Explore mystic Varanasi with Exclusive Varanasi travel guide
Eminent Varanasi travel guide to take you to unravel the mystic rituals of Indian culture and traditions. Enjoy the spirit of religious ardor of India on your trip to holy city of Varanasi. The blend of mystic culture with rustic traditions is exclusively found in Varanasi vacation package. Travel to Varanasi india with Varanasi Benaras tourism operators offering exquisite visit to holy city of Benaras for mystic retreat.
If you want to learn more about the Hindus, then visit Varanasi. Located in the middle of the Ganges basin, like Rome it is considered an “eternal city”. It is the most important of the seven holy cities of the Hindus and one of the oldest cities on Earth. It is also considered a city of the God Shiva, Vishwanatha, and for the past 2500 years, pilgrims travel to the city now known as the center of traditional Hindu culture and science.
Varanasi—also known as Benares and Kashi--is located in the north Indian state Uttar Pradesh and is home to about 1,166,200 people. During your stay you’ll have a chance to see pious Hindus gather at the Ghats to bathe in the Ganges. Along the river, miles-long, step-like bank reinforcements--the Ghats–see believers bathing in the water of the holy river and just a few meters away from them the corpses of the deceased are burning. The ashes are then scattered in the Ganges.
The bath in the Ganges cleanses the person of committed sins and promises absolution. The ritual includes bell chimes, priests singing hymns, and incense burning. This provides an insight to the religion of Hinduism, and the spectacle, “bathing Ghats”.
Varanasi is the home to countless temples and shrines giving you the opportunity to learn more about the Hindus and see India’s ancient history firsthand.
VishwanathTemple is situated near the Ganga Ghats and the new Vishwanath temple which lies in the compound of Banaras Hindu University. Both temples are dedicated to God Shiva. In the new Vishwanath temple, you will find even more ornate shrines. Other temples in Varanasi to explore include the Durga temple, Bharat Mata temple (which features an accurate Indian Map), Temple of Sankat Mochan (shrine of the monkey God, Hanuman), Annapurna and Kal Bhairava.
You will want to visit Bharat Kala Bhawan, situated in the compound of Banaras Hindu University, which offers an abundant collection of antique and medieval sculptures, pictures, handwritings and textiles. Ramnagar fort, along Ganga River, is the residence of the earlier Maharajas of Varanasi. The royal museum exhibits some of the world’s most marvelous objects including ivory carvings, old vintage cars, fuel table fans, old textiles and more.
The Banaras Hindus University (also named BHU) was established in 1916. The idea of Hindu University was conceived by Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, who, in addition to being a politician was a freedom fighter and notable Hindu nationalist. Today about 15,000 students study at BHU’s 128 departments of study. The university is well known especially for its research and apprenticeship in the areas of engineering and medicine.
Just five miles northeast of Varanasi you’ll find Sarnath, a place of quiescence and the tranquility where during 528 BC Buddha held his first sermon. In Sarnath Buddha started writing his doctrines which taught to end the sufferings of life (Samsara) one had to follow a path of the abstinence and by following the eight rules, the person would reach a stage of the enlightenment and therewith nirvana. Today, Buddhism is practiced by less than one percent of India’s total population. Yet during the decades, Buddhism spread around the world, and across Asia it became one of the largest practicing religions.
In Sarnath, at the place of the first sermon preached by Buddha, stands a large Stupa (Buddhist relic hill, later and in other countries also named Dagoba or Pagoda) from the period of the Maurya dynasty (around 200 BC). Of it only the foundations walls are maintained. But there you will find the still well maintained 14-foot-high Dhamekh Stupa from the period of the Gupta dynasty (around 400 AD).
The excavations certify that Sarnath was once a large and important center of the Buddhist, where thousands of monks studied and taught. There is Bodhi tree in a (modern) Buddhist temple, which is an offshoot of the Bodhi tree in Anuradhapura (Sri Lanka/Ceylon). This, in turn, is an offshoot of the Bodhi tree, under which Buddha sat under 2500 years ago and gained enlightenment.
Varanasi is most famous for its Ghats, the series of steps that lead to the Ganges River. The highest holiness is the Dasasvamedh Ghat (in the middle of the rows of Ghats) where people—often naked and covered with ash--pray to the ascetic Sadhus. Downstream there is the Mandir Ghat where the the17th century palace built by the Maharaja Man Singh of Amber from Jaipur sits in disrepair. Four Ghats down is the Jalashayin, the ghat where the dead are cremated.
From a respectful distance, you may watch the bathes, rituals and cremations, but photography is forbidden. A Nepalese temple with gilded roof stands at the Lalita Ghat. The holy Manikarnika Ghat is famous for the legend that a footprint of Shiva, a Ganesh temple and a water basin, were borne from Shiva’s sweat as he came down to earth to find the earring of his wife Parvati.
Further down the river is the Panchaganga Ghat known for the legend that the five holy currents (Ganges, Yamuna, Kirana, Sarasvati and Dhutapapa) should meet under the earth. Dasasvamedh Ghat and Someswar Ghat (moonlight Ghat) are famous as the ghats where a holy bath can cure illness. It is followed by a Kedar Ghat--dedicated to Shiva, Hareshchandra Ghat-another cremation ghat, Hanuman Ghat with a Hanuman temple, Shivala Ghat was a military fort, and Tulsi Ghat dedicated to a poet and singer.
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