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ll VARANASI ...the city ll |
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ll The City ll The Geography ll The Climate ll The People ll The Culture ll The Lifestyle ll The Festivals ll The Handicrafts ll The Art and Architecture ll The Music and Dance ll The Famous Folks ll The Economy ll The Shopping ll How to get there ll The Ganga ll Places Of Interest ll |
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Being the holiest city
of Hinduism, the impact of the religion is found everywhere in the city -
the clanging bells and the monotonous, but oddly soothing, chant of Sanskrit
hymns, in the fragrant flower offerings, and the coloured powders that are
sold in a myriad roadside shops which decorate the foreheads of the devout,
in the tens of thousands of worshippers and the thousands who offer them
salvation or service. The secret of Varanasi's enduring attraction is
probably hidden in Sir Maurice Gwyer's description of the city: "...(to
whom) so many generations of men have looked for inspiration, at whose
shrines they have quickened their faith; in whose stone-paved alleys the old
and the new are forever playing hide and seek; where the atmosphere and
environment seem equally to encourage all pursuits, from the spiritual to
the commercial; where one lives with legends and superstition and the
romance and beauty of ritual, and yet with the fullest awareness of reality
- such is Varanasi, eternal and ageless, bright and beautiful and intensely
vital."
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