREWELL 265

in the ages of mythology and poetry, the primeval
monarchs of thy forests had glided out of existence
and made room for the populous city of lofty
mansions and stately palaces ; music and all the
fine arts patronised by royalty now flourished, and
sages added their wisdom and learning to the
store-house of human knowledge. Kshatriya kings
in all their pomp and glory scoured the country
around in war and peace with their gorgeous
following of gaily-caparisoned horses, stately elephants
and well-decked chariots, and of men armed with
swords and bows and arrows, with flags and
pennons flying, the turyds ^ shrill call mixing
with the booming of the bheris, * and conches
and horns blowing martial music. After the victorious
horse had returned from its tours what a brilliant
array of Kings and Princes, of deified Saints and
god-like men thronged thy holy bank to witness
the performance of the great Asivamedlia and the
bestowal of munificent gifts of horses and elephants,
of gold and even kingdoms by the bounteous
Kings ! Oft were such scenes repeated and various

were the occasions. Allow a few centuries to

glide by, — the pomp and splendour and the glory
and poetry of the earlier ages lad grown dim,
speculations in religion and philosophy had given
rise to various sects and varied observances
and brought in a host of complications, paving thus

(() Wind instruments. (2) Drums.

266 THE HOLY CITY {BENARES) CHAr.

the way for the acceptance of the simpler rules of
life preached by the saintly Gautama in the Wght
of Nh-vana and Universal Love. Calm and placid
and serene sat the Great Master under the vast
canopy of thy heaven's blue with thy king and
princes and all the royal court grouped around
with palms joined and heads bent in meek humility
and listening to the words of wisdom that fell
from his lips like the welcome drops upon the
thirsty earth below. And often in after-days in
similar assemblies would the reverant hush of the
listeners break into the thrilling musical chorus — " I
take shelter under Buddha, I take shelter under the

Dhainma^ I take shelter under the Sangha ! "

Five more centuries flitted away, — the new light
had expanded and had shed its effulgence far and
wide and much beyond thy distant horizons.
Then came the wane and a re-assertion of the older
faith. Monarchs owing allegiance to either creed
held alternate sway, and architectural embellishments
of stately monasteries and lofty temples upon
which kings and princes lavished riches untold
enhanced the loveliness of thy beauteous frame ;
and vo'-aries from far off climes made pilgrimages
to thy hallowed grounds." Eight centuries thus

lost them.selves in the womb of eternit) ,— thick
gloom now began to envelop the land and all
animation seemed suspended as it were by some
m}'sterious agency ; religion, myth, philosophy got
hopelessly jumbled together ; and though temples

X FAREWELL 267

and shrines abounded, the real fervour of life lay
well-nigh smothered and crushed underneath the
grotesqueness of the elaborate rites and vapid
ceremonials that had sprung up and clustered round
the bare exterior. Then shone out that youthful
luminary upon thy firmament, the great Sankara,
who rooted out the weeds from amidst the tangled
G^rovvth and brought order out of chaos, and the
tide of life flowed back rejuvenated and vigourous
under his reformed and regenerated doctrines leading
again to the contemplation of the Perennial Source,
the Supreme in all his manifestations pervading the
Universe — culminating in the grand realisation of

So*/ia7n ( I am He ) ! Again the heavens

lowered, — again had degeneration crept in apace
with the strange creations of the Pauranic fancies,
and decadence in religion led to the inevitable decay
in national life. Kings fell at the advance of the
victorious Crescent, and in the half a dozen centuries
or more that followed, the glare of the blazing
torches of persecuticn revealed thy temples tottering
to ruins and the rounded domes of the uprising
mosques rearing themselves on high to the
accompaniment of the deafening notes of 'Din\

''Dm' ! Occasional resuscitations followed ; and all

the vicissitudes of conflicting ages notwithstanding,
thy supremacy as the greatest stronghold of
Hinduism — regained in Sankara's time— held on its
ground unassailed, and the Moskm onslaughts were
felt but as a passing scratch.-' The rest was but

268 THE HOL Y CIJ V (BENARES)

the other day. 'Heaven lends a thousand dififering^

vv^ays to one sure end ;' and various as are the world's
prevailing creeds, like numberless paths, straight or
tortuous, they all converge and lead ^/le devout and
the sincere to the shade of the same market-place
of Salvation where sits the Glory above the
overspreading greenery \ As a prominent landmark
in one such path, may thou be long the meeting-
ground of all ages of eternal time and the ideal
city of holiness in the East and a repository of
all that is great and noble and sublime pulsating
with the throb of thy ancient greatness, and be a
soothing abode of rest and peace to the devout
as heretofore, after the toils and turmoils of life
at its closing days ! — Farewell !

APPENDIX

A FIRMAN
OF

Emperor Aurangzeb

N course of my rambles at BenarA during the
latter part of last October (1910), v/hileT searching
for materials for a certain work upon that great
city, in which I am engaged, I happened to come
across a document of a unique nature likely to be
ofnuch interest to the antiquarian and the historian
alike. Messrs. Saeed Brothers, Photographers, of
Benares gave me a photo-copy of a firman in
Persian which they alleged to be a true and
faithful reproduction of the original which purported
to be an Imperial Decree addressed to one Abul
Hossein by Emperor Aurangzeb and communicated
through his son Sultan Muhammad Bahadoor.

All historians have up to time been almost
unanimous in giving to Aurangzeb a character
directly opposed to what would appear from the above
document. He has been held to have been bitterly
opposed to the Hindus as evidenced by his imposition
of the Jiziah tax, and has further been reputed
to have demolished numbers of Hindu temples at
Benares and erected the mosque over the Pancha-Ganga

(i) Paper read at the monthly General Meeting of the
Asiatic Society of Bengal at CalcvUta on March i, 1911,

270 APPENDIX

Ghat in that city with the couple of tall minarets
going by the name of Madho-ji-ka-deora upon the
ruins of the old temple of Beni Madhav which
he had destroyed. As it was, I confess, I could
not but look upon the document in question without
considerable suspicion, I therefore thought it proper
to keep silence till I obtained satisfactory and
authentic informations regarding the existence of the
original. It was only on the 1st instant ( February
191 1 ), when I had been on another flying visit to
Benares that I was enabled to get a sight of the
original firman itself through the courtesy of Khan
Bahadoor Sheik Muhammad Tyab, City Inspector of
Police, Benares.

This gentleman who sent for the document from
its present owner for my inspection, gave the
following history in connection with its find : —

* In the Mangla Gauri Muhulla of this city lived
a Brahman named Gopi Upadhyaya who died
about fifteen years ago. This iirman was in the
custody of Gopi Upadhyaya. This man had no
son, but had only a daughter. His daughter has
a son named Mangal Pandey who also lives at
Mangla Gauri now. Mangal Pandey had obtained
the document from Gopi Upadhyaya along with his
other papers. In April 1905 I held an enquiry
under orders of the Magistrate of Benares in the
matter of a complaint by Mangal Pandey. Mangal
is a ghatia Brahman who sits on the river-bank to
ply his business as a ghatia piijari to whose stall

APPENDIX 271

bathers in the river resort for various religious
observances and for purchasing various appurtenances
of worship. Buiniah wointn, he had complained
used to go to the place where he used to sit, and
in accordance with a curious custom amongst :hem
they would frequently set up a wailing and
weeping there. Mangal complained that no one
would frequent his ghat to bathe if they were
allowed to continue their practice of weeping there
in that way. There was thus a dispute between
Mangal and the Buiiniahs. I asked him to show
me his documents, if he had any, to prove that
he had any right to the portion of the ghat he
occupied as alleged by him. He and his servant,
one Babunandan, produced several papers before me
and I found this finnan among them. It has
since then been all along in his possession/

Such being the occasion when this precious
deed was found as narrated by the Khan Bahadoor,
I felt convinced of its authenticity and examined
the document carefully and noticed that it was a
piece of slightly yellowish old paper with a piece
of thin linen pasted at the back leaving bare only
a small portion 4^ X 4 inches containing
writings and Sultan Muhammad's seal lyi inch in
diameter at the top. This document is in an
excellent state of preservation and the handwriting
is very distinct and legible and the letters bold
and large. The whole is written in deep black
ink excepting a small portion at the top 3" x 2%'^

272 APPENDIX

inches written in red in an ornate st}^le and
enclosed witliin some lines in the form of an
oblong in the middle at the top of the first page
and to the left of the seal of Aurangzeb. It
measures 2 feet lo^ inches by i feet 5^ inches.
On the next page appears in smaller letters the
note of despatch through Prince Sultan Muhammad
Shah Bahadoor with his seal on the ricrht. This
seal has some numerals looking like some date,
but are not very legible.

From the papers contributed by Prof Jadu
Nath Sarkar in the Journal of the Asiatic Society
of Bengal, Vol II No. 6 (New Series) — 1906, pp.
223-267, with copies of two other firmans of
Plmperor Aurangzeb in respect to certain Revenue
Regulations and fiscal measures and certain rules
for the guidance of Shaistha Khan in connection
with the Government of Bengal, it would appear
that this monarch was after all not exactly what
he had been represented to be and that he was
rather solicitous of ensuring peace and security to
his subjects.

With a view that further researches may be
made with respect to this matter by antiquarian
experts, I quote below a rendering of the firman
into English by Lieut-Colonel Dr. D. C. Phillot :

Let Abu'l-Hasan worthy of favour and countenance trust
to our royal bounty and let him know that, since in accordance
with our innate kindness of disposition and natural benevolence
the whole of our untiring energy and all our upright intentions

APPENDIX 273

are engaged in promoting the public welfare and bettering the
condition of all classes high and low, therefore in accordance
with our holy Law we have decided that the ancient temples
shall not be overthrown but that new ones shall not be
built. In these days of our justice, information has reached our
noble and most holy court that certain persons actuated by
rancour and spite have harassed the Hindus resident in the
town of Benares and a few other places in that neighbourhood,
and also certain Brahmins, keepers of the temples, in whose
charge those ancient temples are, and that they further desire
to remove these Brahmins from their ancient office ( and
this intention of theirs causes distress to that community )
therefore our Royal Command is that after the arrival of
our lustrous order you should direct that in future no person
shall in unlawful ways interfere or disturb the Brahmins and
the other Hindus resident in those places, so that they may
as before remain in their occupation and continue with peace
of mind to offer up prayers for the continuance of our God
given Empire that is destined to last to all time. Consider
this as an urgent matter. Dated 15th of Jumada-'s-Saniya
A. H, ^064 ( ==A. D. 1653 or 4),

/ire u>*^ v.*.--^ fcrt:6. 9'*'<^^^ V

274

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Archaeological Survey of India Reports, by General Cunningham
—Vol I ( 1862— 65 ), Vol III (1871—72).

Archaeological Survey of India — Annual Report ( 1904 — 1905 )
by Mr. F. O. Oertal.

Alberuni's India, by Dr. Edward C. Sachau ( 1888-Trubner ).

A History of Civilisation in Ancient India, by R. C. Dutt

( 1891 ).
Benares— A Gazetteer of India, by H. R. Neville ( Vol XXVI

of the District Gazetteer of the U. P. of

Agra and Oudh — 1909 ).
Benares, the Sacred City of the Hindus, by E. B. Havell

( 1905 )■
Bharatbarshiya Upasak Sampradaya, by Akshay Kumar Dutta

( 1314 B. E. )
Bible in India, by M. Louis Jacolliol ( 1820).
Bhaskarananda Charita, by Surendra Nath Mukherji (1312 B. E.)
Hindu Civilisation in Ancient America, by Kedar Nath Bose

( 1888 ).
Imperial Gazetteer ot India, by W. W. Hunter, Vol II

(1885), Vol. VII (1908).
India in Greece, by E. Pockocke ( 1852 ).
Jivani Sangraha, by Ganesh Chandra Mukherji ( 13 16, B. E. )
Kabir Salieb ka Sabdawali ( 1909— Allahabad Belvedere Prmting

Works ).
Kashi Khandam.
Kashi, the City Illustrious, or Benares, by Rev, Edwin

Greaves ( 1909 ).
Kashi Parikrama, by Nagendra Nath Basu ( 1313 B. E. )
Memoirs of Emperor Jehangir, translated by Major David

Price ( 1829 ),

BIBLIOGRAPHY. 27$

Narrative of a Journey through the Upper Provinces of India

by Reginald Heber ( 1828 ).
Ralph Fitch, by J. Horton Riley (1890).
Religious Sects of the Hindus, by H. H. Wilson ( 1861 ).
Sankaracharya O Baddlia, by Pandit Kalibar Vedantabagis

( 1307 B. E. )
Si-yu-ki— Buddhist Records of the Western World. Translated

from the Chinese of Hiuen Tsiang (A. D.

629 ) by Samuel Beal ( 1884— Trubner ).
Sri Sankaracharya — His Life and Times, by C. N. Krishna-

swamy Aiyar.
The Jataka, or Stories of Buddha's Former Births, edited by

E. B. Cowell ( 1897 ).
The Man Mandir Observatory, by Pandit Bapudeva Shastri

( 1902 ).
The Mystics, Ascetics, and Saints of India, by John Campbell

Oman ( 1905 ).
Travels of a Hindu, by Bhola Nath Chunder ( 1845-69 ).
The Sacred City of the Hindus, by Rev. M. A. Sherring ( 1868 ).
Vishwa-Kosha, edited by Nagendra Nath Bose.
Etc. Etc

INDEX

Adi-Keshav

227

Aurangzeb's Firman

132, 269,

Adi-Mahadeo

225

273

Adi-Visweswara

171

Avalokiteswara

Agastya Kund

204

Bageswari

184

Ahalya Bai

157,214

Baidyanath

192

Ahalya Bai's Ghai

205

Baija Bai

f68, 220

Ahmety Temple

215

Baji Rao Ghat

221

Akbar, Emperor

»3^ 134

Bakaria Kund

Akhera, Baid

Bala Tripura Sundari

215

„ Bara Gudarji

Ballavacharya

239

„ Bari Sangat

Banar, King

9, 226

„ Chhota Gudarji 60

„ Dadupanthi 60

„ Degambari 60

„ Kinaram 57

„ Krishna Achari 60

,, Melaram 57

„ Panchaiti Kalan 57

„ Panditji 60

„ Vishnupanthi 60

„ See also Muths.

Alamgiri Musjid 80, 81, r8i

Alberuni 129

Alfred Hall ,4

Alpamriteswara 182

Amrita Kup 181

Ananda Bag 196

Andhras, tht 126

Annapurna 1 54

Antargriha 159

A rati 160

Area 10

Arhai Kangura Musjid 79

Arya Samaj 56

Ashtanga Bhairab 189

Asi-Sangam 244

Asoka, Emperor 125

Asoka pillar 43, 76, 95

Aurangzeb 132

Aurangzeb's mosques 82, 169,

181, 222

Banar's Fort 226

Bara Ganesh 182

Barana-Sangam 226

Barahar Rani's Temple 194, 195

Baranasi 9

Baranasi Devi 225

Burnouf, Prof. 27

Batuk Bhairab 192

Battis Khamba 79
Benares, Maharaja of 34, 57, 252

Benares, State of 252

Bengalitolah 202

Beni Madhav 224

Besant, Mrs. Annie 32, 35,
36,37

Bhaironath I74

Bhatta Kumaril 127
Bharat Dharma Mahamandal 62

Bhaskaranand Swami 196

Bhimchandi Devi 246

Bhonsla Ghat 221

Bhut Bhairo 183

Bhutnath 192

Bible and Tract Depot 45

Birbhadra 203

Bird, Mr. 77

Bishalakshi Devi 213

Bodh-Gaya 91, 92

Bodhi-tree 92

Brahmo Samaj 56

INDEX

Brahmapuri

212

Brahmeswara

211

Bi iddhakaleswara

181

Buddha

Burns, Mr.

167

Carmichael Library

Central Hindu College

Chaitanya

240, 244

Chakra Yantra

Chandra Gupta

125

Chandra Kup

173

Charanpaduka

217

Chatuspathis

30,41

Chauk, the

Chaukhamba

80, 174

Chauki Ghat

236

Chaukhandi

Chausatti Ghat

236

Cherry, Mr.

Chet Singh 52,

240, 249

Chor Ghat

221

Christian Missions

Church Missionary Society 63

Chunder, Bholanath

28,72

Chhattras

Climate

Colvin, Sir Auckland

Cortez, Fernando

138

Cousin, M.

Creutzer, M

Cunningham, General

85, 87,

88, 10 1,

170, 193

Daksheswara

182

Dakshinamurthi Muth

Dakshinabhitti Yantra

Dalveswara

212

Dandis

59, 230

Dandapani

175

Dasaswamedheswara

211

Dasaswamedh Ghat

149, 207,

211,231

Davis, Mr.

Deer Park

Deva Sabha -

»59

Dhamek, the

Dharma Kup

213

Dharmasalas

Dhrubeswara

Dhundiraj Ganesh

Digambara

Digansa Yantra

Divodaseswara

Dufferin Bridge

Duncan, Jonathan

Dutt, R. C.

Durbasseswara

Durga Temple

Durga Temple, Ramna

Dwarkadhiswara

Dvarkanath Dube

Ekka,

Endowments

Fa Hian

Falgu, the

Fakr-ud-din's Darga

Feizi

Feroze Shah

Fitch, Ralph

Ganga Devi :

Ganges, the

Ganges water

Gangamehal Ghat

Ganga putra

Gauri Kund

Gaya

Ghats, the

Ghatias i

Ghoshla Ghat

Girijaya Temple

Goebi Kua

Golden Temple i

Gopal Mandir

Gorji, Pandit

Gorokpanthis

Grand Trunk Road

Gupta Kings

Gupta Lintel

Gurudham

Haiheyas, the

Hanuman Ghat

Hanumanji i

Harish Chandra (ihat

Heber, Bishop 15.

Hegel

28, 93.

189

154

212

7, 229

loi

27, 140
179
195

r 257

192

245

f22

15,28

!i4, 256

211

221

234
237

207

52, 232
221
257

52, 156

47, 173
245
61

6
126
112

193

122
61, 239
80, 239

237

29, 222
26

278

INDEX

Hindu Ideas i6i
Hiuen Thsang 28, 79» 85, 94,
122, 140
Hospital, Iswari Prasad

Memorial 45

„ Prince of Wales 46

„ Victoria 46

Hotels 261

Hull, Rev. E. R. 165

Humayun 86

Humayun's Tower 85

Iswarganji Tank 183

Iswari Prasad Singh, Raja 130,
252,255

Jacolliot, Louis 27

Jagannath 200

Jageswara 1 83

Jagat Singh's Stupa 99

Jai Chand, Raja 130

Jainas, the 58

Jaina Temple, Sarnath 99

Jalsam Ghat 214

Janakpur Temple 257

Jataka, Khantivadi no

„ N yagrodha - M i ga 89

Jattrawallah 234

Jaya Sing, Raja 17
Jehangir \y. 170, 171

Jhawa Jharan 84

J nan Bapi 168

Jogasram 155

Jogi-Bir 78

Jones, Sir William 29

Juna Muth 61

Jwarahareswara 184

Jyestheswara 183

Kabir, 48

Kabir Chaura 51

Kal Kup 176

Kalika Vidyalaya 34

Kamachcha 192

Kameswara I79

Kanishka, King 107

Kanvas, the 126

Kapal Mochan 75

Kapil 27

Kapildhara 184

Kardameswara 246
Karmanasa

Karnaghanta Talao 183
Kasi 9, 28, 121

Kasi Devi 183

Kasi Karwat 172

Kasis, the 10, 121
Kasi Tirtha Jirnoddharini Sabha

Kasi Khandam 115

Kedar Ghat 236

Kedarnath 237

Kirtibash's Ramayana 243

Kirtibasseswara 81, 180

Kittoe, Major 102, 104

Kotilingeswara 153, 225

Kulastambha 76

Kumareswara 193

Kurukshetra Talao 196

Lahar-ka-talao 49

Laksmi Kund 189
Lai Bahadur Sing, Raj a 184
197. 236

Lai Khan's Tomb 74

Lalita Ghat 213

Lat Bhairo 74

Lasmanbala Temple 224

Lingam 142

Lion-Capital 97

Lolarka Kund 202

London Mission Society 63

Luri-ka-kodan 86

Luther, Martin 240

Macaulay 15

Machchodari Tirtha 178

Madhoji-ka-deora 222

Madhudas's Garden 52

Maghar 51

Maheswara 140? 143

Mahip Narayan, Raja . 251

Mahipal, King 100

Mahalaksmi 189

M ah mud of Ghazni 130

Main Shrine 105

Maitreya 86

Man Mandil 18, 212

Mandakini, the 13

INDEX

279

Mansa Ram

247

Pancha Ganga

221

Man Singh, Raja 17, 148,

> 17'", 171

Pande Ghat

236

Mangla Gauri Ghat

221

Panuco

138

Manikarnika 214,

216, 231

Paresnath

58,

123

Manikarnika Kund

217

Pathsalas

Maqdam Saheb

Pilpilla Tirtha

225

Mark Twain

Pisach Mochan

186

Marshall, Mr.

88, 102

Pitri Kund

187

Markandeswara

182

Pococke, Mr.

Mashan Ghat

237

Police Kotwali

Matri Kund

187

Population

Mauryans, the

125

Prahlad Ghat

226

Megasthenes

28, 140

Pratapaditya, Maharaja

236

Memphis

138

Prabhu Narayan, Maharaja

34,

Menaka Bari

193

57,

252

Mira Bai

186

Queen's College

Mir Ghat

212

Rad has warn is

Mir Rustum Ali

248

Rajghat Fort

72,

. 226

Mitter, Sir Romesh Cliander 199

Raj Tarangini

125,

139

Mogul Serai

Ram Ghat

221,

230

Monkey Temple

. 195

Ramanand Swami

49,

224

Mritunjaya

182

Ramkrishna Sebasram

Muhulla gates

146

Ramayana

243

Muhammad Ghori

130

Ramamurti Naidu

201

Municipal Garden

Rana Ghat

236

Museum, Sarnath

106

Ranavir Pathsala

34.45

Muth, Dakshinamurti

Rani Barahar

194.

195

„ Juna

Rani Bhawani 46,

195,

196

„ Niranjani

Ratneswara

180

„ Nirvani

Rishipattana

Nadeswara House

Roman Catholics

Nag Kua

184

Rudra Sarwar

23^

Nagas

Saadat Khan

134,

248

Nagri-pracharini Sabha

Sakshi Vinayak Ganesh

154

Naleswara

179

Sambaditya Temple

188

Nanak

240

Sungas, the

126

Nanakpanthis

Sangameswara

228

Nara Sinha

200

Sankata Devi

173

Narad Ghat

236

Sankata Ghat

221

Naugraha

175

Sankat Mochan

194

Nepalese Temple

214

Sankudhara

192

Niranjani Muth

Sankaracharya 127,

153,

189

Nirvani Muth

Sani Deva

156

Oertel, Mr.

87, 102

Sarnath

Omkareswara

180, 181

Sati Stones 182,

216,

228

Pal Kings

130

Schools

Pancha Tirtha

220

Scindhia Ghat

220

280

INDEX

Sekrole

29, 261

Shah Alam, Emperor

248

Shakespeare

241

Sher Khan

Sherring, Rev. M. A.

63,70

Shibnarayanis

Siddheswara

184

Siddheswari

Sikhs, the

Siva-worship

138

Siva Temple, Sarnath

Sivala Fort

240

Sivala Ghat

60, 240

Sitala Devi

206

Sohagesvvara

179

Someswara

212

Somnath

Sone Bridge

Sona-ka-talao

Sridhar

243

Sulatankeswara

211

Suparsha

r23

Suraj Kund

187

Swetambara

Tarakeswara

168, 215

Tavernier

Telegraph Office

Thatteri Baazar

Theosophical Society

36,61

Tilak, B. G.

139

Tilbhandeswara

202

Tillianalah

80, 225

Town Hall

Trade

74, 194.

18^

Trailanga Swami

Trilochan

Tripura Bhairabi

Tulsi Das

Tulsi Ghat

Vaishnavites

Venis, Mr A.

Vedas, the

Veda Vyasa

Victoria Park

Vishuddhanand Saraswati

Visweswara 156,

Visweswargunj Bazar

Vivekanand, Swami

Vizianagram, Maharaja of

13, 14, 57
Vyasa

Vyaseswara

Vyas Kashi

Warren Hastings

Water Works

Wazir Ali

Weslyan Mission

Wilfred, Col.

Wilson, Prof. H. H.

Yantra, Chakra

,, Dakshinabhitti

„ Digansha

„ Narivalaya

„ Samrat
Yogasram

Zeej Mahammad Shahi
Zenana Bible and

Medical Mission 64

176

225

212

241

139

208

205

158

83, 208
257
208

52, 249
II

52,53
64
29
242
22
20
22
21
20

155
18

Demy 12 mo, : Cloth, Re i-6 ; Paper^ Re /.
Foreign : Cloth, 2s. 2d. ; Paper, rs, 8d,

The Triumph of Yalmiki.

{H. P. SHASlRfS VALMIKIR /AVA)
ILLUSTRATED.
By R. R. sen, B. L.
Pleader, and Law Lecturer, Ghittagong College*

To be had

London : Messrs, LUZAC & CO., 46, Great
Russell Street.

Bombay: Messrs. RAM CHANDRA
GOVIND&SONS, 147. Kalvadevi Road,

Madras : Messrs. HIGGINBOTHAM & CO.,
165, Mount Road ;— M e s s r s . G. A,
NATESAN & CO., Esplanade.

Calcutta : Messrs. W. NEWMAN & CO.,
4, Dalhousie Square ;— Mr. E. SEYMOUR
HALE, Calcutta School Book Society,
1, Wellington Street.

Chittagong : M. R. SEN, Parade.

Contents

Introduction

PART I— The Himalayas— The Ribhus— The Three

Great Ones— The Song of Brotherhood— After the

Sony — The Ribhus Depart — Cogitations — After-effects.
PART II— The Two meet— The Hermitage— The Defeat.
PART III— The Austerities— Viswamitra's Vision— The

Council of the Rishis.
PART IV— In Quest of Materials— The New Light— The

New Creation— The New Earth— The New Man^

The Birth of Poesy.
PART V— The Old Earth— Peace on Earth.
PART VI— The Flying City— The End of the New

Creation — Viswamitra falls.
PART VII— The Sacrifice— Unconscious Musings— The

Triumph of Valmiki.
PART VIII— The Conception of the Ramayana-The

Advent of the Lord — The Songs of the Ramayana

The 'Ascension — The Seven Rishis — Viswamitra —

Heaven declined— The Universe-Body.
J^PPENDIX— The Safya and the Treta /uo^as— The
MrFmjr/a Form.

T^EVIE^S?^S &, OFINTONS.

Professor Edward Dowden, l l.d., d. Litt,

Author of "Shakespeare : His Mind and Art," DUBLIN:—
" Remarkable translation of Mr. Shastri's remarkable
prose-poem, The Triumph of Valmiki, which it is a great
pleasure to me to possess, and which enlarges the horizons
of our Western imagination."

'■'^r y?- v.^'c

ttt.

Jcfyrial of the Royal Asiatic Society
of Great Britain and Ireland, iONDON,
Jantiary, 1910 :— " Mr. R. R. Sen's English translation
of the Ren':;ali original is a ^ood piece of work
evidently cai ried out con amore. I have compared much
of it with the original, and can vouch for its fidelity, but
it is not a too literaltranslation. To convey to English
readers Hara Prasad's raphsodies without falling into one
of the two pitfalls of turgidity and bathos was by no
means an easy task, but Mr. Sen, who exhibits a mastery
of idiomatic Ens^lish rare among those whose language
it is not has successfully accomplished it. In the story's
Western dress I can safely recommend The Triumph oj
Valmiki to those who are not familiar with Bengali and
who desire to become acquainted with a modern Eastern
poetical work esteemed by the compatriots of its author as
as a masterpiece of imagination. — G, A, Grierson."

The Scotsman, EDINBURGH. Augusts, 1909 :—
^' From Mr. R. R. Sen, Law Lecturer, Chittagong
College, comes a small volume.. .which does every credit io
4iis lintruisHc abilities. ... A work of characteristically
Oriental luxuriance and splendour of imagination, a sort
of prose-poem on a subject borrowed from the Ramayana,
which mingles mythology and transcendentalism in a
strangely inteiesting way, it sets out a kind of Eastern
theological ap »logue, of which the root-thought is that of
an universal brotherhood established among men by
moral progress instead of by intellectual and material
forces. It will well repay the attention of English readers
interested in contemporary Indian Literature.'^

The IVIadras T4mes, MADRAS, November, 12,
1909 : — " It is not often that it is given to a modem
Indian to make anything that can be called a conlributioH

fo- Uterafure, Modern Indian vernacular literatui'e haf

not been a success. Certainly there is little of it

that will bear translation, Mr. H. P. Shastri's " Z"^^
Triumph of Vahmki" judged by Mr. Sen^s beautijul
imnslaiion ts really a gem. The English of the
translation is almost faultless. Indeed there is little
in it that would make one suspect that it was not written
by an Englishman with a taste for Eastern literature.
To those who wish to understand something of the
Renaissance of Hinduism that is: so important a force in
modern India, " The Triumph of Valmiki '^ will be of
the greatest value. The allegory centres round a tale of
how three great Hindus of ancient times were influenced
in their ideals and ambitions by hearing the song celestial
of the Ribhus or departed saints. Each of them is
differently influenced, but it is given to Valmiki, the
repentant robber-chief, to realise the greatest ideal of all —
the brother-hood of mm. Intermingled with what may
be called the mythological machinery of the allegory we
find the most modern ideas, such for instance as the
brother-hood of humanity, and our modern knowledge of
the solar system. All this, however, does not detract from
the beauty of the tale. In it the crude and primitive
imaginings which are a part of Eastern mythology seem
in no way incongruous with the humanistic ideas of the
West, or with modern scientific knowledge. As a beauti-
ful little gem of what may be termed An^lo-Oriental
literature the 'book is valuable., as a key to the neo-
Hinduism it is invaluable"

The Indian Magazine and Review, LONDON,

October, 1909, (eight pages j :— "Well printed, neatly and

tastefully, bound and quite admirably ill«istrated...the matter

of the book is worthy of its presentation. Translation is

e^er a difficult and periloiis task, but Mr. Sen... ...AasMai^e

his version with such success that there is little to show,
thai a is not the work of an Englishman born and bred.
He has reproduced^ with as much sympathy as skilly the
spirit of the original^ and here he is undoubtedly to be
congratulated on not being an Englishman, for a book so
charged with Hindu allusions and remuiiscences could
hardly be adequately translated by any one who was not
himself a Hindu. We strongly recommend the little

book to the perusal of all who would wish to get some

glimpse of the workings of the mind of a gifted and

erudite Hindu It must be said to the credit of

Mr. Sen's translation that it enables even a Christian or a

Mahomedan to comprehend the Hindu's preference «

Of the merits of the work as a literary composition, it is
not for a foreigner to speak, even after the perusal of
a translation so manifestly competent and intelli^etU
as that of Mr. Sen. In that respect it has stood the test
of the enthusiastic admiration of the writer's own country-
men. But it is essentially a book which should be read
by Englishmen and Englishwomen who are interested
in modern India, in as much as it may give them some
clue to the wonderful renascence of Hindu feeling in our

own day It is not given to many Europeans to

express modern problems in terms of ancient legends
and primeval imagination. The Hindu does it without

any seeming difficulty, and Mr. Shastri has done

it with a touch of genius. With a little effort of sympathy
it is easy to see that, to minds steeped in Hindu lor^,
this little book may seem like an inspired reconciliation
of ancient stories with the perpetual puzzle, in the most
modern shape, of the mystery of our common existence

To read Mr. Sen's admirable little translation is,

in short, to be carried into the atmosphere of the

Tndian Epics, and to understand how these charac-
teristic works of the Indian imaginatran>etain their hold
©« the piety and admiration of modern Hindus.
The readers will be rewarded by a glimpse into the
mentality of modem Hinduism such as he may seek
in vain in the laborious explanations of European scholars.
Mr. Sen-'s little book ought to be added to the library oj
everyone who takes an interest tn Indian thought"

East and West, BOMBAY, December, 1909 :~
"It is impossible not to admire the achievements of
hidiarw who write books and leading articles in this
second, this secular speech (English), Among such
linguistic feats I would like to call the attention of readers
Duiside Bengal to Mr. R. R. Sen's admirable and most
iriteresting translation, of Pandit Kara Prasad Shastri's
*' Triumph of Vahniku" The translation is a tour de-
force such as few Englishmen could have achieved, in
the success with which it suggests rattier than renders
th& Hindu atmosphere in which the writer's imagination
is steeped. I believe that it will give intense pleasure to
Hindus, not acquainted with the Bengali language.
E.ven to an English reader, if he reads withoivt prepos-
sessions, and with an open mind, the book is full of sugges-
tion and interest, especially as the Pandit has contrived
to mingle some Christian imagery with purely indigenous
modes of expression."

The Pioneer, allahabad, July 25, 1909 .—

" Enghsh readers will welcome Mi R. R, Sen's, excellent
translation of the well-known Bengali account of "^ he
Triumph of Valiniki by H. P. Shastri. Mr. Sen has
preserved the spirit ^t/" M^ ^r^^///<2/, while he has clothed
it in simple, direct English. The theme of this mytho-
logical story is the establishment of universal brotherhood.

Vtt

among men The book recounts the progress

of the world for many centuries, and is an interesting
commentary on Indian Mythology.. .The sentiments of
the book are elevated, but the style is never bombastic,
never turgid. Ike illustrations add to the value of
the bookr

The Indian Mirror, CALCUTTA. August is,

1909 : — " In loftiness of conception and sublimity of
diction the paper ranks with the best ever written in the
Bengali language, and it has secured the writer undying
'fame. By translating this prose-poem into English.
Mr. R. R. Sen, of the Chittagong Bar, has achieved no
little distinction. The rendefins; has been so skilfully
nt'ide that^ but for the explanation^ one would take it for
an orioinal e^ort. Tiiere is not the slightest trace of
that jerk that, generally speaking, characterises a trans-
lated piece, nor is there the absence of the sparkle oj the
engindl ^\\\(i\\ \s also a feature of the process of decan-
ting. Verily, as an appreciative critic has happily
remarked, the " Triumph of Valmiki '' is a triumph oj
the translator' s art as well"

Modern Review, CALCUTTA, February, 1910 :—
"...The reader is transported from his age and
country : like Dante under the guidance of Virgil he
meets with the Titans and the Celestials, is whirled
through systems of strange universe. Shastri's touch is
fearless, broad, and easy, bespeaking the freshness and

spontaneity of youth The translation is faithful and

enriched with notes on every Oriental word used.
Englishmen learning Bengali will find it easy to read
the original with this translation at their elbowP

The Malabar Quarterly Review,

TRIVENDRUM, September, 1909 :—" We are .thankful

vni

lo Mr. R. R. Sen for favouring us with a copy of his
very excellent English translation of Valmikir

y^J^ There is absolutely nothing in the body

of the work before us to show that it is merely a
translation and not an original production.
Indeed the translator has brought to his task
such naturalness and skill as to defy the eye
of the critic in detecting a flaw in his English

rendering The purpose of the story itself,

is to prove the possibility of " the establishment of
universal brotherhood among men through the instru-
mentality of the moral instead of the intellectual and

physical forces" the printing and get up of the

work does credit to the printers and the book contains
some eight fine illustrations. We have little hesitation
in commending this book to the general reader who
will certainly find it interesting and aftording some food
or thought as applicable to present-day conditions,"

The Indu Prakash (Dally), BOMBAY,
August 16, 1909 :— '♦ The Triumph of Valmiki is a well

got up volume brought out by Mr. R. R. Sen,

The conception of the basis of the book is no doubt
grandly and nobly planned with an admixture of the

romantic and the picturesque This brief summary

will, we trust, give a general idea of the grandness of its
conception, but still more unique and commendable seems
to us the spirit, underlying it, of moral interpretation and
romantic representation of some of the stirring and ever-
elevating episodes of our national epics, suited to help
and guide the solution of some of the most delicate and ■
vexing problems — national as well as social — of the day,
,..,..The book must be welcomed as a laudable literaiy

contrihution to the cause of national regeneration.

Both the incidents of the book and the scene of their

working afford ample scope for the most grand and

picturesque descriptions and the most stirring and highly
romantic flights of imagination. In some places, to wit,
the course of Viswamitra's creation and his progress
through mid-air, the reader is involuntarily reminded of
the resplendent grandeur and sublime imagination of
Milton. The credit of the translator is in our
opinion almost equal to the unique merits of the
original and we thoroughly agree in the remark of
Principal Brajendra Nath Seal, that the book is
a ^* triumph of the translators art as weir'
Mr. Sens English rendering is most racy, elegayit
and happy, making the translation itself by no
means an inconsiderable and independent produc-
tion in English, We cannot, therefore, conclude this
review without complimenting Mr. Sen on his successful
performance in this respect and further thanking him for
the valuable service he has rendered in making such a
unique book based upon a topic of all-absorbing national
interest available to a wider class TKnglish-knowing^ of
his fellow countrymen,"

The Oriental Review, BOMBAY, July 21,

1909 : — ''''...The Triumph of Valmtki wvls originally written
in Bengali by an eminent Bengali writer and was very
highly spoken of by many critics, being considered almost
an epic with its grandeur of design, sense of elemental
freedom, intoxication of the creative imagination, and
dramatic intensity of life and passion. Principal Seal, of
the Cooch Behar College, in his New Essays in Criticism
considered this book superior to such works as Goethe's

Helena, De Quincey's Dream-fugue, and Richter's Dream
of the Dead Christ, and said that the Bengali phantas-
magory was sublime, not with the sublimity of Ossa and
■Olympus, but with that of the Himalayan range. The
modern literary spirit is above everything cosmopohtan m
the broad sense of the word. It cannot bear to see that a
good book should remain confined to a limited circle of
readers. Actuated by this spirit, Mr, R, R, Sen, pleader
■of Chittagong, has translated the book in English. The
-scene of the book opens with a vivid and magnificent

description Victory falls to the robber-chief Valmiki

■Avho turns a penitent on hearing the song of brotherhood
■of Man sung by the spirits of the departed. While
the others are bent upon evolving feelings of brother-
hood by means of the intellectual and physical forces,
Valmiki does that effectively by the same means which
Christ, Zoroaster and Buddha had found so effective —
;the Gospel of Love. The book thus shows the ultimate
^triumph of the moral force as against the physical and
'intellectual forces. Though an allegorical phantasmagoria
it possesses a human charm of its own and holds the
reader enthralled from beginning to end. The
translator has succeeded in retaining the beauty
of the original ivith his sweet diction and beauty
■of style. We can only sav it is a great book
well translated. Printed on superior art paper with
handsome illustrations , the price.. .is not much."

The Pioneer, ALLAHABAD, November 4th,
.1909, ^second notice, two columns):— "...Mr. Shastri'S

little book is, in short, a prose-poem which is an

allegory of the superiority of the moral and emotional
iforces over sirea^th of will and strength of intellect.
His translator Itas atlempted a difficuH, and in some

respects, an impossible task. The original is written by a.
Hindu for Hindus, and in a language rich in words

borrowed from the Sanskrit Scriptures Mr, Sen has

modestly attempted a fairly literal translation, and has so
far succeeded that his version is fluent and readable.
His rendering ivUl be useful not only to Europeans
who may be interested in Bengali literature,
but to Hindus in other parts of hiduiy
who will no doubt be able to supply the ellipses and
allusions "Vhich may present some difficulty to non-Hindus,
To Europeans the chief interest of the book will probably
consist in the fact that it is an expression of the neo-
Hinduism, the curious renascence of Hindu sentiment
under the stimulus of Western education which is one of

the most marked features of our time It is interesting,.

nevertheless, to see in what form the old Hindu legends
linger in the minds of the most intelligent and enlightened
Bengalis, forming a bond of union between Hindus such
as Christianity hardly supplies in the case of the more
positive and less emotional Western races. In Mr. Shastri's,
book it is easy to see that the name of the Ribhus carry
some similar charm of association such as can hardly be
possessed by the- words of any foreign scripture. It is not
argument and logic that can take the place of such haunting
memories as these. The appeal must be to the elemental
associations of our nature, and these to a Hindu born and
bred, are inextricably linked with the phrases and legends
for which Mr. Sen has striven, not unsuccessfully, to find
an English clothing. In any case, Mr. Sen's little book;
is one which may be read tvith pleasure and profit.
At times it rises to heights, of real eloquence, and
read sympathetically, it may serve to show how Hinduism;
S stiH one of the great living religions of the worklv

Xtl

althoii>(h it is the survivor of a type of mythologies which
have long been obsolete in the West"

United India and Native States, MADRAS,

January, 1910 : — " Mr. Sen has done a great service to the
Indian public ignorant of Bengali, in placing within their
reach this magnificent nibnument of the Shastri's depth of
thought, power of imagination, purity of sentiments arid
Versatility of genius. .....The above is, in brief, the skeleton

of the author's plot and th^ fabric into which he has woven
thesis ideas, is worthy of the traditions of ancient India^
the land of bright fancies arid powerful imagination.
Perhaps the song of the angels at the Nativity, suggested
the song of the " Ribhus," but ^ he author's presentation of
it to his readers is extremely fascinating and is calculated
to captivate the heart of the Hindu, trained for hundreds
of generations to vibrate at the slightest touch of its

stiffest chords by firigers only like those of the author

The booklet is extremely interesting and edifying and will
amply repay perusal and to the thinking people of this
country irt these days of Unrest cannot fail to be an
incentive to the adoption of a right course of thought and
life. The English translation is simply splendid and
speaks volumes for the ability of the translator
in rendering into a foreign language, a vernacular work
without allowing it to suffer by translation. The get-up
of the book is admirable as also are the beautiful illustra-
tions.'^

The Mahratta, POONA, September 26th, 1909:—
'The book is happy reading. It is full of beautiful des-
criptions and choice expressions and shows to what height
ihe ima]jination of a cultured Bengali rises the con-
ception of the book is highly imaginative— extremely poetic
— and is well worth perusal.^'

The Hindu, MADRAS, October 2, 1909:-:
" The author indulges in sublime rhapsody which is at
once grand and fascinating •• •• The highly imaginative
will find in this work ample food for reflection."

Dr. G A. Grierson, Ph. u., L L. D., D. Litt.,
CLE., Director of Linguistic Survey of India :— " It is a
mjst interesting work and I take the liberty of congratula-
ting^ you on the excellent English used in your transla-
tion. The book must have been a most difficult one to
present in the garb of a foreign language."

Mr. Frederic Harrison, President, Positivist
Society, England, Havvkhurst : — "I have read the Triumph
of Valmiki with interest and like the descriptions of India's
scenery. "

Principal Brajendra Nath Seal, M. A., Victoria
College, Cooch Behar:— "Itis a triuniph of the translators
Art as well."

Sir Henry Cotton, K. C. S. I., M. P., London:—
" I have been reading the book with much interest and
appreciate the skill with which you have rendered Pandit
Hara Prasad Shastri's version into English."

Dr. Rash Behary Ghosh, M. A., D. L., C S. I.,

late Member, Viceregal Council :— " I have read the book
with much pleasure, and I hope '^Iso with profit.*'

Mr. E. B. Havell, Late Principal, Govt. School of
Art, Calcutta : — " The excellent English of your translation
enables me to appreciate the great imaginative power of
Mahamahopadhyaya Hara Prasad Shastri's work."

Sir Gurudas Banerjl, Kt., M. A., D. L., l^te

Judge, Calcutta High Court :~''By presenting to English
scholars unacquainted with Bengali an English translation
of Mahamahopadhyaya Har^a Prasad Sastri's Valmikip

xtv,

?faya, one of the best works in Bengali prose, you lia\ &

,done a real service to Bengali literature ....I think I can

say^that you have celebrated tJte triumph of Valmiki
Jn a manner befitting the subject?*

Mr. S. Charles Hill, B. A., B. Sc, Director of
Public Instruction, Central Provinces, Nagpur :— " As far
as I can judge from your English translation it is a very
beautiful and daring poem. It ought, I think, to become
a classic and to add to tlie reputation of the Bengali

language I trust that a wider knowledge of the

poem by people of these raetes Cthe Hindu, the Maham-
:madan, and the European,) will tend to bring about
that brotherly fusion amongst them upon which the
happiness of India most certainly depends."

Babu Sarada Charan Mitra, M. A., B. L., late
Judge, Calcutta High Court : — " I am pleased with the
translation. \\,\^ acmrate in good English. Transla-
tions are intended for Europeans and Americans, 1
expect they will appi;eciate the work."

Mr. J. D. Anderson, I. C. S. (Retired), Cam-
bridge : — " Your translation is admirable. It is vigourous
and interesting and renders the original with quite re-
.markable accuracy."

Mahamahopadhyaya Satis Chandra Vidya-

bhusana, M. A., Ph. D., Jt. Philological Secretary,
Asiatic Society of Bengal, and Professor, Presidency
College, Calcutta :— ** A faithful translation of
Sastri's Valmikir Jaya. Your style is easy and interesting,
and the illustrations embodied in your work are
ingenious and impressive, I have no doubt that your
book will be widely appreciated as it deserves to be. "

(JCV,

Babu Jogendra Lai Chowdhuri, late Sub«

ordinate Judge :— " Your rendering of it was so nice that
nobody could take it to he other than an original
composition without being" so told!*

Babu Raj Kumar Das, M. A,, Head Master,
Dacca Collegiate School : — " I simply wonder how you
could render ?astri's Valmikir Jaya into such a sweet
and fascinating English. The book in its present form
does not at all look like a translation and one must
compare it with the original to be sure of it.
To confess the truth, I had to read it with the original
to be convinced of it ,. The book is a decided improve-
ment in the rich garb in which you have clothed it

/ am sure it will he adopted by the T, B- Committee
for prizes and libraries!*

Babu Beni Madhav Das, M. A., Professor,

Ravenshaw College, Cuttuck : — " In fact, it is 'a Triumph*
or I would say a 'marvel of Traslator's art' ••• SO fit to he a
text-book by its style, diction, and the subject-matter."

Babu Aghore Nath Adhikari, Superintendent,
Normal School, Silchar \—It would maize a capital
hook for our Matriculation students. The hook
may well find a place in our High School libraries!'

Mr. H. E. Ransom, I. C. S., District and Sessions
Judge, Krishnagore : — " It is a work which, it seems to me
will repay close study and as a translation it should almost
if not quite rank with original compositions. The
production, altogether, if I may say so, does you consider-
able credit."

Rai Durga Das Das Bahadur, Late Senior
Government Pleader, Chittagong :— "I admire your English

xvt

in the Httle book as very beautiful, sweet and charming,
do not think that any one including an Englishman could
have translated the original in a better way-"

Mr. F. P. Dixon, I. C. S., Director of Land
Records, Eastern Bengal and ^ssam : — "I have been much
pleased to have it and to read it. You have done well I
think to take De Quincey as your model in style."

Dr. Julius Jolly, Ph. D, Paris :— " In its English
dress (it) is very pleasant reading. ... This work should be
read by all Western scholars who take an interest in
Eastern fiction."

Professor Poussin of Ghent, Belgium:—

" I admire the skilful melange of Indian ethos with
modern feeling and knowledge."

i> nuDO <ci

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