Varanasi A Celestial City

About this book

Banaras raised some of the questions about the Hindu traditions which have interested me its complex mythological imagination, prodigious display of divine images, elaborate ritual traditions and its understanding of the relation of life and death. This book is a study and interpretation of Banaras from the standpoint of one who is close enough to the Hindu tradition to see its religious significance, close enough to the religious and academic traditions and to know the problems of understanding the tradition it represents. My work is based on two primary sources - first, a voluminous literature of Sanskrit texts which describe and praise Banaras, Second with its patterns of temples, seasons of pilgrimage and its priestly interpreters. It is a study of 'text and context' or perhaps more accurately of classical Sanskrit texts and the 'text' of the city. Once both brought together we may see this city and understand its sacred structure and meaning as has been seen and understood by Hindus. The Sanskrit texts alone present a complex interpretive task which deal primarily with Banaras - the Kashi Khand and the Kashi Rahasya. They have not previously been translated or studied by scholars. Which going through these texts, I found that they contain diverse types of literature requiring different interpretive approaches. Much of this literature is praise-literature called mahatmya, the purpose of which is to extol, expand and even exaggerate the glories of its subject. Such mahatmya is a product of Hindu structure of consciousness which is pluralistic and polycentric. However, at any one time it is against a vivid and variegated backdrop, brings but one centre, one deity, one sacred city or one temple into sharp focus for adoration and praise. Here, many of the major Hindu myths which are always set in the particular context of one or another human or divine drama, are told in the context of Banaras and its holy history. Some of these myths must be understood primarily as theological in intent where they reveal and describe the nature of the divine. Others lend themselves to a quasi-historical interpretation where they reveal the gradual emergence and pre-eminence of the worship of Shiva in Banaras. A third type of literature contained here is ritual literature which must be understood and interpreted in the wider context of brahminical ritual and injunction. There are ritual instructions for pilgrims, for Brahmins, for kings, and also there are lists of the great fruits to be achieved from such rituals. The city 'text' presents an equally diverse task of study and interpretation. First, there is ancient streams and pools, temples and ruins, lanes and pilgrimage routes. Some of the temples which was very important in the era of the Sanskrit literature, no longer exist. Some such sites are now occupied by mosques. Others are marked only by tiny shrines or have been moved to new locations.