Varanasi (Benares) 2

In Varanasi we witnessed the most primeval scenes we've ever encountered when we took a boat trip down the Ganges at sunset. As each boat set off young boys provided candles (at a price!) set in lotus dishes for everyone to light & set adrift on the river. We floated through the flickering candlelight in the gathering dusk to row past the funeral pyres of the burning ghats. It's difficult to describe how strange & yet enchanted the atmosphere was. Huge piles of wood were stacked on boats by the shore & all the way up the ghats (steps). Up to a dozen fires burned at different stages from a newly lit burst of flames to a tiny pile of glowing embers. Moving amongst the flames were the funeral wallahs, slightly sinister as they tended the fires until the moment when they could finally dispose of the ashes into the sacred waters of the Ganges. Looming over the whole scene a fantastically multi-layered mix of temples, palaces, hotels & hovels are jam-packed onto the steep banking above.

As if all this wasn't dramatic enough, the boats then drew together at the foot of the ghats as the nightly ritual of a Hindu fire ceremony was enacted before us. 12 Brahman priests, clothed in orange, circled slowly in unison on their individual podiums to the sound of chanting & bell ringing. Each time they circled they simultaneously twirled 1st incense sticks, then flaming torches, candelabras & increasingly large bowls of fire about their bodies. In amongst the smoke & the shadows, small children darted from boat to boat with chai urns heated by live embers. The whole effect was hypnotic & magical, far removed from the modern world. At last we began to understand the pull that Indian culture has exerted on the rest of the world for centuries.