A Search for Kashi

 


Varanasi was for most of its history a string of villages along the River Ganga in Northern India, and is now a sprawl of two million people. Many still call the city Banaras, the name by which it is known as one of the holiest sites of the Hindu faith. Harkening further into history and mythology, it is called Kashi, the City of Light. Some believe it to be the oldest city in the world, and the birthplace of the sun. Pilgrims and locals speak of Kashi with reverence and pride, and often nostalgia for what vanishes year by year beneath concrete, traffic and electric wires.

 

 

*     *     *

 

 

 

 

 

 

Columns of the Water Intake Works

 

 

 

 

 

 

Puja Platform by the Ganga

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sadhu Sitting Before a Pepsi Sign

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pilgrims Performing a Ceremony

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blind Man at a Leprosy Hospital

 

 

 

 

 

 

Banyan Tree in a Temple Courtyard

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cow Standing Before a Temple Wall

 

 

 

 

 

 

Temple Courtyard with Pepsi Sign

 

 

 

 

 

 

Market and Cinema Hall Scene

 

 

 

 

 

 

Man Walking the Ghats

 

 

 

 

 

 

Angels in a Wall

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boy Petting a Stray Cow

 

 

 

 

 

 

Woman Having Her Hair Shaved for Pilgrimage Rites

 

 

 

 

 

 

Facade of a Derelict Palace

 

 

 

 

 

 

Women Bathing in the Ganga

 

 

 

 

 

 

Priest in a Temple

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blind Bull

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunrise

 

 

 

 

 

 

Morning Swim in the Ganga

 

 

 

 

 

 

Man Drying His Laundry

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Steps of Lalak Kund and a Platform on Kedar Ghat

 

 

 

 

 

Click to read the accompanying text, Salvation and Survival

 

Back to Main Page