THE BATHING AND BURNING GHATS AT 

 BENARES 



By Eliza R. Scidmore 



Foreign Secretary of the National Geographic Society 



Copyri^^ht by the National Geographic Society, igoy 



THE greatest human spectacle in 

 India, the most amazing and 

 complete exhibition of blind re- 

 ligious zeal and superstition in all 

 heathendom, is the sunrise gathering of 

 Ganges worshipers along the river bank 

 at Benares. It is such an incredible 

 thing that the winter tourist cannot real- 

 ize that he sees the spectacle when the 

 fewest Hindus are taking part; and it is 

 impossible to conceive how the thirty 

 and fifty thousand bathers of a winter's 

 morning, are doubled and trebled on the 

 occasions of the great summer festivals, 

 and the imposing river front of the sa- 

 cred city is one solid mass-meeting three 

 miles long. The half cannot be told one, 

 and roaming up and down the river front 

 two and three mornings in succession 

 leaves one as much amazed and im- 

 pressed as on a first morning. One has 

 heart-sinking doubts of the Christian 

 missionaries ever being able to make 

 headway with such a people, against such 

 bigoted zealots. But, as Gautama Buddha 

 once won them from Hinduism at this 

 very place and held them to his purer 

 faith for generations, they can be con- 

 verted again. 



the S-\cred city 



Benares, as a sacred city resting on 

 Shiva's trident spear, has been the goal 

 of Hindus for all of thirty centuries. 

 The pious one seeks Benares in sickness 

 and in health, in prosperity and in ad- 

 versity, to beseech the gods, to implore 

 their aid, to vow rewards to them and to 

 fulfill those vows. The dream of his life 

 is to retire to Benares in his old age, to 

 •die in sacred Kasi, to have his body cre- 

 mated at the edge of "Mother Ganges" 

 and the ashes committed to her flood. 

 Every Hindu prince and noble and rich 



man has a house at Benares, and it is 

 the acknowledged center of learning and 

 culture of the Hindu world. Literature 

 and astronomy have flourished there for 

 ages, and colleges of western learning in- 

 struct in the exact sciences and even san- 

 itary science ; yet the old observances 

 prevail and the Hindu changes his spots 

 no more than the leopard — for a little 

 matter of memorizing the words of a 

 few dozen English text books. He may 

 lead a life outwardly conforming to Eu- 

 ropean conventions and customs, but, 

 when ailing, he seeks Benares, to be cured 

 by the touch and taste of Ganges water ; 

 and dying, he begs to be buried within 

 sight of the spires and shrines that line 

 the ghats. 



Benares stretches for three miles along 

 the left, or west, bank of the Ganges, that 

 there turns northward, and all the city's 

 extent is sacred ground. Who dies there 

 on the left bank is sure of exalted estate 

 hereafter; while the right bank is deso- 

 late and accursed, and whoever dies on 

 that stretch of Ganges shore becomes a 

 donkey in the next incarnation, without 

 hope forever. One bank of the muddy 

 stream is steep and high, crowded with 

 palaces, temples, and hanging gardens, 

 with the broad, magnificent flights of 

 steps, called ghats, sweeping down be- 

 tween them to the river's edge. The op- 

 posite shore is low and sandy — a flat 

 land, useful only for sunrise effects. The 

 Maharajah of Benares has a white mar- 

 ble palace on the right bank, far up 

 stream, its terraces and marble-screened 

 balconies commanding a noble view of 

 the whole stately city front ; but the 

 prejudice is not allayed. No one dies in 

 this Ramnagar palace, nor in the village 

 behind it, if mortal eiifort can prevent. 

 The dying are bundled into boats in 



