India: The Holy Varanasi

This is India. Brace yourself. You’re about to enter one of the most blindingly colourful, unrelentingly chaotic and unapologetically indiscreet places on earth. Varanasi takes no prisoners. But if you’re ready for it, this may just turn out to be your favourite stop of all. 

Also known at various times in history as Kashi (City of Life) and Benares, this is one of the world’s oldest continually inhabited cities and is regarded as one of Hinduism’s seven holy cities. Pilgrims come to the ghats lining the River Ganges here to wash away a lifetime of sins in the sacred waters or to cremate their loved ones. It’s a particularly auspicious place to die, since expiring here off ers moksha (liberation from the cycle of birth and death), making Varanasi the beating heart of the Hindu universe. Most visitors agree it’s a magical place, but it’s not for the faint-hearted. Here the most intimate rituals of life and death take place in public and the sights, sounds and smells in and around the ghats – not to mention the almost constant attention from touts – can be overwhelming. Persevere. Varanasi is unique, and a walk along the ghats or a boat ride on the river will live long in the memory. 

The old city of Varanasi is situated along the western bank of the Ganges and extends back from the riverbank ghats in a labyrinth of alleys called galis that are too narrow for traffic. They can be disorienting, but the popular hotels and restaurants are usually signposted and, however lost you become, you will eventually end up at a ghat and get your bearings. You can walk all the way along the ghats, apart from during and immediately after the monsoon, when the river level is too high. Most places of interest, and much of the accommodation, are in the old city. Behind the station is the peaceful Cantonment area, home to most of the top-end hotels. 

Thought to date back to around 1200 BC, Varanasi really rose to prominence in the 8th century AD, when Shankaracharya, a reformer of Hinduism, established Shiva worship as the principal sect. The Afghans destroyed Varanasi around AD 1300, after laying waste to nearby Sarnath, but the fanatical Mughal emperor Aurangzeb was the most destructive, looting and destroying almost all of the temples. The old city of Varanasi may look antique, but few buildings are more than a couple of hundred years old.

See also: 5 Ideas for India

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4 Taj Mahal Myths

The Taj is a Hindu Temple 

The well-publicised theory that the Taj Mahal was in fact a Shiva temple built in the 12th century and only later converted into Mumtaz Mahal’s famous mausoleum was developed by Purushottam Nagesh Oak. In 2000 India’s Supreme Court dismissed his petition to have the sealed basement rooms of the Taj opened to prove his theory. Oak also claims that the Kaaba, Stonehenge and the Papacy all have Hindu origins. 

The Black Taj Mahal 

The story goes that Shah Jahan planned to build a negative image of the Taj Mahal in black marble on the opposite side of the river as his own mausoleum, and that work began before he was imprisoned by his son Aurangzeb in Agra Fort. Extensive excavations at Mehtab Bagh have found no trace of any such construction. 

Craftsmen Mutilations 

Legend has it that, on completion of the Taj, Shah Jahan ordered that the hands of the project’s craftsmen be chopped off , to prevent them from ever building anything as beautiful again. Some even say he went so far as to have their eyes gouged out. Thankfully, no historical evidence supports either story. 

Sinking Taj 

Some experts believe there is evidence to show that the Taj is slowly tilting towards and sinking into the riverbed due to the changing nature of the soil beside an increasingly dry Yamuna River. The Archaeological Survey of India has dismissed any marginal change in the elevation of the building as statistically insignifi cant, adding that it has not detected any structural damage at its base in the seven decades since its fi rst scientifi c study of the Taj was carried out, in 1941.

See also: 5 Ideas for India

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5 Ideas for Traveling Through India

Hampi  

Today’s surreal boulderscape of Hampi was once the glorious and cosmopolitan Vijayanagar, capital of a powerful Hindu empire. Still glorious in ruins, its temples and royal structures combine sublimely with the terrain: giant rocks balance on skinny pedestals near an ancient elephant garage; temples tuck into crevices between boulders; and round coracle boats fl oat by rice paddies and bathing buff aloes near a gargantuan bathtub for a queen. While in India, watching the sunset cast a rosy glow over the dreamy landscape, you might just forget what planet you’re on.

Cuppa in a Hill Station 

The valleys, deserts, and palmlined beaches are all well and good, but it can get hot down there! India’s princes and British colonials long used the country’s cool mountain towns as refuges from the summer heat, and today the hill stations still have lush forests, crisp mountain air and picturesque tea plantations. Curl up under a blanket with a steaming cup of local tea, look out over misty hills at swooping mountain birds, and experience India’s cool side.

Neighbourhood Markets 

Shopaholics: be careful not to lose control. Those with no interest in shopping: get in touch with your consumerist side. India’s markets have something you want, guaranteed (though you may not have known this beforehand), with a fun haggle to go with it. The range of technicolor saris, glittering gold and silver bling, mounds of rainbow vermilion, aromatic fresh spices, stainless-steel head massagers, bangles and bobby pins, motorcycle bumper stickers, heaping piles of fruit, Bollywood-star-silk-screened pajamas, and marigold and coconut off erings is, well, astounding.

Riding the Rails

India’s quintessential journey is still the long train ride. Domestic flights are increasingly common, but as the train’s 20 million daily passengers will tell you, you can’t watch the Indian landscape change from dry valley to lush mountain forest to limegreen rice paddies on a plane. The train’s also where you can hang out with families and other domestic travellers, learning about Indian culture the old-fashioned way – over a cup of tea, to the rhythm of the rails.

Puducherry Savoir Faire 

A little pocket of France in Tamil Nadu? Pourquoi pas? In this former French colony, yellow houses line cobblestone streets, grand cathedrals are adorned with architectural frou-frou, and the croissants are the real deal. But Puducherry’s also a Tamil town – with all the history, temples and hustle and bustle that go along with that – and a classic retreat town, too, with the Sri Aurobindo Ashram at its heart. Turns out that yoga, pain chocolat, Hindu gods and colonial-era architecture make for an atmospheric melange, in India.

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