Holy City of Mother Ganga - Varanasi / Benares / Kashi

Waking at dawn, and looking out from our little balcony, we could see the first bathers of the morning swimming from the steps below us.

And boatloads of tourists heading up river to see the sun rise over the Mother Ganga.

There were definitely compensations for staying right in the heart of the old Ghats.

Our "hotel" was in part of an old Maharaj's Palace and right on a main Ghat, halfway between the two cremation sites.

The evening we arrived, and found our way from the dining room where we had supper, back through the alleyway to our room, we could find the right hole in the wall to entertofind our room by the two large cows blocking the way. That was our landmark to find the room in the dark!!
Next morning they were back in the alleyway outside the way into our room !

Varanasi - alias Banares or Kashi or The Holy City is thought to be one of the most Ancient continuously inhabited Cities in the world, and certainly the oldest in India.
It is Holy to Hindu, Buddhist, Moslem and Jains.

To Hindus one must go to Varanasi at least once in your life to assist your spirit in being saved. That once can be when you are still alive - or after. In fact having Varanasi as your final resting place gives the best chance of your spirit's salvation.
So many areas of the city near the river are filled with poor old people waiting to die. They have a swim each morning in the Ganges - or Mother Ganga - and pray and wait. It is especially popular if you have no family to bury you properly - you just come here to wait for the inevitable !

We were rowed in a small boat, with a guide up the river and shown Temples, the Buddhist seminary, the Hare Krishna building and the smaller Cremation site which was busy working as usual.

Then we went down river to the larger crematorium and were shown around the site by the "Priest" who explained the rituals involved - before begging rather forcefully for donations !

Firstly the Eldest son or Husband of the deceased will shave his head and swim in the Ganges for purification.
Then the male relatives will dress up the deceased in colourful finery, and place them on a wooden stretcher affair and dunk the body in the Ganges, for the final swim.
Then the stretcher will sit on the slipway for a couple of hours to drain.

Then the top layer of finery will be unwrapped, and the body placed by relatives on a prepared wood pile. More sandalwood logs are placed on top of the deceased.

Then the special male relative will take a light from the eternal holy flame and light the fire. Several hours later when the burning is finished, any remaining large bones will be placed by the relatives in the Ganges, but the ashes will remain in the Cremation area and not be cleared away.

Small babies and certain contagious deaths will go straight into the Ganges without any burning!

The ritual, while seeming scarily hands on to us, gives the Hindu believers closure and happiness and should not be seen as a sad occasion.

Indian travel is not for the faint hearted - 3. Varanasi : Rail Junction to Old city

Arriving at dusk at Moghalsarai Junction about 20ks outside Varanasi, we picked a poor time to decide to be really bloody minded in our bargaining with the Tuktuk drivers.

After half an hours debate being passed around from one rip-off artist to another and walking round the station several times with our luggage, we eventually chose one driver.

Unfortunately he seemed to be really pissed off with our agreed fare and he promptly tried to kill us for the next hour, before dumping us in the middle of the busy old city still about 5 ks from our hotel !!

To make us feel better (?) the first thing he did after we'd climbed aboard was to dive off the road to a guy with a spanner who proceeded to adjust / repair the Tuktuk brakes !!

Then that first 10 ks was the worst ride of our lives - the road was full of enormous trucks on either side and moving slowly down the road, plus large buses. Our driver did not want to wait for any of those, and proceeded to pass everything. Some on the inside - off the road - at high speed on a bumpy dirt potholed patch, and some on the outside, head on to other large trucks, buses and cars.

Denis prayed and I swore and I'm sure that the driver heard both - but it didn't affect his driving in any way !!

At last we arrived in the town - but it was the night of a large Hindu festival of Joy - Durga Puja - and the streets were all decorated and crowded, with some roads closed for parties. So town was chaos and we needed to get into the old part of the city to the banks of the Ganges.

The our driver stopped, indicated us to get out and told us to get onto one of the bicycle rickshaws parked at the side of the road. We needed two - they don't have much space - and we had two small cases with us. So the next half hour we wove through the busy narrow streets, each of us on our own bicycle rickshaw with their case.

Then again the rickshaws said they could go no further ! Stopped and told us to get out.

We then had to walk the rest of the way, pulling our suitcases, through winding narrow passages zigzagging towards the river. The bicycle guys had left us with a "guide" to take us through - another person who needed paying of course.

After a brisk fifteen minute walk squeezing past people, stalls and animals, we eventually arrived at the hotel - Palace on the Steps.

No Palace definitely - but right on the river Ganges.

PS. Sorry no pics - just hanging on for dear life, and alternatively praying and swearing at our drivers / guides !!

Indian travel is not for the faint hearted - 2. Agra(Taj Mahal) to Varanasi(Holy City)

The journey started well.

Our train was leaving at 11 pm from Tundla Junction about 30 ks from Agra.

As it was a very busy road - and the day was a special Hindu holiday, making the narrow streets even more crowded - we had the driver drop us off at about 6 pm before it got dark.

The "upper Class waiting room" was reasonably pleasant with a fan, a table and chairs to sit on and just one Indian family and two Korean guys waiting for trains. We all chatted, Den and I played Scrabble, the Korean guys played ball with the Indian boy. Apart from dismissing several approaches by people with old Visiting books who seemed to think we should pay them to be in the waiting room it was pretty ok. Supper was Fanta and digestive biscuits again!

At about 10.30 we climbed over the railway bridge to the correct platform and waited....and waited...and waited. The |Station master had said the train was due at 11.45 ..... so it shouldn't be long. We then chatted to another Indian family who let us share their wooden bench when one of them stretched their legs. Half their family was sleeping on the platform on cotton sheets.

Most of the time we amused ourselves with watching hundreds of RATS !!
The railway lines themselves were crawling with them - thousands of enormous ones running around collecting all teh food wrappers which almost everybody drops on teh railway lines.

Looking across the lines to the Station Master's Office opposite, where he sat at his desk we saw a rat run into his office several times.

Worse still, we saw several running around on our own platform, and wondered about the many train passengers lying on the platform sleeping!

But the absolute worst were the rats who were running in and out of the refreshment stall on our platform !!

Rat on station platform at 4.0 am at Tundla Junction !!
The train eventually arrived over 5 hours late at 4.30 am - what a night !!

However just before that Den and I had a serious chat -
Throughout this trip I had been asking HOW and Den had been asking WHY.
For example - How did they build this road ?...Why ........?
How did they fight a battle here ? Why .........? etc etc.
This time I had to agree that WHY was the relevant question.
WHY were we standing exhausted on a filthy station platform at 4 in the morning watching rats ?
Maybe we should reschedule, and try to avoid a couple of the longer overnight train journeys where we were only in Second Class, as they would not be at all enjoyable if the trains were badly delayed like this ?

By the time the train arrived at our junction outside Varanasi, it was nearly TWELVE hours late, and instead of arriving at 6.0 am early morning, we arrived at dusk, 6.0 pm and had to embark on the hair-raising journey into the old part of the Ghats by the river Ganges in Varanasi in the dark !

Second Day in Agra - a Fort, a Mosque and some radical religious thinking !

Drove out to Sikri - about 40 ks from Agra.
The history was fascinating, involving Akbar, the 3rd Mogul Emporer ( the Grandfather of Shah Jehan who built the Taj Mahal ) and apparently the greatest of the Moghul Emporers.

He reigned from 1556 to 1605 and seems to have been very forward thinking.
As he conquered many lands he married princesses to cement the political unions. Although he was Moslem, his main wives were a Hindu, a Moslem and a Christian.
(He had many unofficial 'wives' also and you can still see the side gate where they entered the kings rooms secretly at night)

He was living in Delhi and Agra but did not have an heir, and so walked to the Moslem Holy Man in Fatehpur, next to Sigri and promised that if he had an heir he would build his main Fort next door in Sikri.

The Hindu wife produced an heir for him and he duly built his fort at Sikri.
( He later move back to the fort at Agra because the water in Sikri turned salty).

He enjoyed music and built a concert stand right outside his own palace, on a pond to improve the accoustics.

All the decorations throughout the red sandstone Fort show symbols from multiple religions.
On a pillar there are from the top, Christian, Moslem and Hindu symbols.

The ceiling in the Moslem wife's palace has stars of David (Jewish), Christianity and Islam.

Later in life he invented his own religion which believed all people had one God who would give peace to all men. However, he didn't believe in Missionary work or forcing his subjects to accept his universal brand of religion, so there were few followers and it died out pretty quickly !

Its a shame his ideas of universal religious openness and tolerance aren't more in evidence globally today.

Next door to the Fort, the Moslem Holy Centre at Fatehpur, contains the large "Friday" Mosque which boasts a magnificent arched entry on one side - the Buland Gate - which is 54 metres high and placed high above ground level.

And typical of the Emporer Akbar, this Mosque gateway is also decorated with a verse from the teachings of Jesus Christ which is engraved in the sandstone !!

 When we returned to Agra we saw the "Little Taj Mahal" Palace on the other side of the river.

And we also walked down to the river bank on the other side of the river to have a last look at the real Taj Mahal in the evening sun.

A beautiful tomb - but such a sad story

The fifth Moghul Empereur, Shah Jahan ruled a vast Empire across India, and Asia from 1628 to 1658. He was 21 when he married his third and favourite wife.
She was 19 and was renamed on marriage, Mumtaz Mahal.

They lived happily together in the Red Fort in Agra for 19 years.
Then she died in 1631 aged 38 in childbirth with their 14th child.

He Built the Taj Mahal - Crown Palace - as her tomb.
Many thousands of artisans and craftsmen worked for 22 years to build it.
It was built in the white marble he loved, inlaid with designs in semi-precious stones.

He planned that he should be buried in a black tomb across the river from his wife's tomb, but according to Muslim law could not build this in his own lifetime.

7 of their 14 children survived, including 4 sons.
The third eldest son, Aurangzeb, would not wait until he succeeded his elder brothers and father, and killed his brothers and imprisoned his father in the Red Fort for the last 8 years of his life.

 His view of the Taj Mahal from the Red Fort.

When Shah Jahan died in his 70's, his son never built the black tomb for his father and just put him on one side of his wife in the Taj Mahal. His tomb is the only asymetrical item on the whole Taj Mahal site.

Although the Taj Mahal is considered a worldwide Monument to Love, it seems that Shah Jahan must have spent a lot of his lifetime in sadness, with first the loss of his beloved wife and then the betrayal of his son.

Perhaps the iconic picture of Princess Diana, full of sadness and loneliness, would also sum up Shah Jehan's feelings for the last 35 years of his life ?
Proving once more that having Royalty, Riches and Power is no guarantee of Happiness!