3 , f 0 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY '7 9 i. '■".i n o logic, and was feeble and clumsy in his rhetoric, the assembly would paint his face, smear him with dirt, and then take him from the monastery to some de- serted place, or throw him in a ditch. “ Thus they distinguish between worth and demerit, between the wise and the foolish.” The natural evolution of Aryan thought and religion had so far produced three classes of literature — first the Vedic hymns, which I have already described; secondly BRAHMAxNAS AND UPANISHADS 9 the Brahmanas, which embody the priestly traditions of sacrifice; and thirdly the Upanishads, or philosophical discussions. Sanskrit scholars have made widely dif- ferent estimates of the periods covered by these three classes. No doubt the hymns of the Vedas reflect traditions of the Aryans long antecedent to the time when they reached India. Max Muller has fixed the date to which they belong as approximately b.c. 2000; other authorities place them as far back as b.c. 6000; while an Indian scholar, Mr. Tilak, from a study of the astronomical data given by the Rig- Veda, and from the description of the dawn and sunrise, and the phenomena of the seasons, believes that some of them refer to a time when the original Aryan home must have been at or near the Arctic circle. The Brahmanas probably represent a development of Hinduism, for the most part, if not entirely, Indian. The age of their first compilation has been put be- tween B.c. 1300 and B.c. 1 100, but there are many later additions extending to perhaps b.c. 600. They are an extraordinary compilation of ritual practice and e.x- planation, evolved by the imaginations of the priestly families, who piled form upon form and rite upon rite, until the simple piety of the early Aryans was buried in a mass of superstitious observances. To European readers they are chiefly interesting for the light they throw upon modern Hindu ritual, and for the Aryan legends regarding the creation and the flood which have been preserved in them. The story of the deluge is as follows : — The seventh Manu of the fourteen mythical pro- genitors of mankind was one day washing his hands when he caught a fish. The fish spoke and said, lO 15EXARES, THE SACRED CITY “ Take care of me, and protect me from the big fish that would eat me, and I will one day save you Manu asked, “ From what will you save me?” The fish answered, “ A fiood will come and destroy all living creatures. I will save you from that.” Manu kept the fish in a jar, until it grew so big that it begged to be put into a ditch, at the same time telling Manu to build a ship to prepare for the coming catastrophe. Manu built the ship accordingly, and as the fish grew too big for the ditch, carried it down to the sea. When the fiood came, Manu tied the ship to the horn of the fish, which dragged him swiftly towards the northern mountains, the Idimalayas. Arrived there, the fish instructed him to tie his ship to the mountain-top, and then swam away. As the fiood subsided, the ship gradually descended the slope of the mountain, and Manu left it to perform worship and sacrifices. After a year a woman was produced from the .sacrifices. Manu asked, “ Who art thou?” “Thy daughter,” she replied. “How, illus- trious one, art thou mv daughter?” he asked. She answered, “ Those offerings of ghee, sour milk, whey and curds, which thou madest in the waters, with them thou hast begotten me. I am the blessing: make use of me at the sacrifice! If thou wilt do so, thou ^^ilt become rich in offspring and cattle.” He accordingly made use of her as the benediction in the middle of the sacrifice. “ With her he went on worshipping and toiling in religious rites, wishing for offspring, dhrough her he generated this race, which is the race of Manu.” The Upanishads, like the Brahmanas, are now incor- porated in the four Vedas. Their first compilation is BRAHMANAS AND UPAXISHADS 1 1 attributed to a time shortly after the offshoots from the first Aryan settlement of the Punjab began to spread to the Ganges valley. They form the basis of the later schools of Indian philosophy. Though deeply tinged with Oriental mysticism, they, unlike the Brah- manas, are almost free from ritualism and sectarian spirit: they are chiefly devoted to discussions as to the nature and means of realizing a knowledge of Brah- man, the Universal Soul and Cause of all things. d'he Brahmanas and Upanishads, in fact, seem to represent two different currents of thought, which can be traced throughout the whole development of Hin- duism. The one, the exclusiveness and pedantry of the narrow-minded priest, always concerned with the interests of priestcraft; the other, the true religious feelings of the people, interpreted by their most earnest thinkers. The ethical stand-point of the Aryan race, as put forward in the Upanishads some three thousand years ago, can hardly be surpassed in the present day; — “ Having taught him the Vedas, a teacher e.xhorts his pupils thus : ‘ Speak the truth. Practise virtue. Do not neglect the study of the Vedas. Having paid the honorarium to your preceptor [i.c. having returned home at the close of your studies), do not cut off the line of children (i.e. marry and bring up a family). Do not swerve from the truth. Do not swerve from virtue. Do not swerve from the good. Do not be indifferent to the attainment of greatness. Do not neglect your duties to the gods and to your parents. Honour your mother as a deity. Honour your lather as a deity. Honour your guest as a deity. Do those deeds which are commendable, and not those that are ( B 4S8 ) I-) 12 BENARES, THE SACRED CErV otherwise. Imitate our good deeds, and not those that are otherwise. . . . Give alms with a willing- heart. Do not give with an unwilling heart. Give wisely. Give with modesty. Give with fear. Give with a sympathetic heart.’ I he story ot Varna and Nachiketa is the most char- acteristic in the Lipanishads. It is as follows; — ■ Nachiketa was a young Brahmin, who, having been hastily \'Owed by his father as a victim to Varna, the god of Death, cheerfully submitted, even though his father repented of his vow and hesitated to fulfil it. Owing to Death’s absence when Nachiketa arrived at his abode, he remained three nights without food. On his return Varna, as an apology for the slight to his Brahmin guest, l)egged of him to ask for any three boons he might desire. Nachiketa’s first request was that his father might have jteace of mind and cease to feel anger towards him. This was immediately granted. I'he next was that Death would explain to him the manner of j^ro- ducing the sacrificial fire which led to heaven. To this also Death readily assented. Nachiketa’s last boon was that Death would tell him what all men desired to know, the mystery of the future life. ’Skima said: "Ask for sons and grandsons who shall li\'e a hundred years; ask for wealth, pleasure, power, long life for yourself — all that men hold most jjrecious, but only not this — ask me no question about death ”. Nachiketa replied: "In all these things you offer, O Death, no wise man will take delight. They are things of a day; even all life is short. Keep your ^ The Upanishads. Translated by Sitanath Tattvabhusan. Som Ijiotheis, 1904. Vol. II. p. 104. UPANISHAD STORIES 13 pleasures, power, and riches. The boon I have asked I have asked.” Then Yama said; “The good, the pleasant, these are separate things, with different objects, binding all mankind. They who accept the good, alone are wise. They who prefer the pleasant, miss life’s real aim. “ Fools who live in darkness, believing themselves wise and learned, wander in devious ways, like blind men led by blind. “ To the man without understanding, thoughtless and deceived by wealth, the future life is not revealed. He who thinks this world alone e.xists, and the future is not, must yield himself to me time after time. “The knowledge you would gain cannot be gained by reasoning. Few have the means of hearing it, few after hearing can understand it. It is subtler than an atom, and beyond the ken of reason. “ The wise man who has realized by spiritual com- munion that Divine Being,^ invisible, hidden, pervad- ing all things, who is in the heart and lives in in- accessible places, gives up both joy and sorrow.” Nachiketa said: “That which is different from virtue and different from vice, different from the chain of cause and effect, different from the past and future, tell me of that ”. Yama replied: “The Worshipful One, whom all the Vedas tell of, to whom all discipline of mind and body is directed, for whom men acquire spiritual knowledge, I will speak to you briefly of that Worshipful One. He is AUM. “ Verily this syllable is Brahman, this syllable Is the Highest. Knowing this, one obtains every desire. * Brahman, the Universal Soul, or Self. 14 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY “ This help is the best, this help is the highest. Knowing- this, one becomes glorified in the world of brahman. “The real Self is neither born, nor dies. It is not produced, nor is aught produced from it. It is unborn, eternal, everlasting, and ancient. When the body is destroyed, it is not destroyed. “ 11 the slayer thinks he slays the Self, and if the slain believes the Self is slain, both are ignorant. The Sell is neither slain nor slays. “ The wise man knowing the Self to be incor- poreal— though existing in changing bodies — knowing it great and all-pervading, is free from grief. “ This Self cannot be realized by the Vedas, nor by reason, nor by learning. The wicked cannot know it, nor he whose mind is not at rest. It manilests itself to itself. Only Self knows Self.”^ We may picture Benares in the later Vedic times as one of the first Aryan settlements in the Ganges valley — a clearing in the primeval forest, perhaps first occupied by the Dravidians or Kolarians. There they kept their cattle and cultivated the soil with the help of the conquered aboriginals, whom they called Da- syus. Their ordinary dwellings were probably of mud, roofed with bamboos and thatch — very like those in the villages round Benares now; the better ones might have been partly of brick or stone, plastered over and decorated with paintings in fresco, the most ancient form of pictorial art, such as the oldest Buddhist records describe. It was an admirable site for such a settlement. The rich alluvial soil afforded plenty of sustenance for men ^ Abiidged from Pandit Taltvabhusan’s translation. BENARES IN VEDIC TIMES IS and cattle. The Ganges was at the same time a pro- tection from hostile invasions, and an easy highway of communication with the older Aryan settlements in the Punjab. The river Barna on the north, and the Asi on the south — a more important stream than it is now — gave protection from sudden attacks of the fierce aboriginal tribes dwelling in the densest forests, and called by the Aryans Rakshasas, demons. It only needed a wall or forts on the west to make the little colony secure on all sides. The cool bathing in the splendid river and worship on its sunny banks would aft'ord to the Aryan settlers refreshment for body and soul. So even in those remote times the place may have acquired a reputa- tion as being propitious for the favoured people, and thus to them sacred soil, an oasis of spiritual life in the midst of the impious non-Aryan tribes, like Brahma- varta, their much-beloved home in the north-west. It has been supposed that the spiritual leaders of the Aryans began, about the time when the Kasis first appeared in the Ganges valley, to arrange the com- pilation of the VTclic hymns, the Brahmanas and the Upanishads, in order to preserve their traditional faith from the risk of corruption which was incurred by intermarriage with the Dravidian and Kolarian neigh- bours. Benares, therefore, may perhaps have begun already to establish its reputation as a great seat of Aryan philosophy and religion. The first idea of caste, which was mainly that of race protection, originated at the same period, and from the same cause. But caste as it is now under- stood did not become a fixed Institution for many centuries later. Even in the sixth century b.c., though i6 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY there were restrictions as to eating together, and a fair complexion was regarded as indicating high birth, a low occupation by itself did not involve any social ostracism. A Brahmin or Kshatriya could work at a trade or engage in agriculture without any dishonour or penalty. CHAPTER II THE HINDU EPICS — HERO-WORSHIP In order to follow the further development of Hindu religion and society from the time the Kasis established themselves in the valley of the Ganges, it is necessary to understand the political situation which confronted the Aryan settlers in northern India. They were by no means a united people, but composed of numerous tribes and clans, not all of pure Aryan stock, often fighting with each other, and surrounded not only by savage aboriginals of the lowest type living in the dense forests, and classed by the Aryans as Rakshasas, or demons, but by a medley of other races in various stages of civilization and with all manner of religious beliefs. The Dravidians, who, like the Aryans, had entered India from the north-west, were probably more advanced in the industrial arts, and had developed into petty kingdoms, with many of which the Aryans formed alliances, both in the fighting which resulted from tribal disputes, and in their foreign wars. There were two political parties in the Aryan camp: one headed by Vasishtha, a Rishi of the priestly caste, who represented the school of orthodo.xy and exclu- siveness; and the other by Vishwamitra, a Kshatriya, or warrior chief, who became the leader and spiritual adviser of one of the larger non-Aryan tribes which 17 i8 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY adopted the Aryan religious teaching. The Aryans themselves were a mere handful amidst a multitude, and \dshwamitra probably realized the danger of a wholly aggressive and exclusive policy. For a long time, however, pride of race kept most of the Aryans alool from their dark-skinned neighbours, and Brahma- \airta. “ that land created by the gods, which lies between the two divine rivers Saraswati and Drishad- wati ’V or the part of the Punjab which they first occu- pied, was held to be the only soil fit for the faithful peo[)le. Hut as fresh Immigrations pressed in upon the original settlers, and the more enterprising of the clans pushed farther south and east, more of the so-called 'buranian races were admitted into the Aryan fold, and there gradually accumulated round the pure Aryan doctrines a vast agglomeration of the primitive native faiths and purely Indian traditions which constitute the basis of the popular Hinduism of to-day. The caste system which was evolved out of these peculiar political and social conditions provided, on the one hand, an auto- matic system of subdivision to make room for social development and differences of religious practice; and, on the other hand, for the consolidation of all the heterogeneous elements of which Hinduism is com- posed into one great community of beliefs, impelled by common sentiments which bring every sect and caste and grade of society to worship together on the banks of the Ganges. The effect of this continual process of subdivision may be realized from the fact that, whereas Manu, the Hindu Moses, legislated for four castes only. Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and ' AlaTiu, II. 17. THE CASTE SYSTEM 19 Sudras, the Brahmins alone are now made up of over a hundred castes, each with different customs, and neither intermarrying nor eating together. Though it may be urged that the caste system has helped to perpetuate many gross superstitions and revolting customs, it was nevertheless admirably adapted for the purpose of preventing Aryan culture and civilization from being entirely swallowed up in the whirlpool of contending races which confronted them in the early period of their development. The Aryan race, indeed, has been so modified by its Indian environment that probably the pure Aryan stock no longer exists, but Aryan culture and Aryan philosophy form the cement which now binds Hindu society to- gether from one end of India to the other. The means by which the Aryans handed down to posterity their great storehouse of spiritual wisdom, learning, and science, together with their national epics and social regulations, were not the least remarkable of their political ideas. For many centuries after Sanskrit had ceased to be spoken by the people, and a written lano-uaQe had come into common use, the ever-increasing accumulations of Sanskrit learning were preserved by an extraordinary system of memorizing, aided by elaborate and most scientific methods of grammar and etymology, which extended to the count- ing of each verse, word, and syllable, and took note of the pronunciation, accent, and intonation of the sacred texts. The most stringent laws were enacted to prevent the Vedas from being corrupted by common use. Manu says, “ He who acquires without permission the Veda from one who recites it, incurs the guilt of (B'JSS) E 20 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY stealino- the \’ecla, and shall sink into hell” (II. ii6). Ciautama, the reputed author of another set of reoula- tions, lays down that “ the ears of a .Sudra who listens intentionally when the YYda is beint;' recited are to be filled with molten lead. His tongue is to be cut out il he recite it. His body is to be split in twain if he preserx'e it in his memory.” On the other hand, the Ilrahmin who forgot the sacred writings or divulged them to unauthorized persons was subject to various penances. Though the earliest Sanskrit records date back to thousands of years before Christ, the first known manuscripts are not much earlier than the sixteenth century of our era. The great epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, and sacred books like the Bhaga\-at Oita, have long ago been translated into the vernacu- lars. The celebrated Hindi translation of the Rama- yana is said to have been written by Tulsi Das in the neighbourhood of Benares, about 1 574 a.d. But learned Brahmins are still to be seen at Benares, especially during the great Hindu festivals, swaying to and fro on the carved chair ol a \"yas, or public reader, as they recite the sonorous Sanskrit s/okas and translate a \Tdic story, or expound what the vulgar are permitted to know of the ancient wisdom, to crowds of intent listeners. Cne cannot be in Benares city many hours without noticing how closely the stories of the Ramayana and Mahabharata are interwoven with Hindu thoughts and fancies. The pilgrims who pass in the boats on the river chant one refrain — Ram! Ram! .Slta-Ram! It is echoed by the ash-besmeared Sadhus along the ghats, and scrawled by school-boys on the walls. Rama WAS, OR PUBLIC READER, AT BENARES {^From a photograph by Johnston Hoffmann) 9 .*r-3 i ‘.j THE MAHAbhArATA and Sita, Hanuman the king of monkeys, Krishna and the great fights of the Mahabharata are the sub- ject of innumerable painting's on the walls of temples, monasteries, and houses. Huge sprawling figures of Hhima with his club are modelled in the river mud. The five Pandava brothers are worshipped in temples both in the city and along the Panch-kosi road. The main story of the Mahabharata is an account of the great war between the Aryan tribes of northern India, called the Bharatas, assisted by their Dravidian or Kolarian allies, which is supposed to have taken place between 1400 and 1300 b.c. The heroes on one side are the five Pandava princes, sons of Pandu, king ol Hastinapur, whose names were Yudhishthira, Bhima, and Arjuna by one wife, and Nakula and Sahadeva by another. They were assisted by Krishna, whose worship as one of the incarnations of Vishnu is the chief popular cult of modern Hinduism. After his children were born, Pandu took the vow of an ascetic, and retired into the forest, leaving the government of his kingdom to his blind brother, Dhritarashtra, and Bhishma, his uncle. The opponents of the Pandavas were the hundred sons of Dhritarashtra, known as the Kuru princes, or Kauravas. The eldest, Duryodhana, who claimed the succession to the throne, was mean, spiteful, and cruel, while the Pandavas and Draupadi, “ loveliest of women ”, who was their common wife, were types of chivalry, honour, and virtue. The chief heroes on the Kauravas’ side were their uncle, Bhishma, who vainly endeavoured to reconcile the contending parties, and Kama, a half-brother of the Pandavas, who was probably of Dravidian descent. Arjuna and Kama BENARES, TPiE SACRED CITY are the Achilles and Hector of this Indian Iliad. The (juarrel hnally ended in a Homeric strug'g'le, lasting- tor eighteen days, on the field of Kurukshetra, outside the modern Delhi. In the terrihc slaughter vrhich took place all the Kurus were annihilated, and only seven of the Pandu army, including the hve brothers, were left. Yudhishthira was then crowned king at 1 lastinapur. d'he climax is the renunciation of the kingdom by all the five brothers, and their journey together towards Indra’s heaven, on Mount Meru, beyond the Hima- layas. Put, except Yudhishthira, none could shake themseb'es entirely free from worldly attachments, and one l)y one they perished on the way, until the sole survivor, and a faithful dog which followed him, were met l)y Indra at the gates of heaven. After further tests of his constancy', in which Yudhishthira refused to part with his dog, and went to seek for the souls of his wile and brothers in the regions of hell, all the Pandavas were at last reunited in Indra’s abode of eternal peace. Around the original story there have accumulated in the course of many centuries a number of beautiful legends — such as that of Savitri, the devoted wife who by her insistence released her husband’s spirit from the hands of Death — moral discourses, and religious treatises, including the famous Bhagavat Gita, which is virtually the Hindu Bible of the present day. The Mahabharata, as it now stands, contains in poetic form a moral and religious code which is part and parcel of Hindu practice and belief. The Ramayana refers to a later period, supposed to be about looo b.c., when the Kosalas, another THE RAMAYANA 25 branch of the Aryan family which claimed descent from the sun, had pushed down to the present Oudh and north Behar, and established there a great city, Ayodhya, which is described as the centre of Aryan culture and religion. The Kasis, as before mentioned, were at this time in the district of Benares. While the IMahabharata stirs the imagination with tales of mighty warriors and political strife, the Ramayana is pervaded with tender sentiments of domestic virtue and affection, tried by many sufferings and misfortunes. The first part describes the boyhood and youth of Rama, son of Dasaratha, king of Ayodhya, by his first queen, Kausalya, and heir-apparent; his exploits at the tournament, wdiere he breaks the famous bow of Shiva and wins for his bride the fair Sita, daughter of Janaka, king of the Videhas. She was miraculously born of a field-furrow. Dasaratha was about to re- sign the throne in favour of Rama, when an intrigue of the Queen Kaikeyi inveigles him into naming Bharat, his younger son by Kaikeyi, as his heir, and a decree of fourteen years’ banishment against the elder. Rama and Sita. accompanied by Lakshman, another half-brother, then wander into the forests of Central India and take refuge with a holy hermit, called \kilmlki, the reputed author of the poem. Dasaratha shortly afterwards dies of grief Bharat, who had refused to accept the regency to which he was not justly entitled, followed Rama to his retreat, and having endeavoured, without success, to persuade him to come back, returned himself to Ayodhya with Rama’s sandals to place on the throne as a symbol of the rightful king’s authority. The three exiles then 26 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY wander farther south beyond the Vindhya mountains to a hermitaoe on the banks of the Godavari, where another famous Rishi dwelt. There they lived in a hut the faithful Lakshman had built of bamboos and branches of trees, enjoying the peace and beauty of the primeval forest and performing the holy rites of their religion. “ And they prayed to gods and fathers with each rite and duty done. And they sang the ancient mantra to the red and rising sun.’’^ Their happiness was soon, however, rudely dis- turbed by the abduction of Sita by Ravana, the king of the demons, who appeared before her in the disguise of an anchorite, while Rama and Lakshman were absent, and carried her throuoh the air on his maQ-ic car to his royal palace in Ceylon. The rest of the story describes .Sita’s despair and sufferings in the demon king’s palace, the wanderings of Rama and Lakshman in search of her, and the discovery of her by the help of Hanuman, the monkey king of the Xilgiri mountains. W ith Hanuman tmcl his monkey troops Rama attacks and kills Ravana and his demon chieftains, and takes his stronghold by storm. Finally the exiles, accompanied by Hanuman, return to Ayocl- hya on the magic car taken from Ravana, and Rama and .Sita are crowned amidst the rejoicings of gods and men. A sequel, of later date than the original story, gives a sad ending to the Ramayana. Some slanderous tongues in Ayodhya began to whisper suggestions regarding .Sita’s conduct while in the palace of Ravana, and Rama’s jealousy was aroused by finding ^ R. C. Dutt’s abridged translation of the Ramayana. F THE CORONATION OF rAmA AND SITA (Frow (jfi old Indian picture') 3 i RAMA AND SITA 29 a drawing' of Ravana which Sita had scrawled on the door while conversing- with her handmaids about her captivity. Sita was banished to the forest, where she gave birth to two sons, Lava and Kusha, who were brought up by the hermit Valmiki. They were recognized by Hanuman as the sons of Rama. According to one version, Sita and her sons then returned to Ayodhya and passed the rest ot her days in happiness with her husband; but another story is that the boys wandered into Ayodhya accidentally, and were recoQnized and acknowledged bv Rama, who sent for Sita, and in public assembly called upon her to attest her innocence. Sita in an agonized appeal invokes her Mother Earth to come to her aid and be witness of her purity. “Then the earth was rent and parted, and a golden throne arose; Held aloft by jewelled Nagas as the leaves enfold the rose, And the mother in embraces held her spotless, sinless child.” Sita sank back into the earth, and Rama in despair sacrihced himself in the river Sarayu. Mr. Romesh Chandra Dutt, whose abridged English translation I have quoted, says of the Mahabharata and Ramayana: “ It is not an exaggeration to say that the two hundred millions of Hindus of the present day cherish in their hearts the story of their ancient epics. The Hindu scarcely lives, man or woman, high and low, educated or ignorant, whose earliest recollections do not cling round the story and the characters of the great epics. An almost illiterate oil -manufacturer of Bengal spells out some modern translation of the Mahabharata to while away his leisure hour. The tall and stalwart peasantry of the north- 30 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY west know of the five Pandav brothers and of their friend the righteous Krishna. . . . The morals in- culcated in these tales sink into the hearts of a naturally religious people, and form the basis of their moral education.” The sentiment of hero-worship is still as strong- in the Hindu mind as it was three thousand years ago, and the philosophy of Hinduism finds nothing- unreasonable in according divine honours to a man, woman, or child, alive or dead, w-ho is considered to have manifested in some special sense the nature of the supreme soul which is believed to be a part of every individual. d'he extremes to which this doctrine can be pushed by Hindus of the present day is described by Mr. H. H. Risley in the report of the last census: — “ Priests and priestesses, pious ascetics and suc- cessful dacoits, Indian soldiers of fortune and British men of action, bridegrooms who n-iet their death on their wedding-day and virgins who died unwed, jostle each other in a fantastic Whdpurgis dance, where new performers are constantly joining and old ones seldom go out. . . . “In 1884 Keshub Chandra Sen, the leader of the Brahmo Somaj, narrowly escaped something closely resembling deification at the hands of a section of his disciples. A revelation was said to have been received enjoining that the chair used by him during his life should be set apart and kept sacred, and the legal member of the Viceroy’s council was invited to arbitrate in the matter. Sir Courtenay Ilbert discreetly refused ‘ to deal with testimony of a kind inadmissible in a court of justice’. . . . Sivaji, the founder of the DEIFICATION OF HEROES 31 Mahratta confederacy, has a temple and image in one of the bastions of the fort at Malvan in the Ratnagiri district, and is worshipped by the caste of fishermen. This seems to be a local cult imperfectly developed, as there are no priests and no regular ritual. . . . Portraits of Yashvantrao, a subordinate revenue officer in Khandesh, who ruined himself by promiscuous alms - giving and sacrificed his official position to his reluctance to refuse the most impossible requests, are worshipped to-day by thousands of devout householders. Far down in the south of India I have come across cheap lithographs of a nameless Bombay ascetic, the Swami of Akalkot in Sholapur, who died about twenty years ago. In life the Swami seems to have been an irritable saint, for he is said to have pelted with stones any ill-advised person who asked questions about his name and antecedents. As he was reported to be a Mutiny refugee, he may have had substantial reasons for ouardino’ his incoonito. 00 o He is now revered from the Deccan to Cape Comorin as Dattatreya, a sort of composite incarnation of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, and has a temple and monastery of his own.” It should be stated, however, that the original Dattatreya, who has gained so much veneration, is not the Swami of Akalkot, but a much older saint, or previous incarnation, who is said to have been a son of one of the Vedic Rishis. CHAPTER III THE ADVENT OF BUDDHA SARNATH AND THE LATEST DISCOVERIES THE JAINS \\ g have brought dov n the development of modern Hinduism to the time when the great epics began to assume their present shape, and when speculation as to the future life and the origin of the soul had cul- minated in the philosophy of the Upanishads. We now arrive at the time, which may be hxed roughly from 800 to 500 B. c., when we begin to get on firmer historical ground, and approach to the great parting of the ways which came with the advent of Buddha. It is necessary to ex[)lain briefly the differences which led to the breach between Buddha and the orthodox reaching of his day. In the basis of his philosophic teaching Buddha was a Hindu of the Hindus. The Brahmins of his time taught the whole theory of the transmigration of souls; Buddha’s doctrine was but a slight modification of it. They held that human suffer- ing was to be destroyed by the termination of the cycle of re-births; Buddha taught practically the same. I'he main point of difference between the two was, that whereas the Brahmanas, which contain the essence of the sacerdotal doctrine, declare that "sacrifice in its totality is the bark which carries one to heaven ”, and that the Brahminical teaching is the only means of DOCTRINES OF BUDDHA n 'y JJ salvation, Buddha denied the divine authority of the \"edas, rejected the theory of sacrifice, and declared that the Eight-fold Path was the way by which all suffering was annihilated, through right views, right resolve, right speech, right actions and living, right effort, right self-knowledge, and right meditation. To realize the revolution which Buddha eft'ected in the whole development of Hinduism, it is necessary to understand something of the tyranny of rites and pen- ances, with which the priestly class had then enveloped the spiritual teaching of the people. The original pro- cess of Tedic sacrifice was based on the theory that crods and men shared between them the orderino- of o o the universe, and that the one party was bound to assist the other. If no rain fell on the earth, it was because the gods needed refreshment. They were refreshed with Soma, the nectar of the gods, and with milk from the earthly cows, which had their counterpart in the heavenly cattle — the clouds of the sky. The god Agni — Fire and Light — was brought down to the earth by the friction of two sticks, and refreshed with oblations of clarified butter (ghee), which he licked up with his seven tongues. The gods came down from heaven to attend the sacrifices, and took their seats on the place spread with the sacred knsha grass. The Brahmanas declare that formerly the gods and men on one side, and the pitris, ances- tors of men, on the other, sat and feasted there to- gether. At one time the gods and pitris were visible; they still are present, but invisible. “The gods sub- sist on what we offer them here below, just as men subsist on the gifts which come from heaven.” As nourishment for the gods, and as thank-offerings for 34 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY lavoLirs received, men must give presents of what thev valued most, both to the gods themselves and to the priests whose knowledge of the sacred lore brought the gods to earth. rhe presents to the gods were the victims which were sacrificed. The Aryans at some very remote period of their history offered human victims, the first- born of the family, as the supreme sacrifice. The horse was next in value, and after that the cow. As the science of the Aryan ritual became more developed, it was not considered necessary to actually sacrifice the victims. They were formally offered and then released. The Brahmanas describe the gradual de- velopment of a more humane ritual as follows: — “The gods, at the beginning, sacrificed man as victim; when he was sacrificed, the sacrificial virtue which was in him left him. It entered into the horse. They sacri- ficed a horse; when it was sacrificed, the sacrificial virtue left it and entered into a cow. When the cow was sacrificed, the sacrificial virtue which it had left it and entered into a sheep. When the sheep was sacri- ficed, the sacrificial virtue which it had left it and entered into a goat. The sacrificial virtue has re- mained in the goat the longest.” The Q-oat is the victim now most frequently ofiered to Durga and Kali. Another passage In the Brahmanas describes how the sacrificial virtue passed from the goat into the earth. The gods dug In the earth to get it, and found it in rice and barley. This is the explanation given for the oblations of rice and barley now made to Shiva the Destroyer. The essential accompaniments to the sacrifices were, BRAHMIXICAL RITES 35 first, suitable prayers, the correct composition ol which was a matter of vital importance. The tfods did not enter into communication with everybody, but only with a Brahmin, a Kshatriya, or a Vaisya.’- The next were the presents to the [)riests. These gave the sacrifice the force which carried it to the abode of the gods. The value of the presents was regulated by the importance of the sacrifice, and the scale for the more important sacrifices was so high that none but the richest could undertake them. The third essential was faith in the efficacy of the sacrifice. The nature of these sacrificial rites had gradually been corrupted from the simple Aryan forms of offer- ings and prayers into a science of divine magic, prac- tised both by gods and men, through which it was believed that the whole creation originated, and the whole universe was controlled. The gods had become gods through sacrifice, and men were also ca[)able of becoming immortal if they acquired sufficient know- ledge of the sacred wisdom. To protect their do- minions from the invasions of men, the gods concluded a bargain with Death that no man should become immortal without first surrendering his body to him. They were constantly watching to introduce errors into the sacrifices performed on earth. Hence the necessity for extreme care and attention to every de- tail. Finally, sacrifice itself became a god, and the greatest of all qods. The recitation and chanting of the hymns or man- tras, which accompanied and formed part of the sacri- fices, was no less abstruse and complicated a science than the sacrifice proper. The Vedic hymns were first * The three highest classes, afterwards castes. ( B 488 ) G 36 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY arranged in a series according to metre, which had a mystic significance and power in each of the three worlds, the earth, the atmosphere, and the abode of the gods. The Brahmanas compare the imaginary journey of the sacrifice and sacrificer to the heavenly regions to an earthly journey which the traveller makes by stages, taking fresh horses and oxen at each stage. In the same way the sacrificer must use fresh metres at e\'ery stage of the sacrifice to carry him on his journey heavenwards. The number of verses used together, the accent and intonation, all had a share in the efficacy of the rites. A form of recitation is given in the Aitareya Brah- mana which is called the rite of durohana, or the ascent into heaven. “After the invocation, the ascent of durohana is made. At first the reciter makes a pause at every quarter- verse. He thus starts from this world. Then he makes a pause at every half- verse; by this means he reaches the atmosphere, d'hen he makes a pause at every three-quarters of a verse. He arrives now in the celestial regions. By then reciting the whole verse without pausing he arrives in the solar world which shines up above.” The priest now reverses the order of recitation, and brings the sacrificer back to earth, “just as one who seizes the bough of a tree”. If the sacrificer, how- ever, prefers to remain in the solar world alter his arrival there, the priest omits the last part of the rite, but the sacrificer is sure to die soon afterwards.^ The solar world, according to Hindu theories, is the abode of spirits who have completed their earthly incar- nations. ^ Ait. xviii. 7. BRAHMINICAL RITES 37 As the ultimate aim was to render humanity im- mortal, and the sacrificial science was based on an imaginary science of the celestial world, everything abnormal, weird, and uncanny was believed to have a special virtue. Everything human and normal was opposed to the success of the sacrifice. The opposi- tion between the terrestrial sphere and the heavenly world was so pronounced that “no” for the gods was “aye” for men. Even at the present day many com- mon Indian customs and practices are exactly the reverse of those in Europe. d'he complication of the Ilrahminical rites became almost inconceivable. The great Horse - sacrifice, generally undertaken only by kings, especially to pro- cure offspring, was said to conquer all sin, to render the sacrificer invulnerable and certain of victory over his enemies; but the risk of errors creeping in must have deterred many from attempting it, for it was a ceremony which took several years to complete, re- quired the attendance of hundreds of priests and at- tendants, the recitation of thousands of prayers and mantras, endless rites, and the most ku'ish presents. The blessings to be gained and the evils to be avoided by the performance of appropriate rites were both material and spiritual. The Brahmanas provide the necessary mantras for destroying Rakshasas (demons), or human enemies, for the removal of sin, to recover lost property or to bring success to the gambler, and to avert the evil influence of an animal sitting down, trembling, or running away at the time of the sacrifice. Closely allied to the sacrificial system was the prac- tice of bodily penances, or mortification of the fiesh, which the Brahmins regarded as a sure way, leading 38 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY to immortality, and infinite worldly advantag'es both in this life and in the next. The Mahabharata mentions a princess of Benares who practised fearful penances in order to revenge herself on Bhishma, and at last threw herself into the sacrificial fire so that she might kill him in a future existence. It also relates a story of two brothers of the race of Asuras, evil spirits, enemies of the gods, who, in order to conquer the three worlds, earth, air, and heaven, underwent frightful austerities: standing for years on their toes, with arms uj)lifted and eyes fixed, and throwing pieces of their own llesh into the sacrificial fire. The gods were alarmed at the powers they were thus accumu- lating, and tried to interfere, without success. Brahma, the Creator, finally apjjeared before them, and though he refused to grant them immortality because they had undergone the penances only from the desire of sovereignty — an unworthy motive which detracted from the merit of their penances — he was constrained to allow that they should be incapable of being killed by any other being in the universe. They forthwith ])roceeded to make war on the region of Indra, and vanquished the Rakshasas and every creature ranging the sky. Next they slew the Nagas, the inmates of the ocean, and all the tribes of the Mlechchas.^ Fin- ally, they slaughtered the Brahmins, destroyed their sacrifices, and desolated the earth. Brahma then inter- fered. Wdth the help of Vishvakarma, the heavenly artificer, he created a damsel, whose surpassing charms not even gods could resist. She was sent to the two brothers, who, in a violent quarrel over her, killed one another, much to the relief of the distracted universe. ' Foreigners, barbarians. ADVENT OF BUDDHA 39 It was when this dismal obscurantism and thauma- turgic priestcraft seemed likely to infect the whole religious thought of the people, that a new teacher came to bring back the spirituality of the ancient Vedic faith into the Aryan religion. It must not be su[)posed, however, that Buddha was the first to cjues- tion the authority of the priesthood and to dispute the efficacy of sacrifices and penances. The hereditary priestly families had not yet established a monopoly or undisputed leadership in religious thought. 1 he Kshatriyas, or warrior class, still stood at the head of Aryan society, and were by no means disposed to accept the Brahmins as their superiors in spiritual knowledge. Even amoiiQ- the Brahmins there were many who did not follow the orthodox priestly doc- trines. There were, besides, a numerous class of Bhiksus, or religious devotees, both men and women, who though living an ascetic life as wandering mendi- cants, yet performed no sacrifices nor practised pen- ances. These were the forerunners of the Sad/iits, bvragis, or fakirs of the present day. There were thus already many schools of thought outside the orthodox priestly families when Buddha’s magnetic genius came to shape their somewhat nebulous theories with a new philosophy and rule of life. About the year b.c. 557 Siddartha Gautama, son of the chief of the Sakya clan, was born in Kapilavastu, the capital of a petty state in the Nepal Terai. The story of his early life and of the Great Renunciation, when he left his wife and child and his father’s palace to adopt a religious life as a Bhiksu, is too familiar to need repetition. He first attached himself to two Brahmin teachers, who taught him the theories of 40 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY Hindu philosophy commonly accepted. Finding no satisfaction in these, he wandered farther, and spent six weary years with five disciples in the forests near the \’indhyan mountains, practising the system of self- torture and starvaition which the orthodox school re- garded as the road to immortality. Still dissatisfied, he again resumed the ordinary life of a Bhiksu, whereupon his disciples left him in dis- gust and went to Benares. He himself wandered on to the neighbourhood of the present Buddh Gaya. Then there followed, under the shade of the sacred pippal tree, known hereafter as the tree of wisdom, the short period of terrible mental agony which Indian poets and artists have pictured as his struggle with the Prince of Evil, Mara, and the wiles of his voluptuous daughters. Everything he had abandoned of worldly comfort and delight, his home, a loving wife and child, wealth, power, and pleasure, seemed to beckon to him to return. But his spiritual nature triumphed at last, and he arose, with convictions formed and mind at rest, to preach those cheerful doctrines of love and content- ment which changed the entire current of Eastern thought. Havino' thus become the Buddha — the Enliohtened o o — he started off to Benares “to establish the kingdom of righteousness, to give light to those enshrouded in darkness, and to open the gates of immortality to men”. He rejoined his old disciples in a deer-park, an en- closure where deer were protected from hunters, and a favourite retreat for religious devotees, at Isapattana, the modern Sarnath, 3^^ miles to the north of Benares. He first preached to them the fundamental principles of his doctrines : the uselessness of bodily penances — PREACHING OF BUDDHA 41 misery was a necessary accompaniment of existence — men needed no priests nor sacrifices to help them to escape from the cycle of transmigrations — the means lay in their own hearts, through the destruction of evil desires, worldliness, doubt, ignorance, and vexation. At the time when Buddha began hrs preaching, or. SITE OF DEER-PARK, excavated 1905 (Jagat Singh’s stupa in the foreground.) as his followers put it, “to turn the wheel of the Law”, the Kasis, the first Aryan settlers in the district of Benares, had become subject to the Kosalas, who had their capital at Savatthi, in what is now Nepal. The Sakya, the clan to which Buddha himself be- longed, were also subject to the kingdom of Kosala. Benares had already become celebrated as a great centre of Hindu piety and learning. The old Buddhist 4^ BENARES, THE SACRED CITY records tell us that it had a large public hall, or pavilion, in which religious and philosophical questions were discussed. Sherring, in his Sacjrd City of the Hindus (p. 291), maintains, on very insufficient grounds, that Benares was not then, as it is now, situated between the rivers Barna and Asi, but was placed to the north ot the Barna. It is more reasonalde to suppose that the traces of old buildino-s which e.xtend from the north O oi Benares towards Sarnath are the remains of the old Buddhist city which sprung up round the spot made sacred by its associations with the first preaching of Buddha, and that the Hindu city, on a much more spacious plan than it has now (for the early Aryans, as we know from IMegasthenes, loved air and space in their cities), always occupied very nearly its present site. Buddha soon found many converts, especially among the Kshatriya class, to which he belonged, and among the Bhiksus and other devotees who had not accepted the Brahminical teaching. A few members of the Sangha, or religious order which he founded, built the simple huts of recluses in the groves of the Deer-park and settled there. Many years after his death, when Asoka made Buddhism the state religion, the places hallowed by the Master’s memory were marked with stone columns, and great monasteries and temples of brick and stone were built for the members of the Sangha. The whole neighbourhood of the Deer-park became covered with votive stupas, or memorial mounds, large and small, some containing relics, others merely mark- ing a place associated with events in the life of the Buddha, or with his numerous fabled pre-e.xistences. HISTORY OF BENARES 43 when in the form of a bird, or deer, or elephant, or human being, he was preparing, as a “ Bodhisatva ”, by many acts of mercy and self-sacrifice, for the attain- ment of the final Nir- vana. The smaller ones were simply devotional shrines erected by his fol- lowers as an act of piety. The first definite historical account of Benares and its neighbourhood is given by the Chinese pilgrim, Fa Hian, who visited India about the beginning of the 5 th century A. I), for the purpose of y-ettino- exact in- formation about the teaching of Buddha. Hiuen Thsang, an- other Chinese pil- grim, came about 250 years later, and has left a very in- teresting description of the principal stupas and monas- teries as he saw them. At the north of Benares, and to the west of the Ganges, there was, he says, a stupa, or memorial tower, about 100 feet high, built by the Emperor Asoka. Near it was a stone column, highly (B 488) H MINIATURE VOTIVE SHRINE Excavated at Sarnath, 1905, showing the sikra crowned hy the amalika ornament. 44 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY polished and of blue colour (probably lapis lazuli), in which the reflection of Buddha might always be seen. At a distance of nearly two miles farther on, north-east from the ri\'er, he arriv'ed at the Deer-park, where there was a monastery, built in eight sections, within a walled enclosure. There were pavilions of one and two stories for the accommodation of the monks, 1500 in number, who were studying the doctrine of the " Little \Ahicle ”. In the midst of the enclosure was a tem[)le- monastery, the lower part of stone, sur- mounted by a tower of brick faced with stone, or ])erhaps by the curvilinear siki'a, or spire, similar to that of modern Jain and Hindu temples in northern India, which was crowned by the melon-shaped anidlika wrought in embossed gold. The amalika formed the base of the hnial. Round about the tower, or spire, in tiers rising one over the other, were a hundred niches, each containing an image of Buddha, which Hiuen Thsang supposed to be of gold, but which were probably only of bronze or copper gilt, like those now found in Buddhist shrines and monasteries in Nepal, Sikkim, and Tibet. The temple contained a life-size statue of Buddha, made of brass, in the attitude of preaching. The illustration here given of a Nepalese Buddhist temple probably closely resembles the temple seen by Hiuen Thsang. To the south-west of this temple was a stone stupa, built by Asoka, which had become partly buried, though it was still 100 feet in height. It was built to mark the very spot where Buddha, “having attained to perfect knowledge ”, began to expound to his fellow- seekers after truth the wisdom he had gained under the Bodhi tree at Gaya. EARLY MOxNUMENTS 45 In front of it Asoka had placed a memorial column, about 70 feet high, polished like a mirror, “so that all those who pray fer- vently before it see from time to time, ac- cording to their peti- tions, figures with good or bad signs”. An- other stupa close by marked the place where the five disciples sat in meditation in the Isapattana Deer-park, when they reached it after their desertion of Ikiddha in the Vind- hyan mountains. Hiuen Thsang adds that there was a multitude of sacred monuments within the enclosure of the Deer-park monas- tery, and describes many tanks and stupas round about it. The systematic ex- plorations, commenced last year at Sarnath by the Archseological De- MODEL OF A NEPALESE BUDDHIST TEMPLE partment, have given a wonderful actuality to Hiuen Thsang’s description. In 1794 some workmen, em- ployed by Jagat Singh, Diwan of the Rajah of Benares, to quarry bricks from the ruins at Sarnath, hit upon a 46 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY large stupa with a relic chamber, the contents of which they rifled. Archmologists of the last century supposed this to be the stupa which Asoka built in the Deer- park, and in their eagerness to find positive proof they dug out the stupa until only a mere shell was left, without result. The more scientific excavation which is now being made has already laid bare the remains of the Asoka column mentioned by Hiuen Thsang. rhe principal part of the inscription is, unfortunately, missing; but the splendid lion capital in the style of ancient Persepolis is almost intact, and just as Hiuen Thsang described it, “smooth as jade and shining like a mirror”. The capital probably supported the Pudtlhist symbols representing Buddha, the Dharma (Law), and the .Sangha (congregation). At least the fragments of the wheel representing the Dharma have been discovered, and the design of the capital makes it probable that all three symbols, which correspond to the mystic syllable auin of the Hindu trinity, were placed above it. d'he wheel is generally taken to be a special Buddhistic symbol, though it was commonly used by pre- Buddhistic philoso})hers to typify Life, the Lhii- verse, and also Brahman, the Universal Soul. The h'panishads say: “As the .spokes of a wheel are attached to the nave, so are all things attached to Life. This Life ought to be approached with faith and reverence, and viewed as an immensity which abides in its own glory. That immensity extended from above, from below, from behind and before, from the south and from the north. It is the Soul of the Universe. It is God Himself”^ Monier Williams: Indian JVisdom, p. 40. THE ASOKA COLUMN EARLY MONUMENTS 49 By the Buddhists the wheel came to be regarded as a symbol of their teacher’s mission, and of his uni- versal sovereignty. Under the four lions, which pro- bably signify the four quarters, is a band panelled into four by wheels. The panels are filled with very spirited sculptures in relief of a lion, horse, bull, and elephant. The base of the column goes deep down into the ground, and above the ancient floor-level are successive strata, on which for seventeen hundred years the devout followers of Buddha piled memorials one over the other, about the hallowed spot, until the fierce Muhammadan invaders came, bringing havoc, fire, and sword to the place where he preached gentleness, love, and peace. The archmologists, who in the last two centuries made somewhat desultory attempts to explore the Deer-park, found everywhere traces of the great catastrophe which destroyed in one holocaust the monks, monasteries, and temples of Sarnath. Charred bones and wood, lumps of melted brass, half-fused bricks, and calcined stone testified to the fury of the invaders. In the neighbourhood of the column there are now being unearthed the remains of important buildings, numerous votive stupas, and many beautiful Buddhist sculptures representing events in the life of the Master, or various stages in his spiritual development — por- traying him as a wandering Bhiksu, sitting in meditation and in divine ecstasy, or preaching the wisdom of his enlightenment. The splendid sculpture in Chunar stone, illustrated on page 51, represents him as the preacher, expounding the truth to his fellow- Bhiksus in the Deer-park. 50 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY Among the discoveries are numbers of miniature stone shrines of non- Buddhist origin, like that figured on p. 43. Until the followers of Buddha marked the Deer-park as specially devoted to members of their order, it was a common retreat for all relicjious devotees, perhaps one of the ancient sacred groves left in a clearing of the virgin forest. Hiuen Thsang graphically describes what he saw in one of these forest retreats. There were Buddhists from various jtrovinces lying in the thickets, dwelling in caves, or in huts made of leaves and branches, or under the shade of the trees. Jainas in white robes, the wander- ing Bhiksus, followers of Krishna, Brahmin students, ascetics undergoing various forms of self-torture, philo- sophers and adepts in sacrifices, and many others — all disputing, discussing, and explaining, with the tolerance of each other’s views, which, at least in early times, was characteristic of Indian religious sects. Among the Buddhist “ gatakas ”, or birth-stories, is a pretty one, told by Hiuen Thsang, to account for this retreat of Isa[)attana having been specially dedi- cated for the j)rotection of deer. In one of their pre- existences, Buddha and Devadatta, his cousin, were both kings of the deer, roaming a large forest near Benares. Each of them had under him a herd of a hundred head. The Raja of Benares hunted in the country round, and was destroying Devadatta’s herd, so the Bodhisatva (Buddha) in pity begged of the raja that his herd might also take its turn in supplying meat for the royal kitchen. The existence of both herds would thus be prolonged. The raja agreed, and thereafter every day a deer was drawn by lot from each herd alternately, and BUDDHA PREACHING Discovered at Sarnath, 1904 1 -ivr s.. A- •'X ■ J « STORY OF DEVADATTA 53 went voluntarily to place its head on the butcher’s block. Now' there was a hind in Devadatta’s herd great with young, which was drawn as the next victim. She beo'o'ed of the kinor of the herd that, for the sake of her little one, she might be passed over, but Deva- datta angrily drove her away. CARVING ON THE DHAMEK STUPA In despair she appealed for protection to the Bod- hisatva, the king of the other herd, who, filled with pity, went to the raja’s palace to offer himself in her place. The people and the high officers of the court crowded to see the great king of the deer thus unex- pectedly approaching. The raja’s astonishment was great, and he refused to believe the news until the warder of the palace came to announce his presence at the gate. When the raja enquired of the king of the deer the reason for his sudden appearance, the 54 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY latter answered: “There is a hind whose turn has come to die, but she carries a little one yet unborn. I cannot permit this wrong. I am come to offer myself in her place.” I he raja, deeply touched, replied: “I am a deer in human form, you are a man in the shape of a deer ”. I hereupon he ordered that the slaughter of the deer should immediately cease, and that the forest where they lived should always be reserved for their protec- tion. 'Idle name of Sarnath is said to be derived from •Saranga-nath, “Lord of the Deer”, one of the names of Iffiddha. LTitil the recent remarkable discoveries were made, the chief interest of Sarnath was centi'ed in the great ruined stu])a, i to feet high, known by the name of Dhamek, which General Cunningham derii^es from the Sanskrit, Dharuia-dcsaka, or “preacher of the law”. It was the last of the memorials built by the Luddhists within the enclosure of the Deer-park, for the rich car\’ing of the stone-base was interrupted, probably by the first Muhammcidan invasion at the beginning of the eleventh century, and never completed. Aliout a mile to the south of the great stupa of Dhamek is a mass of ruined brickwork, over seventy feet high, surrounded by an octagonal tower built by Humayun, the Mogul emperor, in the first half of the si.xteenth century. d'he excavations now being- made below the tower are uncovering the remains of the Buddhist stupa upon which it is built. It is believed to be the one described liy Hiuen Thsang in this neighbourhood as 300 feet in height, and sparkling with the rarest and most precious materials. Amidst all these ruined memorials of the Deer-park, JAIN TEMPLE 55 and of the great city which once Ilourished round about Sarnath, it is curious to note that there is only one modern temple. Strangely enough, this is not Buddhist. The missionaries of Asoka spread the Buddhist faith far and wide beyond his dominions, into the countries of Eastern Asia, where it still counts many millions of followers, but in India itself it hardly e.xists now EXCAVATIONS BELOW HUMAYUN’S TOWER, SARNATH, 1905 as a separate creed. This solitary temple, close to the great stupa of Dhamek, belongs to the Jains, a sect founded by a teacher contemporary with Buddha, which still nourishes in northern India, and has many noble shrines, ancient and modern. It is only within recent years that the history of this sect has been made clear to Europeans through the researches of Professors Jacobi, Biihler, Dr. Hoernle, and others. The founder, Mahavira, “ the Great Hero”, was a contemporary of Buddha. Like him, 56 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY he was a Kshatriya of noble birth. His father, Siddartha, was the head of his clan in a petty state, the capital of which was Vaisali, about twenty-seven miles north of the modern Patna. Mahavira was born about 599 b.c., his mother being- the daughter of Cetaka, the kino-. On the death of his father, which happened when Mahavira was thirty years old, he, like his great con- temporary, left his home and family and adopted a purely religious life, first entering the order of Pares- nath, the orthodo.v monastic order of his clan, and afterwards, like so many other religious devotees at that time, becoming a wandering Phiksu, preaching new doctrines and establishing a new religious order. He imposed upon his followers the rule of absolute nudity, a rule which afterwards led to the two great divisions of the fain sect being named the Svetambaras, “the white clothed”, and the Digambaras, “the un- clothed ”. The name of the Jains is derived from the title of Jina, or “ spiritual conqueror”, which was given to Mahavira Ijy his followers. The fains hold the same tenets as the Buddhists regarding the .sacredness of all life, but differ from them in accepting the orthodox Hindu vdew of self- mortification by bodily penances. They believe in the separate existence of the soul, which the Buddhists deny, and worship twenty-four saints, or Tirthankars, who have finished the cycles of human existences. Mahavira, their teacher, is considered the twenty- fourth. Jainism is the only one of the early Indian mon- astic orders which has handed down almost intact its tenets and organization to the present day. The con- JAINISM 57 stitution of the order recognized as members, not only the monks and nuns who took the vows, but it also admitted as lay brothers and sisters all who supported the religious institutions of the Jain community. When the Buddhist religious houses declined in influ- ence, the looseness of the ties which attached their lay adherents to them caused the latter to revert easily to their traditional spiritual leaders. The whole organi- zation thus gradually broke to pieces. The Jains, on the other hand, being a much more homogeneous body, survived the period of the Brahmin supremacy and the persecution of Muhammadan rule. They have maintained their institutions intact for over two thou- sand years, while Buddhism, as a distinct sect, o-radu- ally disappeared from India and became merged in the various Vaishnavite sects which grew into prominence about the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. CHAPTER IV THE RISE OF MODERN HINDUISM As Benares never playetl an important part in the strife between the ancient kingdoms of northern India, it is extremely difficult to ascertain any precise details ot its history from the time of the preaching' of Buddha down to the rise of modern Hinduism. We only know that the Kosala kingdom, which had absorbed the East clan, the first Aryan settlers at Benares, was, about R.c. 300, itself absorbed by the great empire of Magadha, which had its capital at Pataliputra, the modern Patna. Asoka, the third emperor of the Hagadha dynasty, became a member of the Buddhist order, or Sauo/ia, made Buddhism the state religion, and sent missionaries to Kashmir, the Himalayan regions, Afghanistan, Burma, southern India, and Ceylon. He built magnificent stupas and monasteries at Sarnath and many other places. It is probable that Benares itself greatly diminished in importance during the Buddhist supremacy, as the followers of Buddha naturally esteemed most sacred the Deer-park and the places in the neighbourhood of Sarnath, hallowed by the associations of their great teacher. d'he leyends of Divodas, as recorded in the Kasi- khanda, the mythical history of Benares by an un- known Brahmin writer, probably refer to the occupa- 58 THE EMPEROR ASOKA 59 tion of the city by Buddhist rulers. It is said that Divodis, having been made Raja of Benares by B)rahnia, expelled Shiva and all the other Hindu gods from the city. He was a man of spotless purity: and, being an adept in the science of sacrifice, the efforts ol the gods to evict him were for a long time unavailing. Brahma, disguised as a Brahmin ascetic, managed to obtain permission to reside there; but it was not until Ganesha, the trod of wisdom, got the better of Divo- das by a clever trick, that Shiva and the other gods were at last reinstated. Asoka himself was no bigot or persecutor. In one of his famous Rock Edicts, or proclamations of the b'aith, he enjoins that no one should seek to disparage other sects in order to exalt his own. “ Let a man seek rather after the growth in his own sect of the essence of the matter”^ — noble sentiments which might well be considered by the followers of all creeds. It Is probable, therefore, that such of the Brahmins and other Hindus who refused to accept the teaching of Buddha were left in undisturbed possession of their holy places at Benares. Buddha’s philosophy and simple rule of life were not exempt from the modifications which all religious doctrines undergo at the hands of their successive interpreters. Popular superstition soon invested Buddha’s person with miraculous powers, to which he himself laid no claim, and after his death the thauma- turgic powers of the Brahmin priesthood, which he contemptuously disputed, were associated with his own relics. Kings went to war over the possession of his water-pot, his sweeping-brush, his tooth, hairs, or ' Rock Edict, No. 12. See Rhys David’s Buddhist India, p. 296. ( B 488 ) K 6o BKXARKS, THE SACRED CErV pieces of his nails. The sanctity attached to his own person and acts were e.xtended by extravagant tales ot his former existences, when, as a Bodhisatva, or potential Buddha, he was preparing himself for the hnal enlightenment, in the form of a bird, a deer, or six-tusked elephant. f linen d'hsang in the seventh century describes a stupa containing an eyeball of B)uddha “as large as an amra fruit, and so bright that its rays dart forth from the base to some distance outside”,^ and repeats as worthy of credit stories of wild elephants bringing- offerings to his relic shrines. Similar legends may be seen sculptured on the Ihiddhist monuments at Bhar- liLit and .Sanchi, which were erected within three cen- turies after the death of Buddha. The practice of divination and sorcery, which formed no part of Buddha’s creed, became as popular with his disciples as they had been with the Brahmin priests. In short, the very errors which Buddha had tried to eradicate became a j)art of his followers’ beliefs and the starting- [)oint of new' religious reformers. Owing to the great diversity of racial ty[)es in India, thrown together, yet differing in an extraordinary de- gree in intellectual and social development, there have always been two main currents, of religious evolution and devolution —more clearly distinguishal)le than in other countries — moving in opposite directions, yet insensibly affecting each other. The high ideals of Buddha’s Eight-fold Path were gradually lost in the current of popular superstitions, but nevertheless they purified the muddy waters (T priestcraft and cleared away many obstructions to the progress of true re- ^ Life of Hiueu Thsang. S. Beal, p. 59. REFORMS OF SAXKARACH ARYA 6i lig'ion. Buddha became absorbed in the Hindu pan- theon as one of the incarnations of Vishnu, the Pre- server, but when about the eighth century Brahminism succeeded in reasserting its authority, the whole of its spiritual teaching was permeated with the doctrines of a purer and nobler faith. Benares again became the centre of religious activity in northern India with the appearance of the great Hindu reformer, Sankaracharya. It would be travel- ling beyond my province to enter into a discussion of the details of his life and doctrines. It will be suffi- cient to briefly indicate the changes which had come over Brahminical religious practices and ideas in the thirteen centuries which had elapsed since the death of Buddha. The slaughter of animals as a part of sacrificial rites had almost ceased, or was practised only by some of the lowest castes. Sacrifice had lost a great deal of its pretended magical virtue, and ac- quired more of symbolical significance as applied to spiritual advancement by the suppression of carnal appetite and worldly desires. In the hymn now chanted by the Smarta Brahmins, the modern disciples of Sankaracharya, before breaking fast, occur the fol- lowing lines on “the .sacrifice of self”: — “And of the sacrifice performed by the master who has understood these truths, the soul is the performer; the heart, the seat of the sacrificial fire; sensual desires, the ghee; anger, the sacrificial lamb; contemplation, fire; the period of sacrifice, as long as life shall last; whatsoever is drunk, the soma drink; and death, the sacred bath wffiich finishes the ceremony”.^ The vague speculations of the early Aryans regard- ^ Sri Sankaracharya, his Life and Limes. By Krishnasv\ ami .Viyar. 62 BKXARKS, THE SACRED CITY ing the nature of the soul and the origin of the universe had resolved themselves into definite shape as the six schools or d(X?'sauas of philosophy, all taking tor their foundation the axiom that cx nihilo nihil Jit, and all directed to one end — the cessation of the cycle ot re-births and absorption of the soul of man into the one Su[)reme Soul. They also agree in recognizing the operation of the law of karma, adopted by Buddha, through which every human action is held to entail a conse(}uence upon the agent, good or evil accord- ing to the character of the action, which follows him or her through the whole cycle of transmigrations. ddie caste system had become firmly established, and the Brahmins had assumed extravagant pre- tensions to spiritual superiority, but the creed of the lower classes had been raised to a distinctly higher ])lane by the doctrines of the P)hagavat Cdta, “ The Song of the Blessed One”; incorporated with the IMahabharata, probably in the first few centuries of the Christian era. The idea of a personal God, as creator and [)reserver of the universe, its high moral standard and the similarity of some of its passages to the New Testament, have caused many Christian missionaries to attribute the Bhagavat Gita to the influence of early Christian converts, and to intellectual intercourse between India and the schools of Alex- andria. Max Muller and other Sanskrit authorities reject this theory. However this may be, the Bha- gavat Gita is now by far the most popular of all Brahminical sacred writings. It is translated into all the principal vernaculars. Pocket editions of it are carried about by Hindus of all classes, just as devout Christians may carry the Bible. It has un- HINDUISM ABSORBS BUDDHISM 63 doubtedly profoundly intluenced die ethical and spiritual ideas of modern Hinduism. Sankaracharya waged relentless war against the superstitions of the Buddhists of his time, and against the loathsome practices of some of the Hindu sects; but convinced of the futility of attempting to supersede entirely the ancient forms of popular worship by the high philosophic doctrines of the intellectual Brahmins, he effected a compromise. Buddha had established an ethical code which afforded a common meeting- ground for all races, classes, and sects of Hindus, but had left untouched the problems of the first Cause and the directing Power of the Universe. Sankara- charya and other Brahmin teachers provided a com- mon metaphysical basis for all popular religious beliefs, while allowing the widest latitude lor various forms of worship. It is not to be supposed that Sankaracharya was the first to teach the pantheistic doctrines of Hinduism. The idea of the One Supreme Being manifested in the many had been clearly indicated centuries before in the Upanishads, and developed in the Vedanta school of philosophy, but Sankaracharya’s preaching marks the final absorption of Buddhism into the Brahminical system, and the development of the worship of Shiva into one of the most popular cults. Shiva-worship had indeed existed long before the eighth century, and perhaps is older than Hinduism itself. One of Shiva’s names, Rudra, is the name of the Yedic storm- god. Shiva is mentioned several times in the Maha- bharata, and we learn from Hiuen Thsang that in the first half of the seventh century Shiva was already the principal deity of Benares. Nevertheless it was 64 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY Sankaracharya’s teaching and philosophy which estab- lished Shivaism, for the time being, as the principal sect of Hinduism. The Buddhist monasteries continued to exist at Sarnath, and elsewhere in India, until they were finally destroyed by the Muhammadan invaders of the thirteenth century; but in the eighth century Buddhism as a separate religion was already dis- credited, and the Brahmins were reinstated in their position as the spiritual leaders of the people. After the establishment of Muhammadan rule the popularity of the cult of .Shiva, as expounded by Sankaracharya, diminished, and many new sects successively developed in which the worship of Vishnu and the idea of a personal God became more prominent. It is, however, impossible to follow the further development of Hindu- ism through all the difl'erent phases which have origi- nated, and are still creating, new sects and schools of thought. We must now pass on to a brief study of the ideas of modern Hinduism as conveyed in the worship of .Shiva, the presiding deity of Benares. It will be understood from the preceding sketch that, through the ab.sorption of many primitive faiths and modes of worship into the Brahminical system, there is often a very wide difference between the popular views regarding the various Hindu divinities and the esoteric teaching of the Brahmin philosophy. I'he stories told in the Puranas and other later .San- skrit literature embody the wildest legends and super- stitions, and attribute to Hindu gods and goddesses an abundant share of earthly passions and weaknesses. Many of these seeming fantastic stories are, however, metaphysical ideas conveyed in the form of allegory. HINDU TRINITY 6s According' to the esoteric doctrine of Hinduism, first propounded in the Rig- V eda, the universe was originally Soul only, nothing else whatsoever existed, active or inactive. The origin of Creation, described in the famous hymn of the Rig-Veda (X, 129), pro- ceeded from this Supreme Spirit, the Eternal Essence, or Brahman. The first manifestation of this neuter Brahman — the Unknowable — when passing into a conditioned state, comparable to the passing of a human being from a state of profound sleep to a state of dreaming and then of waking, is known as Ishwara — the Self — the Lord and Cause of all things. The glory of Ishwara as Punisha, or Spirit, makes manifest Prakriti, the Essence of Matter, inherent in Brahman, but until now unmanifested. Ishwara, then, by means of his divine power, called sakti, causes Prakriti to take form. The forms of Prakriti thus evolved are the Trimurti, or Three Aspects of Ishwara — Brahma, who in the world of Matter performs the functions ot Creator, and represents the condition of activity or motion: \dshnu, who is the Preserver, representing equilibrium and rhythm ; and Shiva, who is the dis- solving power. In Hindu painting and sculpture this act in the great drama of creation is represented by Ishwara, under the name of Narayana, floating on the waters of chaos and sleeping on the serpent Sesha, or Ananta, “the endless” — the symbol of eternity - while Brahma, the Creator, springs from a lotus fiower which is growing Irom Ishwara’s navel. The Trimurti, as representing Spirit-essence, have different qualities or conditions (gunas). Brahma represents the quality of Being; Vhshnu, Thought- 66 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY power; and Shiva, the quality of Bliss, the perfect beatitude ot Nirvana. Purusha and Prakriti beino- inert by themselves, each of the Trimurti have their scr/c/is, or divine powers, wdiich enable them to perform their functions in the universe. In popular Plinduism the are regarded as the wives of the Trimurti. The sa/i/^ of Brahma is deified as Saraswati, the goddess of learning and wisdom; the .sa/f// of \dshnu is Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity ; and the .va/Y/ of Shiva, Durga, ChiLiri, or Kali, terrible goddesses to whom bloody sacrifices, and sometimes human victims, are offered. d'he worship of Brahma has almost ceased as a popular religion, because his work in the universe is considered to be finished. Shiva is the presiding- deity at Benares, and all the principal temples are dedicated to him. But Shiva at Benares is Mahadeva, the great god, or Ishwara, representing the powers of adl the Trimurti; for the followers of particular cults, like that of Shiva, \ushnu, or of Kali, generally ascribe to their special deity the e.xercise ot all the divine functions. It must also be noted that each one of the d'rimurti, besides the two main qualities, or guuas, atcril)uted to him, has countless sub-manifestations corres[)onding to the infinite subdivisions of their duties in the cosmic order. Thus there are hundreds of temples and shrines at Benares with names ending- in “-eshwar” (Ishwara), such as Tarak-eshwar, Ratn- eshwar, Som-eshwar, &c., all of which are Shiva temples dedicated to some particular manifestation of the Siqjreme Ishwara. The Hindu pantheon is estimated to contain 300,000,000 deities, but the Brahminical teaching clearly explains them as Indicating the infinite manifestations of the One .Supreme. MODERN HINDUISM 67 It is a difficult matter for a European observer to ascertain how far the philosophical doctrines of Hin- duism are comprehended by the mass of the people. On this point I do not venture to express an opinion, but only quote two very competent witnesses. Dr. Lefroy, Bishop of Lahore, in a recent sermon said : ‘‘ From a long- personal experience I can bear witness to the extraordinary aptitude with which they engage in discussion or speculation on the deepest philoso- phical and ethical questions — and that not merely in the case of the upper, or more educated classes, but not infrequently in the case of the very poorest and wholly illiterate persons as well Mr. Burns, who made special enquiries during the last census regarding the beliefs of the common people, says: “ The general result of my enquiries is that the great majority of Hindus have a firm belief in one Supreme God, called Bhagwan, Parameshwar, Ishwar, or Narain. Mr. Baillie made some enquiries, which showed that this involved a clear idea of a single personal God. I am inclined to think that this is not limited to the more intelligent, but is distinctly char- acteristic of Hindus as a whole.” [Ce//sns Report, 1901, vol. i. part i, p. 303.) Shiva, in popular Hinduism, is the great white-faced Ascetic of the Himalayas, representing the life of austerity which the Brahmins point out as one of the roads to Shiva’s abodes of bliss and ultimate absorp- tion into the Absolute. He has three eyes, which are explained variously as the Trimurti, the three \Tdas, and the power of seeing the past, present, and future. Two of the epithets applied to him, “ the moon- crested ” and “blue-throated”, will be very suggestive Shares in temple property, which carry with them the disposal of the pilgrims’ offerings, are often bought and sold like common merchandise. It is even said that a proprietary right in a Hindu temple has in this way sometimes fallen into Muhammadan hands. If, moreover, an index to a people’s feelings is always to be found in their art, it is worth noting that there is a vast difference in the artistic quality of the popular art of the present day and that of fifty AN OLD SACRIFICIAL VESSEL years ago. It is not only in the attempts of the wealthier classes to imitate vulgar European fashions that the degradation of Indian art is visible. Even in the art which springs from the religious life of the [people, in their idols and sacrificial vessels, there is a marked absence of the sincerity and depth of feeling- which are conspicuous in the older work. but it would not lie whse to attach too much signifi- cance to this deterioration, and to assume that less devotion to signs and symbols implies a giving way of the foundations of Hindu beliefs. Idolatry and sym- bolic ritual were never regarded as indispensable to Hinduism, but rather as a kind of spiritual kinder- garten to help the masses to understand the abstract ideas of Brahmin philosophy. Hindu reformers have ARTS AND CRAFTS been as earnest as Christian missionaries in denounc- ing them, and it would be a fatal mistake if the latter believed that by the uprooting of idolatry India must needs become Christian. It must, however, always be a matter for astonish- ment that cultured Hindus of great intellectual attain- AN OLD BENARES BROCADE ments should regard as adequate symbols of their high philosophic abstractions the vulgar dolls and childish paraphernalia which now, at Ilenares and elsewhere, take the place of the fine sculpture and splendid art of former days. It is remarkable that the art industry for which Benares has long been famous, the weaving of silks and kincobs, or silk brocades, is now principally in the hands of Muhammadan weavers. Whether they were ( B 488 ) -V 84 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY converted to Islam in the Mogul times, forcibly or from motives of self-interest, is not apparently known. Benares has probably been a seat of the industry from the earliest times, but it is more than likely that during the Muhammadan invasions the best artisans were frequently deported for the service of the victors’ courts. Similarly, when Mogul rule was firmly estab- lished in India, there may have been frequent importa- tions of artisans Irom the great cities of Persia and Central Asia. Gold and silver brocade was originally made of thin strips of gold or silver w'oven into linen or cotton. Silk was already in use in India in the times of the Mahabharata and Ramayana, and has ahvays been more worn by Hindus than Muhammadans, for whereas the former consider it purer than cotton for ceremonial [)urposes, so that it can be used at meal- times without being washed, the latter prohibited the use of it as too effeminate for men’s garments unless mi.xed with cotton. I his restriction was, however, relaxed in cold weather and in time of war, on account of the better protection afforded by heavy silks and brocades. A plague of lice was also held to justify the use of silk Ijy the strict Musalman. The mixed faljric of silk and cotton, dyed In \xirie- gated colours, and woven in various zigzag stripes, is called luashnt, or “lawful”. It is still made at Benares for Muhammadan men’s garments, but it is a decaying industry. fains and strict Hindus who object to the wilful destruction of any forms of life wear a coarse silk made from cocoons from which the moth has escaped. In the Mogul times there was at every court a ARTS AND CRAFTS 85 manufacture of ma«‘niiicent silks and brocades worn bv o the sultans and their wives, and by the nobles and their wives. Muhammad Tuglak, in the fourteenth century, kept at Delhi 500 weavers to make the gold brocades worn by his wives, and lavishly distributed as royal presents. Dnder British rule the demand for these goro-eous fabrics has greatly decreased, but com- pared with other textiles the kincob industry is fairly doLirlshing, though not free from the bane of aniline dyes and European pat- terns. Lately, how- ever, some of the manufacturers have wisely set them- selves to reproduce a number of fine old patterns found in the palace of the Maharajah of Benares. The other great art craft of Benares is the metal- w-ork, including the manufacture of brass and copper idols, lamps, and sacrificial utensils, and all sorts of native cooking and drinking vessels which fill the brass bazaar. The most characteristic are the lotas for Ganges water, made of brass and overlaid with copper, and chased with mythological figures and em- blems of Shiva or Vishnu; the brass representing the river Jumna and the copper the Ganges. The old AN OLD BENARES LOTA 86 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY discarded vessels, which are sold as pin'dna chiz, are always far better than the new. I'he Hindu idea of the sacrificial purity of copper water- vessels is interesting in view of a statement recently made in the Indian Medical Journal that water kept in clean copper vessels for twenty -four hours is probably rendered safe for drinking- purposes. lAery Hindu villager prefers untinned copper vessels for bringing drinking-water from the well. d'he Benares brassware, made specially for Euro- peans, is a pitiful example of the vulgarity and inanity to which Indian art can descend when the modern commercial element is brought into it, and when it is out of touch with the religious ideas on which its wliole foundation rests. It is, unlortunately, made too familiar by Indian exhibitions and curiosity shops to need any description. In the Hindu social and religious system the musicians and dancing-girls are an indispensable institution. They personate the Gandharvas, the mythical musicians of Indra’s heaven, who attend the feasts of the gods, and the Apsarases, the voluptuous charmers — “With all the gifts of grace, of youth, and beauty. Yet thus fair, Nor god nor demon sought their wedded love.” ^ The dancing - girls of Benares are generally the unmarried daughters of the Kathak caste — the caste of professional musicians. They live in the cpiarter known as the Dal-ki-mandi, a long street with houses of several stories, some of them resplendent with silver * Ramciyana. Wilson’s translation. DANCING-GIRLS 87 furniture and crystal chandeliers. Lhilike the dancing- girls of southern India, they are not attached to any particular temple, or “ married to the god ”, but at special festivals or religious ceremonies they are en- gaged to chant the praises of Rama, or to sing Sita’s love, in the classic songs of Tulsi Das, or the more voluptuous odes which tell of Krishna and his amours. Of secular songs for pleasure -parties they have an extensive repertoire, both old and modern. They are often very generous with the wealth they acquire, and in old age, when virtue has become a necessity, spend it freely in works of charity and religion. Benares from very ancient times has been famed for these sirens, whose amorous glances, alluring mimic, and pretty shuffling feet have troubled many a Hindu sage. Among the many stories of Buddha’s former existences is one which explains why he deserted his faithful wife, Yasodhara. It was the retribution for a crime she had committed in a former life, when she was a dancina--CTirl at Benares. o o Long years before, the story goes,^ there was a young and handsome horse-dealer, named Yajrasena, who lived at Takshasila. As he was going to the fair at Varanasi (Benares), he was attacked by a gang of dacoits, who stole his horses and severely wounded him. He crawled for shelter into a deserted house in the suburbs of the city, where he was found by the watchmen and arrested as a thief. The next day he was brought before the raja, and in spite of his pro- testations of innocence was condemned to death. But on his way to prison he was seen by Syama, the first dancing-girl of Benares, who fell madly in love with 'See Nepalese Buddhist Literature, p. 135. By Rajendra Lala Mitra. 88 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY TEMPLE AT DASASAMEDH GHAT his manly beauty. She gave orders to her handmaids that he was to be rescued at all hazards. They offered large bribes to the e.xecutioners, who agreed to set Vajrasena free if Syama would arrange for a substitute to suffer the death penalty in his place. Now, Syama had an admirer, a rich banker’s son. AN OLD LEGEND 89 Pretending that Vajrasena was her relative, she per- suaded him, out of love for her, to take some re- freshment to the condemned man. He went to the execution-ground without the least suspicion of any treachery, and, as he was approaching Ahijrasena, the executioners, according to the prearranged plan, sud- denly cut him in two. Vajrasena was hurried off to the house of Syama by her handmaids. Syama’s passion for Vhijrasena grew deeper and deeper, but he could never forget her infamous con- duct towards the banker’s son, and sought means to escape from her seductive snares. At last the oppor- tunity came when they both went down to the Ganges for a pleasure excursion. Vajrasena plied her with wine, and when she was quite overcome he smothered her, and held her under the water until he believed her dead. Then he dragged the lifeless body to the steps of the ghats, and fled away to his home in Takshasila. Syama’s mother, however, happened to be near at hand, and with great exertions restored her daughter to life. The first step Syama took after her recovery was to seek a Bhiksuin (a female devotee) of Taksha- sila, and to send through her a message to Vajrasena assuring him of her undying love and imploring him to return. Buddha zvas that Vajrasena, and Syama, Yasodhara. CHAPTER VI ON THE GANGES “ Ai-ise! The hi-eath of life hath come hack to iis — the darkness is gone, the light approacheth ! Ushas hath opened a path for Snrya, the Snn, to travel; now our days will he lengthened. Singing the praises of the hriglitening morn, the priest, the poet, ariseth with the web of his hymn. Bounteous maiden, shine upon him loho praiseth thee; spread upon us the gift of life and children, thou who givest heroic sons and "wealth of kine and horses. . . . Alotlier of the gods! Revelation of the glory of the Infinite! Banner of sacrifice, magnificent Ushas, shine forth — arise! Sho'wer thy blessings upon our prayers, and make us chief among the people.” — Rig- Veda, Hymn to the Dawn, 1. 113. I he traveller who wishes to realize the mag'nificence ol Benares on the river-side, and to catch some redec- tion of that Vedic brightness which still shines through all that is sordid and vulgar in the modern city, must be at Dasasamedh Ghat before the first streak of dawn. This is what he may see as he fioats slowly down the river on a December morning: — There is a coppery glow on the eastern horizon ; the Ashvins, twin heralds of the dawn, are rising. Curling wreaths of evaporation rise from the placid river, and a blanket of white mist lies over the great sandy waste, laid bare by the shrinking of the monsoon fiood. King Soma, the Moon, is sinking slowly be- hind the ghats, and in the dim light of his silvery rays the massive monasteries and palaces, built by devout Hindu princes, loom mysteriously out of the mist, and seem to rise like a gigantic fortress wall, sheer from the water’s edge. A few boats are crossing the river, 90 o Lighting up the recesses of the cave-like shrines .7 ■. -E' I 0 1:’ MORNING ON THE RIVER 93 bringing passengers to the holy city from the un- hallowed ground on the opposite shore, where no Hindu will care to die, for fear of being re-incarnated cis cin ciss. The light brightens as Ushas, the lovely dawn- maiden, beloved of the Vedic poets, clad in robes of saffron and rose-colour, throws open the doors ol the sky. Now the details of the ghats can be more clearly distinguished — the colossal flights of stone steps, great stone piers and wooden platforms jutting out into the sacred stream, dotted over with palm-leat umbrellas, like oio'antic toad-stools, under which the o-/idtivas are sitting to render various services to the bathers — the countless spires of Hindu temples, dominated by the lofty minarets of Aurangzib’s mosque. At last, Surya, the Sun, appears, glowing with opal Are above the cloudy bars of night. The miasmatic mists, like evil spirits — the wicked Asuras — shrink and shrivel and vanish into thin air, as he pierces them through and through and flings his victorious rays across the river, lighting up the recesses of the cave-like shrines, flash- ing on the brass and copper vessels of the bathers and on the o-ilded metal flags and crescents which surmount the temples of Shiva. It seems, at first, as if the whole amphitheatre, about two miles in circuit, glitter- ing in the sunlight, were one vast sun-temple: the priests, the Brahmins who are muttering the holiest of their mantras, the mysterious sun-invocation from the Rig- Veda — the famous Gayatri^ — the priestesses, the It has been translated as follows : — “ Let us adore the light of the Divine Sun. May it enlighten our minds.'’ But in Hindu ritual a mystic significance has been attached to it as a niantrani especially addressed to the Supreme Soul — Brahman. It is said that Brahma composed it and taught it to Indra, who taught it to Yama; Yama taught it to Shiva, who taught it to the Brahmins. 94 BKXARES, THE SACRED CErV women whose saris repeat the colours of the dawn, fast fadino' now in the white light of day; the votive- offerings, the golden marigolds and rose-petals which are piled in baskets on the ghat steps, and float on the surface of the water. l)Ut this is not the simple nature-worship of the early Aryan patriarchs, who three thousand years before recited their odes to Ushas, Surya, and Agni, lighted the sacred fire, and pressed the ,!.'6>;//c?'-juice on the banks of the Ganges. The smoke which ascends from Manikarnika Ghat is from the funeral pyres of dead Hindus. Two vultures in mid-stream are fight- ing over a carcass, perhaps the corpse of a sannyasi which was thrown into the river a few days ago. It is vShiva, the Destroyer, the principle of Life in Death, who is now worship[)ed at Benares, under his symbol of the serpent and his phallic emblem, which appears in every temple and is piled in thousands in the shrines along the ghats. And, truly, the whole scene presents a wonderful pictLire of the Hindu conception of the Divine essence: on every ghat an ever - changing multitude of men, women, and children; cattle sunning themselves on the steps, goats and monkeys climbing on the cornices of the temples; kites, pigeons, and parrots flying overhead — but, here, a corpse laid down by the water’s edge; a young woman distracted, her head buried in her mother’s lap, and three sad-eyed grand-dames, wra[)ped in widows’ saris, gazing dreamily into space. Yonder, the funeral pyres where three more corpses are already burning. If we observe the bathers more closely, we can see that, besides the ordinary ablutions, many of them are performing mysterious rites of different kinds. Some BATHING AND ABLUTIONS 95 are saluting the sun by splashing water towards it with both hands, or pouring out water from vessels of various shape, of brass, copper, and of a kind ol cocoa- nut shell. Others take up water in the palms of their hands and pour it over the top of their heads. This is to free the body from the pollution of sins. Again, others, wearing the sacred npavita, or Ilrahminical thread, will first change it from the right shoulder to the left, and then, taking up water in the right hand, they will let it fall over their extended fingers. Next, placing the thread on their necks, they will let the water run over the side of the hand, between the thumb and bent forefinger. These are rites addressed to the Devas and Rishis — the gods and the sages. Many are counting the beads of their rosaries, mutter- ing some mysterious formulary, others are rubbing their bodies with ashes from the sacrificial fire, or putting the symbol of Shiva or Vishnu on their foreheads. Here you will see a Brahmin performing what is known as ‘Ahe exercise of breathing” (prana- yama). Stopping the right nostril with the thumb, he expels the breath through the left. Then he inhales through the left nos- tril, and compressing it inhales through the A SANNYASI’S WATER-VESSEL 96 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY right. h'inally he stops inspiration completely with thumb and forehnger, and holds his breath as long as he can. You will see him later on cover his right hand with his cloth, or thrust it into a red bag. He then begins to make symbolic signs with his fingers and thumb to represent the ten incarnations of \hshnu. The words he is muttering in undertones, lest the unin- itiated or low-caste should overhear, are mantras, sacred texts and formulas, pass- ages Irom the \Tdas, the names or attri- butes of deities repeated in various ways; or in\’ocations to the Supreme Being in his endless manilestations, prefixed by the mystic syllable A I'M, representing the Hindu trinity — Brahma, the Creator, Xh’shnu, the Preserver, and .Shiva, the De- stroyer, or the three worlds — Plarth, Air, and Heaven. All these complicated cere- monies form part of the Brahmin’s sandhya, the form of prayer which he is enjoined to repeat three times daily — in the morning, at mid-day, and in the evening. But the sandhya is something more than prayer. It is a .spiritual exercise which is believed to free the individual human soul from earthly contaminations, to place it in direct relation with the super-physical world, and to prepare it for the ultimate goal of all Hindu ritual — meditation. These rites and mantras, according to Hindu theories, are based on the science of the worlds invisible; but to attain the desired end they must be performed with absolute exactitude. Every mantra, every movement. SHIVAITE ROS.VRY “ He will sit like a living Buddha, motionless i BATHING AND ABLUTIONS 99 even the order and sequence of each ceremonial act, have their proper mystical significance. A wrong word, mispronunciation or false intonation, an error in the order or manner of the performance will vitiate the efficacy of the whole and bring misfortune on the performer. Hence the intense earnestness and absorp- tion with which the bathers go through these cere- monies. Their usual curiosity at the sight of a European stranger is entirely suppressed: they seem not to see the passing boats or to heed the inquisitive traveller. Daily on the banks of the Ganges the pious brahmin, who observes the strict rule of the twice-born caste, fulfils with the most scrupulous exactitude the prescribed order and detail of his saiidhya, laid down by traditions jealously guarded through thousands of years. Then with mind and body thus prepared, lold- ing his yellow robe about him, he will sit like a living Buddha motionless on the edge of the sacred river, with closed eyes and an expression of profound tran- quillity on his face, absorbed in meditation on the Supreme Soul, Brahman, the Only Reality — THAT WHICH IS. It is not to be supposed that every bather goes through the complicated ritual vdiich I have just described, or that every Hindu on the banks of the Ganges takes the high spiritual stand-point of the philosophic Brahmin. Almost every sect and caste of Hinduism are represented among the thousands of worshippers, differing in race, language, and customs, who daily throng the ghats. Many are simple, igno- rant peasants, coming on a pilgrimage to the sacred city, who go through the traditional form of saiidhya adopted by their caste, or only repeat a mantra, or ( B 488 ) P lOO BENARES, THE SACRED CITY mystic formula, prescribed for them by their Brahmin gitj'iis, acting- as their spiritual physicians. Others, again, are there in fulblment of a vow, or to cleanse themselves by bathing from some ceremonial pollution. High-caste and low-caste. Brahmin and Sudra, bathe side by side, for the holy Ganges, descending from heaven and falling over Shiva’s brow, not only effaces caste distinctions, but affords a panacea for most of the ills, bodily and spiritual, which afflict the distressed Hindu. The water is taken in brass and copper \’essels for use in the endless ceremonies of the house- hold, for sprinkling on holy shrines, or for drinking. It is carried away by pilgrims in sealed jars to their distant homes, for a few drops of the precious liquid on a dying man’s lips have all the virtues of the sacred stream itself Bathing in the Changes is a part of many domestic ceremonies. You may observe a young couple, lately married, entering the water hand in hand, a corner of the bride’s sa?'i tied to the bride- groom’s cloth; or perhaps a gray-haired pair, who thus celebrate an anniversary, or return thanks for recovery from illness — praying that in their next incar- nations on earth they may be happily united once again. Happy is the Hindu who dies in Benares, for he is transported at once to Shiva’s Himalayan paradise, on Mount Kailasa, north of Lake Manasa, where the great three-eyed ascetic, seeing the past, the present, and the future, sits in profound meditation — the type of spiritual power gained by restraint of bodily passions. To win this easy passport to heaven, old men and women, who have left the world behind them, come to spend their last days within the boundaries THE BURNING C {From a photograph by Johmton * ^'1 J DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD 103 of Shiva’s city, devoting- themselves entirely to the prescribed observances of the Brahmin ritual. Some of the principal funeral rites take place on the banks of the Ganges. The nearest relatives of the deceased carry the body to the river, and place it by the water’s edge, either near to the burning ghat, or close by the ghat where he or she would daily come to bathe. When the last offices of the dead have been performed by the relatives, the corpse is placed on the funeral pyre, prepared by the low-caste Dorns at the burning ghat, who, however, are not allowed to touch any but the bodies of people of their own caste. There are two exceptions to the ordinary rule of cremation of the dead. A saiutydsi, the Brahmin who, after passing through the stages of studentship and householdership, has renounced a worldly life and entered upon the strict ascetic rule of his religion, is thereby freed from the pollutions which infect the common clay, and his body after death is considered too holy to require the purification of the funeral pyre. The strangest sight of all to be seen along the ghats is the sannyasi’s corpse, tenderly carried down by his disciples or other Brahmins of his sect, then posed like a bronze idol on the steps, garlanded and rever- ently saluted, while the temple musicians blow the sacred conch and beat the drums to announce that another human soul has finished the painful cycle of transmigration on earth, and is about to re-enter into union with the Absolute. The body, placed between two large fiat stones, is afterwards removed to a boat and thrown into the river, opposite to the shrine where the sannyasi had been accustomed to worship. The other exceiDtion to the rule of cremation is in 104 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY the case of bodies of Hindus who have died of small- pox. According to the weird imaginings of Puranic Hinduism, they are supposed to become possessed by Sitala, the goddess ot small-pox, one of the manifesta- tions of the Destroyer, and the goddess would be offended if Agni, the god of Fire, drove her from her habitation. It would be impossible to describe, or even to enumerate, all the rites and ceremonies which can be observed along the ghats, changing according to the day, the month, or the occasion of the numerous Hindu festivals, d'he most beautiful of all the latter is the I )iwali, or Feast of Lamps, in honour of Lakshmi, the goddess of Fortune, at the end of the month of Kartik (October-November). In the even- ing, when the short PListern gloaming is merging into night, numbers of girls and young women, graceful as Cfreek nymphs in their many-coloured saris, come silently down to the ghats bearing little earthen lamps, which they light and carefully set afioat. Then with eager faces they watch them carried awiiy on the rippling surface of the water, still shimmering with opalescent tints from the last rays of the after-glow, h'or if a tiny wavelet should upset the frail craft, or if the light should flicker and go out, it bodes mis- fortune in the coming year. Pmt if the light burns strong and well, till the lamp is borne far away by the current in mid-stream, happiness Is In store for her who launched it on the waters. By the time the twilight fades there are hundreds of twinkling lights dotted over the river, as if holy Ganga had borrowed the stars from heaven, whence she came, to adorn her earthly robes. The buildings, platforms, and steps FEAST OF LAMPS ros along the shore now gleam with rows of lamps which the pious elders have lighted for their worship. Our boat drifts slowly down the stream, through the fitful glimmer of Lakshmi’s frapile fleet, which magnifies the lofty piles towering above the ghats into some gigantic citadel, built by the Djinns of Eastern legends. Below the Observatory the lamps get fewer and fewer, and near Manikarnika the whole scene fades away, as the lurid glare of the funeral pyres hashes across the water, amidst the inky blackness of the burning ghat. Dark figures are crouching on the great smoke-begrimed piers which fiank the ghat, and demoniacal forms appear moving to and fro between the fiaming heaps. A horrid crackling noise arises from the burning wood. From the darkness up above comes the raucous note of a temple conch, and the booming of drums. Presently a strangely familiar sound comes fioating on the still night air, like a Gregorian chant with its slow and solemn cadence. In a distant monastery high above us the Brahmins are chanting the old sacrificial hymns, the Sam-Ved, which the Aryan priests may have chanted here thirty centuries ago — ■ still held so holy that it is sacrilege for our impure ears to listen. They are singing the praises of Rudra, the Mighty, the Terrible, lord of sacrifices, who has a thousand eyes, and carries a thousand quivers full of arrows of destruction. CHAPTER VII THE GHATS. ASI-SANGAM TO NEPALI GHAT The PTiropean traveller generally makes first ac- quaintance with the o'hats of the river at Dasa- sameclh — the ghat of the Ten- Horse Sacrifice — to which the principal roads of the city converge. It is also an important point in the river traffic, for the boats bringing stone from the Chimar quarries, which have supplied Benares with building material from times immemorial, here discharge their cargoes, d'he popular legend which accounts for the name of the ghat probably refers to the time when the Brah- mins were beginning to recover their authority in the city, on the decline of Buddhism. The story goes that all the gods had been expelled from Benares by Raja Divodas, who had acquired extraordinary power by the practice of religious rites. Shiva, wish- ing to return to the city, invoked the aid ot Brahma, who transformed himself into an aged Brahmin, and sought an interview' with the raja. The latter re- ceived him with much respect, and begged him to ask whatever he might desire. Brahma replied that the only favour he craved was that the raja would furnish the materials for the great horse-sacrifice. Now this w'as one of the most complicated of the Brahminical sacrifices, requiring a perfect knowledge 10(3 ) dasAsamedh g [Frori a photograph by Johnston r ; 1 I i i i dasAsamedh ghAt 109 of the divine science, and Brahma hoped that the raja mig-ht commit some trivial error, or omit some necessary material, and thus show his unfitness to rule over the holy city. Divodas, however, was more than equal to the occasion, and supplied correct materials, not for one sacrifice only, but for ten. Brahma then performed the ten-horse sacrifice at this ghat, the virtue of which was so great that Dasasamedh Ghat retains a special sanctity to this day. Bdiiding his mission unsuccessful, Brahma thought it better to remain at Benares and leave to Shiva the task he himself had failed to accomplish, d'he wily raja was subsequently evicted b\' a trick played upon him by Ganesha, the son of Shiva and god of Wdsdom. Such is the (juaint legend by which the Brahmins account lor this ghat being reckoned among the five places to be visited in the Panch-tirth, which is one of the religious ceremonies to be performed by Hindus who come to Benares. The Ivuropean, however, will be more interested in the first view of the great amphi- theatre of the ghats — stretching from the little stream called Asi, on the north, to the river Barna, on the south ; ^ in the wonderful picturesqueness of this approach to the river, the crowds of bathers, and the procession of men, women, and children coming to and from their ablutions. All will bring with them the brass or cojtper vessels used in the ceremonies of the bath. .Some carry the sacred leaves, llowers, and other offerings necessary in the temple worship or pitja. P'or several months after the monsoon floods have ' The name of Benares is generally derived from a combination of the two words: “Barna” and “.\si”. I lO BENARES, THE SACRED CITY subsided, and the river has retreated to its normal l-ied, dlo'gers are busy in removing the silt from the ghat steps, and in excavating the shrines which have been completely buried in the thick deposit. There are three such shrines at Dasasamedh, which are yearly dug out of the river mud. The superstructure of two ol them has completely disappeared. In the hrst there is a lingain with four heads on it, symbolizing the idea of Mahadeva, or Shiva as Ishwara, mani- festing himself as the four gods — Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, and Surya. In front are two sculptured bulls; the bull, or Xandi, being sacred to Shiva, and perhaps symbolic of the animal creation, as Nandi is considered to be the guardian of all (]uadrupeds. In esoteric Hin- duism Shiva’s bull is sometimes regarded as repre- senting the Dhariua, “the Faith”, or the whole duty of the Hindu. The next shrine seems to be of great antiquity, as its foundations go deep below the present slope of the ghats. It may be the remains of an ancient temple of Surya, the Wdic sun-god, who is still wor- shipped in many parts of India, though generally he has become merged into \hshnu, whose attributes are ^’ery similar to his. I'here are now three sculptured stones inserted in the face of one of the walls, which are all that remain of the temple. The centre one re[)resents Karttikeya, the war-god, the son of Shix’a, whose birth has been celebrated by the great Sanskrit poet, Kalidas. He is represented with six heads and twelve arms, riding on a peacock. (.)n the right is a hgure of Ganesha, a grotesque di\’inity with a fat belly and an elephant’s head. He is another son of Shiva, lord of the Cianas, the nine classes of interior dasAsamedh ghAt 1 1 1 deities which attend upon his father. As god of wisdom he may possibly symbolize the Brahminical philosophy which brought into one system the primi- tive faiths of the subject non-Aryan races. At the end of December, when the annual excava- tions will have been nearly completed, there will be seen a deep hole in front of this shrine, at the bottom of which is an ancient suttee stone, marking the place where a Hindu widow sacrificed herself on the funeral pyre of her husband. There are many of these scattered up and down the ghats, especially at the different burning-places. It is difficult to realize that the practice of self-immolation, which was often forced upon the unfortunate widows by their relatives, was only made illegal In British territory in 1829, and con- tinued with the sanction of the law In the independent native states for some time afterwards. In 1839, at the funeral of Ran jit .Singh, Maharaja of Lahore, his four wives and seven slave-Q-irls sacrificed them- selves on his pyre. In the month of Kartik (October— November), on the last day of the Kah-[)uja, there is an imposing ceremony at Dasasamedh Ghat, when the images of the goddess are thrown into the river, after completion of the traditional worship. The principal procession starts from the house of Babu Kalidas IMitra, whose family for several hundred years has taken the leading part in the ceremony. The image of the goddess, a repulsive black figure with natural hair, like a child’s doll, and a protruding tongue, representing Kali trampling on the prostrate figure of Maha-Kal (Time), is taken from her shrine in the house and placed in a state palanquin. Then, accompanied by bands of I 1 2 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY music and a procession of elephants, camels, and carriaQ'es, it is conducted with much state to the ghat, ddie idol is here lifted from the palanquin, the jewels which adorn it are removed, and a few locks of the hair rex erently cut off. Then about sunset, the wor- ship for the year being over, it is handed over to two swimmers, who take the idol and sink it in mid-stream. Many other images belonging to other households are brought to this ghat at the same time, placed upon boats, and then thrown into the river. The whole ceremony is strikingly picturesque, and if the abstract ideas personified by Kali were clothed in a more artistic garb, it might suggest a festival of pagan Rome on the banks of the Tiber. The Diwali, the beautiful festival of Lakshmi, the goddess of Fortune, takes place the same evening. d'he practice of throwing away the images or symbols of a deity is not associated only with Kali worship, but is a unix’ersal practice when they are made of clay or other base material. Brass, bronze, copper, and the precious metals are used when the idols are kept for regular daily worship, or in the temjiles. Kali, In esoteric Flinduism, represents that stage In the evolution of the uni\’erse from the Supreme Brahman, before even the gods were created, as descril:)ed in the Rig-Veda: “ Wdien darkness was hidden in darkness, undistInQ-uished, like one mass of water”. dhe Mahanirvan Tantra .says: “As all colours, white, yellow, and others, are absorbed in black, so all the elements are in the end absorbed in Kali; and as the absence of all colours is black, so Kali is represented black in order to teach the wor- SITALA GhAt 113 shipper that the goddess is without substance and without qualities {giinas) Kah in this aspect, there- fore, is regarded as the benignant mother of the universe, and her name means "darkness”, or "chaos”. But, like Shiva, she has a destructive aspect, in which her name is taken to mean Kal- harani, "she who destroys Time”, implying that it is Kah as the wife, or sakti, of Mahakal, "Time”, who, at the end of each cycle of time, a day and night of Brahma, called a kalpa, and reckoned at 8,640,000,000 years, destroys the whole of Brahma’s creation and all the gods. For this reason she is represented as trampling on her own husband, Mahakal, one of the aspects of Shiva. Immediately to the south of Dasasamedh Ghat is Sitala Ghat, so called from the temple of Sitala, the goddess of small - pox, one of the popular Hindu deities which are regarded as manifestations of the Destroyer. It is a small box-like structure, without any attempt at architectural embellishment, but it is, nevertheless, much frequented by worshippers anxious to avert the evil induence of the goddess. She is represented by an old piece of stone -carving from which almost every detail has been obliterated, placed on a repousse shrine of modern workmanship. Stone emblems of Shiva occupy prominent positions on the door. An ancient carving of Shiva and Parvati, his wife, stands in a corner of the shrine at the back, but is worshipped as Vishnu and Lakshmi, the Brahmin priests being very indifferent to nice archaeological distinctions. In the early morning a constant stream of worshippers is passing in and out, sprinkling the shrine of Sitala, and Shiva’s emblems, with Gano^es BENARES, THE SACRED CITY 114 THE TEMPLE OF SITALA water, and throwing- the sacrificial fiowers and obla- tions of rice. Some will wet their fiiiQ-ers with the water which has been poured over the goddess and ap})]y them to their foreheads and eyes. Those who have recovered from an attack of small-po.x take a bath in this water. Continuing along the ghats towards the south, we shall pass the Munshi Ghat, a massive pile, with a AIUXSHI AND RANA GHATS ii5 colossal basement to provide for the rising- of the river in flood -time, built by a Munshi, or minister of a tormer Raja of Vizianagram. A part of this ghat is one of the few places now reserved for Muhammadan bathers in the city, which Aurangzib arrogantly re- named Muhammadabad, after levelling its Hindu temples to the ground. Farther on is Rana Ghat, where the Rana of Udaipur has built a palace. Many of the buildings along the ghats here and else- where are occupied by Brahmin sannyasin, supported by allowances granted them by Hindu princes and noblemen. The Brahmin only attains to the full dignity of his Brahminhood, when, in accordance with the law of Manu, he renounces the world and becomes a sannyasi. Then in orthodo.x Hindu society he is reo-arded, livino- or dead, with all the veneration due o o to a divine being. The houses in Benares where sannyasin have died are pointed out as if the sanctity of a temple belonged to them. i\ccording to Manu, the life of a Brahmin is divided into four stages. First, the state of studentship: the second, the stare of married life and of lamily duties; thirdly, the state of the ascetic, retiring from the world and devoting himself entirely to religious practices and meditation ; and lastly, the state of the religious mendicant, or sannyasi, when, after breaking his sacred thread, the symbol of his caste, and shaving his head, he is re- leased from the performance of rites and ceremonies, and prepares himself for the final absorption of his soul into the Absolute. It is hardly necessary to say that the laws of Manu are not strictly observed in the present day. British rule and modern ideas are gradually breaking down ( B 488 ) R BENARES. THE SACRED CITY 1 16 A SANSKRIT SCHOOL the old social system and modifying the religious life of the Hindu. The Brahmins who now adopt a re- lio'ious life, often devote themselves to teachinQ- in Sanskrit schools, of which there are many in Benares. Just above Chausatti Ghat, on an open terrace, the yellow - robed sannyasin, in their salmon - coloured robes, may be seen with their young pupils, studying the intricacies of Panini, the celebrated Sanskrit gram- marian, who is reverenced as one of the Hindu Rishis, or inspired sages. d'here are, however, some sannyasin at Benares who follow the strict rule of their caste, hoping to free their souls from earthly ties by meditation on the Supreme Being, or by Yogic practices. The latter are certain spiritual exercises, enjoined by the Yoga school of philosophy, through the performance of which it is believed that the human soul can be raised during lifetime into a super- terrestrial plane, and acquire supernatural knowledge. The practices of YOGI PRACTICES 117 the fanatics of the Yoga school, who g'o through all kinds of fearful bodily tortures to attain this end, are too well known to need description, but among the exercises which are not performed in public, except in very special circumstances, is one by which, according to the sacred books of the Hindus, the Yogi, in a kind of trance, can overcome the law of gravity and remain suspended, or seated in the air, at a lower or higher altitude, according to the force of the Yogic power he may have acquired. Educated Indians of the present day consider these extraordinary attainments as be- yond the reach of this materialistic age, but there are a few sannyasin at Benares who pretend to possess them. I have never succeeded in persuading any of them to submit to a test which would satisfy scepti- cism; but in 1887, when presiding over the celebration of the Queen Victoria jubilee, at a remote village in the Kurnool district of Madras, I saw a performance by a Yogi, held in great respect in the neighbourhood, who as a special favour had consented to exhibit his powers in public to honour the occasion. He placed himself behind a curtain, and when it was drawn, the Yogi was seen, as if in a trance, apparently poised in the air, several feet above the ground, cross-legged and absolutely motionless. He remained in this posi- tion for perhaps fifteen minutes, when the curtain was again drawn in front of him. A case is recorded in the Asiatic Monthly Journal for March, 1829, and referred to by Sir Monier Williams in his Indian JVisdow, in which a Brahmin created some excitement in Madras, and exhibited himself before the Governor, apparently poised in the air, for forty minutes. But neither did this Yogi, nor BENARES, THE SACRED CITY 1 18 the one who honoured the Queen Victoria jubilee in a similar fashion, dispense with the screen, which to ordinary intelligences gives an unfortunate aspect of conjuring to the performance. Proceeding up the river, the next ghat of interest is CARVED SNAKES AT CHAUKI GHAT Chauki Ghat, where, under a fine old ////^V-tree, there is a small shrine and a great number of old carved stones, some of snakes, twined together like Mercury’s cadiicais, with the lingaiu placed between. The wor- ship of snakes, especially as emblems of the Earth Goddess, is one of the most ancient of Indian cults. CHAUKI AND BURNING GHAtS 1 19 and these stones, together with some fine figure-sculp- tures let into the upright face of the platform which surrounds the tree, are probably relics of the early Buddhist period. The pippal (Jici/s religiosa) has been associated with the religious ceremonies of the Hindus from the earliest Vedic times. Its w'ood was used in the making of the drill wdiich produced the sacred fire of Agni, and for various sacrificial vessels. Philo- sophers and holy men in all ages have chosen its leafy shade as a fit place for meditation. Among Buddhists it is especially venerated as the Bodhi tree • — the tree of wisdom — under which their great leader obtained enlightenment. In popular imagination it is ret^arded as the Brahmin amon^ trees. In southern India it is sometimes invested with the sacred cord of the Brahmins, and with the same ceremonies as used by them.^ The banyan-tree, another kind of fig, is frequently seen growing next to the pippal, and re- ceives almost equal veneration. Beyond Chauki Ghat is the burning ghat of the southern part of the city. Close by it, in a stone cell raised high above the ghat, lives a sannyasi of the Aghori sect, the name of wTich, meaning “horrible”, suthciently indicates their ideas. The Aghoris give an extreme interpretation to the V edantic doctrine of the Universal Soul. As all things proceed from and are part of Brahman, nothing, they argue, is really impure, and they are prepared to prove the strength of their convictions by eating everything commonly considered abominable, even putrid corpses. It must be said, however, that the revolting practices com- ^ Dubois, Vol. II, Beauchamp’s edition, p. 660. 120 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY monly attributed to the Aghoris do not seem to be committed by the black-robed ascetic devoutly reading- at this ghat, who bestows his blessing on the prying AN AGHORI tourist, but contemptuously refuses to accept any of the usual bakshish. Near his cell is a suttee stone of unusually elaborate construction, on which is carved with much quaint grace and feeling a youthful couple who shared the funeral pyre together at this ghat. The husband has one arm affectionately clasped round the neck of his unfortunate bride. KEDARNATH GHAT I2I Kedarnath Ghat, which is immediately above this burnino- o-hat, is named after Shiva’s shrine of Kedar- nath, high up among the Himalayan glaciers, and one of the most sacred places of Hindu pilgrimage. Here there is nothing to suggest the grandeur of the Hima- A SUTTEE STONE layan snows, the noble deodars, “ the tree of the gods”, and the beauty of the wild dowers; only a plain temple crowns the lofty pile of steps, and a small reservoir of dirty water, alive with myriads of frogs. The latter goes by the name of Gauri-kund, the tank of Gauri — another name of Durga, the wife of Shiva — and is supposed to possess all sorts of healing virtues. 122 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY There is, however, plenty of human interest in the crowds of bathers, mostly Bengalis, who inhabit this quarter ol the city. Behind, a picturesque street runs parallel with the river down to Dasasamedh Ghat. Some distance farther up the river, Shivala Ghat and Fort present an imposing" front to the river. The fort was the former residence of the Maharaja of Benares, and was occupied by Chet Singh in the days of War- ren Hastings. A yellow flag is dying above the trees within the northern enclosure of the old fort, proclaim- ing the presence of some Hindu ascetics. This is a math, or monastery, inhabited by some fifteen oi twenty followers of Kapila, the reputed founder of the Sankhya school of philosophy, who is believed to have lived at Benares about b.c. 700. The spacious court- yard is bright with marigolds, and under the shade of some fine old fruit-trees the monks pass their time in (juiet devotion. They will give visitors a friendly greeting, offering a handful of cardamoms, with excuses for their inability to show more lavish hospitality. At the time of my visit there was an old monk, spectacled, nearly blind, and stone-deaf, who was said to be 103 years old. Another venerable hermit seated on a leopard’s skin had better use of his faculties, and claimed to be 150. He had known, he said, eight rajas, and remembered Chet Singh and the days of Warren Hastings. They believed that Kapila, whose footprints were worshipped in a little shrine in the courtyard, was still living in an island at the mouth of the Ganges. They all deplored that the philosophy which once had so many followers was now considered out of date ; and the worldliness of modern times had come into their quiet, recluse life, for on my leaving s Another venerable herinitj seated on a leopard’s skin ” J A \ 1 t- FIGURES OF BHIMA 125 they produced a printed form from the municipality demanding- payment of the water-rate, and requested my help in mitigating the severity of the authorities towards their peaceful hermitage. The founder of the math, Lakhi Baba, perhaps one of the Diwans of Chet Sinqh lies buried under a mango- tree at the entrance. \\T will leave Shivala Ghat and its fine old fort for a time, and proceed farther up the river. From Bach- raj Ghat up to Asi Sangam the shooting of birds and catching of fish are forbidden out of respect for the feelings of the Jains, who have several temples along this part of the river. As with the Buddhists, the doctrine of the sacredness of all life is an important principle of the Jain faith. Probably along this part of the ghats we shall pass several rude, colossal mud fiqures of Bhima, one of the Pandava brothers in the Mahabharata, stretched full length on the ground. The story which explains why Bhima is worshipped for the last five days of the month of Kartik is as follows: — Bhima was a man of enormous size and strength, and had a corre- spondingly prodigious appetite. Like a good Flindu, he wished to worship Krishna in the month of Kartik, but found the fasting- so irksome that he begraed o oo Krishna to relax the rule in his favour. To accom- modate the hungry giant, Krishna agreed that if Bhima would fast for the last five days of the month he should be granted the merit which attached to the whole month’s fasting, and, further, as a special mark of favour, that those who worshipped Bhima the last five days of Kartik should gain the same merit. In this month there will also be many high pedestals 126 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY of clay, on which are placed for worship sprigs of die sacred basil {ocyiunni sanctum), or tulasi, Vishnu’s plant, as it is Vishnu in his Krishna incarnation who is specially worshipped in Kartik. The tulasi was, says the legend, a woman of Brindaban, who loved Krishna so passionately, that at last she threw herselt into the llames of a suttee’s pyre. Krishna then transformed her into the sacred plant, and directed that it should always be worshipped as part of his own puja. At Asi Sangam we reach the southern limit of Benares. From the other side of the little stream from which the ghat takes its name, the Panch-kosi road liegins to wind through the corn- helds. WT will now return downstream to Man Mandil Clhat, just below Dasasamedh. The great building fronting this ghat is the oldest of the palaces in Benares, having been built by Man Singh, Raja of Amber, and ancestor of the present Maharaja of Jaijtur, about the year 1600 a.d. It was a very fine s[)ecimen of the architecture of that period, and the beautiful stone balcony, which is the chief feature of the present facade, is part of the original work. Un- fortunately, the greater part of the building fell into ruin, and about the middle of the last century was restored with brick and plaster of a very inferior style. A picture l)y Daniell, now in the rooms of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta, shows the original facade as built by Man Singh. The palace was converted into an observatory in 1693 by the great Hindu astronomer, Raja Jai Singh, a descendant of Man Singh, who was employed by the Mogul emperor, Muhammad Shah, to correct the shivAla ghAt By permission of'H.H. the Maharaja of Benares 'J MAX SINGH’S OBSERVATORY 129 calendar, which had become very erroneous owing- to the inaccuracy of the then existing tables. He built BALCONY OF MAN SINGH'S OBSERVATORY four other observatories, at Delhi, Muttra, Ujjain, and at Jaipur. The latter city was one of the bold designs planned and carried out by this remarkable man. A long stone staircase outside the observatory, on the BENARES, THE SACRED CITY 130 southern side, leads up to a single chamber recessed in the wall, where a number of Brahmins may be seen daily going through a series of gymnastic exercises very similar to the forms of physical culture now so much in vogue in Europe. The approach to the interior of the observatory is through a lane on the opposite side. Wdthin there is not much of the original building left, except the great astronomical instruments invented by fai Singh. They are not now in working order. Close by the approach to the obser\'atory is a little temple known as Dalbhyeswar. Shiva’s emblem is placed low down in a cistern within the shrine, and in times of drought water is poured in, so that the temple is hlled up to the threshold, with the idea that it will act as a charm to compel rain. Near this is another small temple, dedicated to Shiva as lord of Soma, the moon - the shining bowl from which the Vedic gods and the Pitris drtink their nectar of Soma-juice, and the ])lace of all health-giving and healing herbs. This temple is much resorted to on account of the curative powers still attributed to the moon. The next ghat downstream is Nepali Ghat, where, recessed in the stone embankment, and completely covered by the river in the rainy season, is a pretty little shrine of Ganga, the Ganges, represented as a female hgure seated on a crocodile. Above it a stair- case leads to the Nepalese temple, a very picturesque building, half-hidden by magnificent tamarind and pippal trees. It is built chiefly of wood and brick; the double -storied roof, with great projecting eaves supported by brackets, is characteristic of the archi- tecture of Nepal and of other sub- Himalayan districts. THE NEPALESE TEMPLE T 4- r .r r f - vJ» ‘''sf’. ■j ' i NEPALI GHAT Go The rich carvings with which the wood-work is orna- mented are disfigured with many gross obscenities not usually found in Shivaite temples in northern India. THE SHRINE OF GANGA CHAPTER VIII THE GHATS FROM MAXIKARNIKA TO BARN A SANGAM At Manikarnika we reach the central point of the ghats — the very pivot of the religious life of Benares. There is perhaps no more extraordinary sight in the whole world than this ghat presents any morning in the month of Kartik, or at the time of a great Hindu festival. Shrines innumerable, cut in the stone piers and terraces which project into the stream; temples at the water’s edge, half-sunk in the stream; temples on the ghat steps; the hve-spired temples of Durga crowning the high ridge above. The burning ghat, black with the smoke of funeral pyres; corpses laid out by the river on their rough biers of bamboo. A few yards away, the women’s bathing ghat, glowing like a Hower- garden with the colours of their sa/-/s. P^urther on, a forest of palni-leaf umbrellas, where men in crowds are bathing, praying, muttering their mantras, marking their bodies with the signs of Shiva or Vishnu, or sitting self-absorbed as if the world and its illusions had vanished from their eyes. Pilgrims from every cpiarter ol India, carrying their bundles with them, are arriving at the sacred well, l^rought there by the Ganga- putras to begin their round of devotions, which is often preceded by clamorous disputes for the fees their spiritual preceptors demand. 13i Groups of women are performing puja ' ( I z- . ’>, •* (I S • in! I, ’ 1 - , ^ :1 /T! 4 MANIKARXIKA GHAT 137 Groups of women sitting- in circles on the level ground above the ghat steps are performing puja, perhaps that of Prithivi, the earth goddess, or of the holy Ganges, some old grandmother making- symbolic figures of clay and directing the ceremonies. Devout widows, their saris stamped with sacred texts, will pause on their way home to watch them and sprinkle fiow-ers and Ganges water upon the charmed circle. Others are making purchases of toys and sweetmeat vessels, which are piled in glittering heaps close by. A lordly bull comes pacing slowly through the crowds, snatching as he passes at garlands of marigolds worn by men and girls, and mumbling the rose-petals strewn on the wayside shrines and suttee- stones. Pigeons are fiuttering overhead, goats clambering on the cornices of the buildings. Thin vaporous clouds of smoke rise from the funeral pyres. The slanting rays of the morning sun cast long shadows across the ghat, and diffuse a rosy light over the whole picture. (See page 195.) To the Hindu pilgrim the great attraction of Mani- karnika is the well, the orio-in of which is Gjiven in the Kasi - Khanda, the legendary history of Benares. Vishnu, it is said, dug the well with his discus, and filled it with the perspiration from his own body. He then went to the north side of it and began to practise austerities. While he was thus engaged, the god Mahadeva came and looked into the well. Seeing in it the radiance of a hundred million of suns, he was so enchanted that he began praising \hshnu loudly, and declared that he would give him anything he might ask. Vishnu, much gratified, replied that he only desired that Mahadeva should alw-ays live BENARES, THE SACRED CITY I3« there with him. Mahadeva was so pleased with the compliment that his whole body shook with delight, and an ornament called Manikarnika fell from his ear into the well. He then declared that the w’ell should henceforth be known by that name, and that it should be the hrst and most efficacious of all the places of pilgrimage — Benares. 'hhere are several other popular legends accounting for the name of the well, one of which is that Ma- hadeva and his wife, Parvati, were seated by the well, when a jewel fell from Parvati’s ear into the water, and Mahadeva gave the well the name of the ornament, Manikarnika. .Another object of devotion at this ghat is the charan-pddtikd, a marble slab set into the ground, and carved with the figures of two footprints on which mystic signs are engraved. Almost every saint or divinity in Hinduism is supposed to have left visible footprints on earth, and these indicate the place where \ ishnu is believed to have alighted before he began to practise ascetic rites and to worship Shiva as Mahadeva, or Pshwara, at this ghat. The charau- pddnkd is often made in silver or gold, and worn as a charm by Hindus. Scindhia Ghat is named after a Hindu nobleman of Gwalior, whose widow, Baija Bai, in the early part of last century, commenced to build here a palace and bathing ghat. Before the basement had been raised many feet, the tremendous weight of the massive masonry caused a landslip, which made the whole fcdjric topple over, so that the work had to be aban- doned. The unfinished facade and the ghat steps still remain — huo;e blocks of solid stone-work, thrown about u Like a painted frieze from Pompeii or the decoration of an antKjue vase” J =,VST- 'i^vj- y . '^-: .r -i'J* ? ■ :t 1 ■t SCINDHIA GHAt 141 in picturesque confusion, as if an earthquake had torn them from their foundations. The warm tints of the Chunar stone, lighted by the morning- sun, make a delia-htful colour-contrast for the bright saris of the women, as they pass in procession along the narrow path in front of the great corner piers, like a painted SCINDHIA GHAT Irieze from Pompeii, or the decoration of an antique vase. This ghat is a favourite camping - ground for the wandering Sddims, or mendicant religious devotees, who travel throughout India from one place of pil- grimage to another, subsisting on the alms of the people. They are the modern representatives of the Bhiksus of ancient times, and like them are recruited from all classes of Hindus. There is this difference, 142 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY however, between them and their prototypes, that a very large proportion of Sdd/nis become devotees more from want of other means of livelihood, or from the attractions of a life which commands universal respect among Indian people, than from the prompt- ings of a deep religious feeling. The decay of the old village handicrafts, largely due to want of proper technical instruction, has greatly helped to swell their numbers. It has been estimated that there are about five millions of them in India, of whom about seventy-five per cent are wholly illiterate. It is a strange and sad sight, an encampment of these wild -looking mendicants, sometimes accom- panied by small children, who, like themselves, are smeared with ashes, and observe all the forms of the sect to which they are attached. There are many different sects of Sdd/ius, distinguished by the mark on their foreheads and by the symbols they carry with them. Shivaite devotees are generallv indicated by three horizontal lines across the forehead, drawn with sacred ashes. They wear round their necks the rosary of rudra berries, and carry with them some of the eml)lems of .Shiva, such as a liugain, a human skull, a trisula or trident, a drum, and perhaps a tiger’s skin, d'he sectarial marks of the followers of Vishnu are nearly all perpendicular in direction, or converging towards the root of the nose, over which there is generally a central line or dot. Their rosary is made of beads, or rough sections of the stem of the tulasi plant, and they carry about with them the sacred symbols of Vishnu, the salagraiu stone, the white conch shell, and the discus, the emblem of the sun. The SddJnis mostly spend their time wandering from AN ENCAMPMENT OF SADHUS 4 ■f THE sAdHUS 145 monastery to monastery, and from shrine to shrine — through the country where Rama and Sita wandered in their exile, the places where Krishna was born, where he passed his childhood, sported with Radha and the milkmaids, and where he slew the demons which oppressed mankind. They will visit the battle-field of the Mahabharata, and places made sacred by the Pandava heroes, holy shrines in every part of India, and even penetrate beyond, into Baluchistan, Afghanis- tan, and Tibet. The armlets and necklets they wear are tokens of the pilgrimages they have made — a white conch-shell indicates the great temple of Rameswaram in the extreme south; armlets of iron, brass, and copper, the three Himalayan shrines of Pasupatinath, Kedarnath, and Badrinath. The Sdd/i?is who come in contact with Europeans do not generally give an impression of earnestness or piety. They are not above a certain vanity in the correctness of their peculiar toilet, which they perform punctiliously with the aid of a mirror, and are evidently fiattered by the interest they excite. They are very ostentatious in the performance of their religious duties while they are conscious of being observed, but are much addicted to intoxicating drugs, and have not a high reputation for morality or respect for the law. But there are undoubtedly many Sdd/iiis who, besides being learned in the ordinary sense, have the breadth of culture which extensive travelling has given them, and live up to the Indian ideal of a holy life. Some- times they will devote themselves to collecting money for a religious purpose, such as for the repair or build- ing of a temple. A great deal of the real Indian art 146 BEXARES, THE SACRED CITY which is unnoticed by Europeans and ignored by the official administration is kept alive in this way. The faith of the o-enuine Sdd/iii often shows itself in e.xtreme fanaticism. It is not an uncommon event for one of them, in a state of religious ecsta.sy, to throw him- self into the .sacred lake of Pushkar, near Ajmere, to be devoured by the crocodiles, or perhaps jump from a Himalayan precipice. The most tragic end of all, is of those who set themselves to follow that journey of the great Pandava heroes, when, tired of life, they started forth towards Indra’s paradise beyond the Himalayan snows, dropping one by one on the way, until Yudhishthira alone was received at the Q-ates of Swarga. PA’en so the Sdd/nt, following Yudhishthira’s footsteps, will start forth on that last great pilgrimage, toiling on and on until he reaches those mighty snow- clad peaks, and is lost to mortal sight for ever. W e will continue on our way down the ghats, pass- ing Paji Rao Ghat and Ghosla Cihat, where there are two imposing buildings built by the owner, the Raja of Nagpur. Next we get to Ram Ghat, one of the long stretches of the river bank which are not lined with masonry steps. Wherever these occur we shall pro- bably see some of the low-caste doms digging in the mud for treasure, in the shape of ornaments, small idols, or .sacrificial vessels, which are afterwards brought to the bazaar for sale. Ram Ghat is named in honour of the hero of the Ramayana, who is worshipped as one of the ten incarnations of \dshnu. Here a follower of Vishnu has established himself with a shrine containing a small museum of brass and copper Images, odd stones and shells, and symbols of the deity. Next to him, in front of a small stone RAM GHAT 147 THE BUILDINGS AT GHOSLA GHAT temple, is one of those colossal mud figures of Hhima, which have been alluded to previously. This one, however, is noticeable, as the artist takes unusual pride and care in the execution ot it. It is amusing to observe the figure as it is gradually built up every year from about the first week in November until the whole is completed. The head alone is first carefully ( B 488 ) X 148 BKXARES, THE SACRED CITY finished on the stone terrace in front of the temple, and, being perfectly erect, the observer might imagine that the sculptor’s task was finished. The next day, how- ever, a sloping bank of clay is heaped up in front of THE HEAD OF RHIMA the terrace, and the body and legs of this extraordinary figure begin to appear. The right arm is detached from the ground, and holds a wooden club, Bhima’s favourite weapon. A further touch of realism is given by the painting of the face, including an elegant moustache and the sectarial mark of Vaishnavite. CHOR GHAT 149 The figure remains in all its grotesqueness, with eyes staring' out over the Ganges, until the monsoon fiood rises and sweeps it entirely away. Farther on is Chor Ghat, the ghat of the Thief. There is a narrow staircase here by which access to the city can be gained without using any of the main BHIMA COMPLETED thoroughfares. Tradition says that a noted thief used to come by this staircase when he wished to bathe in the Ganges unobserved. Close by this ghat is the fragment of a stone column, now worshipped as a lingani, which is probably one of the lats, or columns, erected by Asoka or some other Ikiddhist sovereign, and inscribed with proclamations ot the Buddhist faith. There is another of these, also worshipped as a liiigaiu, called Lat Bhairo, in the northern quarter 150 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY of the city, close to a large tank and other ancient remains. Panchganga, or the ghat of the five sacred rivers, is so called from the five colossal flights of steps which lead up to the city from this point. Great blocks of picturesque buildings, fianking and overarching the steps, rise in tiers, one behind the other, until, at the summit ot the high ridge which overlooks the river, Aurangzib’s mosque with its lofty minarets forms a landmark visible for miles around, and perpetuates the intolerant zeal of the great Muhammadan iconoclast. Here stocxl formerly a great temple of Shiva, which Aurangzib destroyed, and perhaps in ancient times that one which Hiuen Thsang described, made of stone skilfully carved and of richly-painted wood, containing a brazen statue of Mahadeva, a hundred feet hio-h, “ grave and majestic, filling the spectator with awe, and seeming as it were indeed alive”. The five flio-fits of ste[)s would then appropriately symbolize the five sacred rivers flowing from the Himalayan heights, where Shiva’s paradise is placed. Panchganga Ghat is one of the five places of pil- grimage in Penares, and on the occasion of a Hindu festival the scene is almost as striking as at Manikar- nika. In the month of Kartik the edge of the ohat is lined with a forest of bamboo poles, from which Chinese lanterns are suspended, placed there by the bathers, so that when the moon is on the wane the Pitris, the Pkithers who dwell above in Pitriloka, may not be left in darkness. It is a pretty custom, too, that which the women observe on the full-moon night of the same month, when, after a bath at Panchrano-a, o o they place some sweetmeats in the moonlight, believing PANCHGANGA GHAt LAMPS FOR THE PITRIS that the falling dews will sprinkle them with ainriia, the heavenly nectar with which King Soma refreshes o'ocls, the Pitris, and men. At the corner of one of the llights of steps are three remarkable stone lamp-stands, cone-shaped and fitted from top to bottom with numberless bracket oil- receptacles. \\dien these are lighted up at the Diwali, or other great Hindu festival, they appear like blazing 152 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY fir-cones or cypress-trees, and suggest Saracenic rather than Hindu orioin. O Probably they were made for the service ot the mosque, and appropriated by the Hindus on the de- cline of Muhammadan rule. The mosque itself has no special in- terest, e.xcept for its historical associations, and were it not for its splendidly-chosen situation it would command no special at- tention; but it is worth while to climb the great pyramid of steps in order to see the little piazza in front of the mosque, which overlooks the river. It is like any piazza in Italy or Spain, but it gives an ex- cellent coign of vantage where, after the time of the morning sandhya, one can observe the crowd returning from the river, take notes, or admire the groups which arrange themselves con- tinually in all sorts of suggestive tableaux vivauts. Here are three old women, who pause to barter with a seller of pots and pans, unconsciously posing themselves with their classic drapery like the P'ates, or the WTird Sisters (P- 153)- I here is a shrine built round a pippaI-X.x&^, round which a procession of worshippers is constantly passing, sprinkling it with water of the sacred river. Later on, when the crowd is smaller, one notices a '//i HPC. LAMP-STAND AT PANCHGANGA “Three old women, who pause to barter with a seller of pots and pans, unconsciously posing themselves with their classic drapery like the Fates, or the Weird Sisters” (page 152) '-^6 ■' ■ 3 ,4 SCENES AT PANCHGANGA 155 Sdd/iii, who at first sight seems to be inflicting upon himself a terrible penance. He is reclining on a low wooden bed, which, by way of a mattress, is studded all over with long iron spikes. On closer observation, however, it will be found that he has been careful to provide himself with a cushion for his back; the spikes are blunt, and so close together that probably they have never caused him very great inconvenience. He may impress the simple-minded pilgrim with an appearance of frightful austerity, but to the ordinary observer he presents rather an idyll of peace and self-satisfaction, as he reclines at ease in the sunshine, puffing occa- sionally at the chilhnn by his side and reading a pocket edition of the Bhagavad Gita. As a contrast to this innocent imposture, there is a young Vaishnavite nun worshipping in a primitive shrine close by, who seems to be an example of that simple piety which is often found among Indian women. The by-standers say that she has followed a religious life since childhood, and her modest demeanour and absence of affectation speak for her sincerity. She is wholly absorbed in reading the sacred books, and takes not the least notice either of the by-standers or of the camera which is levelled at her (p. 157). Beyond Panchganga there is not much of interest until we get to Gai Ghat. A colossal statue of the sacred cow, carved with much monumental dignity, here holds the place of honour on the ghat steps. Grouped In front of it you may often see statuesque women like nymphs or nereids, who, as they are bath- ing or robing themselves, take attitudes of perfect classic grace with an unconscious ease no artist’s model could ever imitate. One could go on day after day ( B 488 ) y 156 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY along- the ghats through this wonderful panorama of Indian life, every day observing new customs and ceremonies, seeing new' types of race, fresh motifs for PALHVAD cm AT the painter or sculptor, different scenes in the drama of human existence — for Benares is the microcosm of all India. After Gai Ghat is Palhvad Ghat, another great flight A VAISHNAVITE NUN READING THE RAmAyANA END OF THE GHAtS 159 of steps leading up to a group of little shrines sheltered by some splendid pippal trees. The end of the ghats on the northern side of Benares is reached at Barna Sangam, where the river Barna joins the Ganges. This is one of the five sacred places of pilgrimage, and a bath in the meeting waters is held to be of special virtue in cleansing- from all sin. The hio'h rido;e on which four temples are placed commands a fine view of the Ganges valley. CHAPTER IX THE TEIMPLES AND SACRED WELLS Hindus recognize three classes of deities, or three difterent aspects of divine worship. h irst, the patron deity of the village community, called grainya dcva. The images or symbols of these are placed under a sacred tree outside the villages. Ne.xt is the house- hold god, or the god which is regarded by each family as its special protector. Thirdly, the ishta dcva — the personal god, or the god whom the guru, the spiritual adviser of each individual, appoints as his or her patron deity, after consultation of the person’s horo- scope. Outside the Brahmin caste, the expenses attendant on the proper conduct of Hindu ritual make it im- possible for any Init those who have means to keep up the worship of their [)atron deity within the house, for only Brahmins, or those who claim the right of exer- cising priestly functions, can perform the appropriate ceremonies. The full performance of household wor- shi|) is most complicated and expensive. The images or symbols used in daily worship are often made of clay, and these are made by the worshippers them- selves and always thrown away directly the piyd is finished. But when an idol of stone or of metal is purchased for the house or temple the first ceremonial KiO IDOL WORSHIP i6i is a kind of consecration, called prdii prahtishta, “life giving”, performed by a Brahmin, who is supposed thereby to cause the divine essence to come and reside in the idol. Thereafter it is regarded as a being en- dowed with life and feeling, and in the worship in the temple, or in the household, daily, monthly, or yearly, as the case may be, it is washed and dressed, gar- landed, offered food, drink, betel-leaf and areca-nut, and money, in sixteen prescribed ceremonies accompanied by the chantino' of mantras. o This is part of the regular worship, but there is practically no limit to the attentions which the devout Hindu will pay to his idol. In the hot weather it will be fanned to prevent flies and mosquitoes from annoying it, and bathed to keep it cool. In the cold weather it will be dressed in warm clothes. If the salagram stone the idol represents a masculine deity, it will be married with great pomp and cere- mony to its reputed consort of the other sex. A marriage ceremony is a very popular form of religious devotion; failing a god and goddess, a sacred bird or animal, or even inanimate objects, such as the tulasi plant and the salagram stone, will serve as the make-believe bride and bridegroom. In response to these attentions the patron deity is expected to bestow corresponding worldly favours on the worshipper, otherwise the latter will sometimes visit his anger on his deity’s image with all kinds of abuse and indignity. BENARES, THE SACRED CITY 162 Such is the contrast between the high philosophy of Hinduism and the ritual countenanced by its priestly exponents. The ordinary Hindu, who has not the means or time for regular household worship, has to be content with hiring a Brahmin occasionally to recite a part of the sacred wTitings, and with visits to the temple on festival days, or when his leisure permits. I have noticed before that thouoh Benares is one ot o the most picturesque cities in India, it possesses hardly a single temple of first-rate architectural merit. The fifteen hundred or more temples it contains are small and nearly all of one type, with very little variation. The cell containing the image or sacred emblem Is square, generally with an opening on all four sides, and surmounted by the tall curvilinear and multiform sikra or spire, already described (see p. 44) In front of this, and connected with it, is a larger colon- naded porch, which is roofed either by a dome or by THE TEMPLE OF DURGA, OR “MONKEY TEMPLE” z 1 i- I MONKEY TEMPLE 165 the more ancient and characteristic Indian method of building squares within squares, by filling' in the corners of each square successively with superimposed horizontal layers or slabs of stone, as explained in the diagram. Surrounding the temple is a court or quad- rangle enclosed by four walls, or by cloisters which contain subsidiary shrines, or accommodation for the priests. The temple of Durga, the so-called Monkey Temple, is a good illustration of the type of a Benares temple, for being in the suburbs and not restricted by want of space, it is larger and more complete than most of the temples in the city. In front of the temple the vaha/i, on which the goddess rides, occupies a conspicuous position on a high pedestal somewhat suggestive of the famous column of St. Mark’s Square at Venice. Sacrifices of goats are frequently offered at a stake close by. The goats are decapitated at one stroke of the knife, and the blood offered to the goddess, but the bodies are generally taken away by the sacrificers. The object of the sacrifice is various: sometimes to appease the goddess in a case of sickness, sometimes to invoke her aid when the sacrificer is out of employ- ment. Often it is simply to provide a meal for Hindus who are not allowed to eat flesh, except that of animals offered in sacrifice. The lion symbol is also painted on either side of the entrance, and appears again sculptured in stone on each side of the doorway within. The temple being one of the sights of the tourist, you are invited to pur- chase food for the monkeys, which climb nimbly down in crowds from the neighbouring roofs and trees, and scramble with all the vivacity of monkeyhood for the BENARES, THE SACRED CITY 1 66 handfuls ot grain and sweetmeats thrown to them. Though it is not Hanuman, the monkey god and the ally ol Rama in his hght with Ravana, who is wor- shipped in the temple, the monkeys are found by the Brahmin attendants to be a successful draw for the baks/iis/i of tourists. The cell where the image of Durga is placed was built by a Bengali Rani at the end of the eighteenth century. The pillared porch in front dates from about the middle of the nineteenth. They are both fair specimens of modern Hindu temple architecture and decoration. The image of Durga in this temple is an insig- nificant doll-like figure of no artistic merit. The illustration here given is from a fine stone bas-relief at Chambafi representing Durga, at the command of Shiva, destroying the Asuras, or demons who were usurp- ing the authority of the gods and oppressing humanity. The face is unfortunately mutilated. Lying at her feet is the dead body of Mahisha, an Asura in the form of a buffalo, whom she slew. Durga is one of the wives, or saktis, of Shiva. Her aspect is fair and shining, as her original name Gauri signifies. She appears to be especially related to Shiva in his manifestation as god of the Himalayas, and to represent the destructive forces of creation, while Kali, whose images are always black, is the Earth-mother and the universal destroyer of Time, and the Cosmos. In every country the highest mountains have always been associated with the religious ideas of the people. The benignant and ferocious aspects of Indian moun- tain deities are doubtless but the impression on the Indian mind of the two aspects of those natural ^ From a phot(5grai)li by Dr. Vogel, Arcliitectural Surveyor of the Punjab. THE GODDESS DURGA 167 forces which are displayed in all their grandeur in the Himalayan regions. The fairy, snow -clad peaks, glorious in the sunshine, and full of solemn mystery DURGA by moonlight, pouring out from their violet depths the precious streams which fertilize the earth, are Uma and Parvati, kindly goddesses of light and beauty, and Shiva, the bountiful, moon-crested, blue-throated. liEXARES, THE SACRED CTTV 1 68 resplendent lord of bliss. Shrouded in fearful thunder- clouds, torn by furious winds and rap-ing- torrents, their mighty sides heavdng with earthcpiakes and scarred with landslides which bring sudden and awful destruc- tion on man and beast— they become Rudra “the Roarer”, Ugra “the fierce”, Shiva “the terrible destroyer”, and Durga “the inaccessible”, Rakta- danti “ the bloody-toothed ”. I )urga is especially appealed to for victory in war. She was the patron deity of Ravana, the demon-king of Ceylon, but Rama succeeded at last in bringing her over to his side, and thus overthrew his powerful foe. Probably she is one of the aboriginal deities adopted by the Aryans. As a fighting goddess she has a great reputation for destroying demons. Her chief e.xploit was the defeat of an Asura, called Durg, who had acquired e.xtraordinary power by the practice of penances, and used it to bring the gods into subjection and to destroy religion on earth. To celebrate her victory she changed her name from Gauri, “the shin- ing one”, to Durga. In one of the corners of the quadrangle in this Durga temple is a shrine of Kali. The idol, as is frequently the case in Benares temples, is nothing but a metal mask and a collec- tion of gaudy draperies. These masks, however, are often fine pieces of repousse w’ork. An idol is sometimes provided with a series of masks with different expressions, to re[:)resent the different mani- festations of the deity. An illustration is given here of a mask of Shiva, in gilt copper, from a temple in Nepal. Close by the Kali shrine there is a hole in the verandah floor, where the sacred fire for the horn AHMETY TEMPLE 169 ceremony is lighted, and offerings given to Agni, the god of hre. The temple, built about fifty years ago by the Raja of Ahmety of Oudh, towering over Manikarnika ghat with its five deep-red spires and gilded pinnacles, is also dedicated to Durga. It is built on a terrace over- MASK OF SHIVA looking the river, and is approached by one of those steep, staircased streets, leading from the ghats up into the city, which suggest a town of southern Italy or Spain. Clambering up a side staircase, you pass under the Naubat Khana, where musicians are chant- ing praises of the goddess with strange but not un- pleasing accompaniments. On the right side of the entrance is a fine little bronze lion of Durga, and on the left Shiva’s bull. The quiet and cleanliness inside are a relief from the bustle, sloppiness, and dirt, and I/O BENARES, THE SACRED CEIY IX THE AHMETY TEMPLE A J>rahmin performing his sandhya. the somewhat sordid atmosphere ot more popular Henares shrines. You will p'enerally find here one or two Ih'ahmins sitting de\’Outly at their saud/iya, with- out pesteriny visitors for the eternal baks/ns/i, and, unless there is some special festival, there is no great throng of pilgrims or other worshippers. The temple itself is one of the most elegant in 2 A THE AHMETY TEMPLE ANNAPURNA TEMPLE ^73 Benares. Its cusped arches and graceful stone tracery betray the Saracenic influence, which is very prominent in modern Hindu art in northern India. The most interesting detail in the decoration is the row of winged figures under the main cornice, carved with all the naivete and feeling of early Italian sculpture, though there is no reason to suppose that the Benares sculptors borrowed anything from European models. They re- present the Gandharvas, the heavenly musicians, and the Apsarasas, the dancing girls of Indra’s heaven — sirens who fascinated gods and lured holy men from their devotions. The temple of Annapurna, the goddess of plenty, near the Golden Temple, is one of the most popular places of worship in Benares, and one of the few which Europeans are now allowed to enter. A number of beo-o;ars sit outside with bowls in front of them to collect rice and other donations from the passers-by. One of them, who is maintained by the Brahmin pro- prietors of the temple as a kind of living advertise- ment, is a most uncanny object. Enormously fat, stark naked except for a small loin-cloth, his head shaved, and his whole brown body smeared with a thick layer of Ganges mud, he looks, as he scjuats on the ground and gazes up with curious hazel eyes under his puffed-up eyelids, more like some huge batrachian than anything human. He is given enough food to gorge himself dally, and passes his life in this state of semi-torpor at the temple entrance. Through hot weather and cold weather he has sat at the same spot, day after day, as long as the oldest inhabitant can remember, fed by Annapurna, so they say, for the last hundred years. 1/4 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY The main entrance has two fine brass repousse doors. Within the temple the stone steps and the floor of the courtyard are reeking with Ganges water, mixed with mud from the feet of the worshippers. The plan is very like that of the so-called Monkey Temple, but Annapurna is older and in better style, having been built about two hundred years ago. Cows, goats, and a constant throng of people fill the precincts. At one little corner near the side entrance Europeans are admitted, and here one can study the popular side of Hinduism at leisure. The usual cere- mony observed by all who enter is, after presenting an offering of food or money to the Brahmin in attendance, to circumambulate the shrine a number of times, keep- ing the right hand towards it, and pausing in front of it to salute the image of the goddess. Some touch the sill of the temple porch with their foreheads; others rub their fingers in the mud, and touch their foreheads and their eyes with it. “ To the pure all things are pure” — and Annapurna is so pure, they believe, that even the dirt in her temple is purity. A Brahmin sits at one corner to place a red mark on the centre of each worshipper’s forehead. Before leaving, many will go up into the porch and strike a bell which hangs in the centre. Some of the women, especially Brahmin widows, who can be distinguished by the sacred texts printed all ovmr their sans, sprinkle Ganges water in spoonfuls from their lotas, and scatter rice and flowers on the idols placed in the verandahs round the quadrangle — Hanuman, Ganesha, and Surya. A gaunt and wild-looking old man, nearly naked and tottering with fatigue, crawls into the temple ANNAPURNA TEMPLE 175 quadrangle and round it many times, stretching himself full-length on the sloppy door at every step, and only pausing to salute the goddess as he passes in front of the shrine. He has just come from making the pil- grimage of the Panch-kosi road — fifty weary miles in the same way — in ful- filment of a vow. Many are the objects for which Hindus will perform such penances, sometimes to acquire worldly advan- tages in the present life — for they be- lieve that the merit they acquire will sooner or later be rewarded in some tangible form — sometimes to excite pity and to collect alms, perhaps for religious purposes, or perhaps for a dowry for a daughter — ^sometimes in hopes of ven- geance on an enemy, to be gratified in a future incarnation. Another man spends half an hour with intense seriousness before the monkey god, Hanuman, rubbing the limbs of the image with the most tender solicitude, as if the massage would be pleasing to the deity, and muttering prayers and formulas continually. On the door of the porch, in front of the shrine, quantities of sweetmeats, rice, and other grain are collected — charitable offerings for Annapurna to distribute; for, in a land where famine addicts the people so sorely, Annapurna’s aid is often wanted. Many poor mothers bring their children to be fed in the upper gallery which runs round the quadrangle. Birds and animals A SACRIFICIAL SPOON 1/6 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY share in Annapurna’s bounty, and, as everywhere in Benares, help to make delightful pictures. Pigeons fly down and peck up the grains of rice from Ganesha’s grotesque body, goats and cattle munch the wreaths of marigolds which, on festival days, are piled in golden heaps about the quadrangle. Two Bengali youths stop to kiss and caress a cow, as it basks contentedly in a sunny corner, after its meal of marigolds. It responds to their endearments with signs of intense enjoyment more usual in a dog than in the stolid bovine nature. A few links of an iron chain, smooth and polished by frequent handling, hang on a door-post at the side entrance. Many of the worshippers as they pass out take hold of them, and touch first the left eye, then the right, and then the two sides of the chest, for iron is believed to be a charm against the evil influence of Saturn, the most unlucky of all the planets. Poor souls! perhaps the evil-eyed one has grievously afflicted them. The shrine of Sanichar, as he is called, is not far from Annapurna. Seven and a half years is said to be the time during which he troubles the unhappy ones who come under his influence. P'rom the Hindu stand-point, the most holy and interesting of all the Benares temples is that which is dedicated to \hshweshwar, or Shiva as the patron deity of Benares. It is sitLiated in the same narrow street as Annapurna, and is even more crowded with worshippers than the temple of the goddess of plenty. PAiropeans are not allowed to enter, but they can look down upon it from a balcony just opposite — the Naubat Khana or “ music house ”, where the big temple drums are kept. It is called the Golden Temple, from the GOLDEN TEMPLE 177 fact of its dome and spires being' covered with gilt repousse copper work, a gift of Ranjit Singh of Lahore. There is nothing particularly noticeable in this modern Sikh decoration, nor is there anything else in the temple artistically or architecturally attractive. THE TEMPLE AT RAMNAGAR (By permission of H. H. the Maharaja of Benares.) The same may be said of nearly all the rest of the hundreds of small modern temples with which the city is crowded. Many ol them are described by Sherring, in his Sac?r(/ City of the Hindus, with great minuteness, but without much sense of artistic proportion. In design and sculptured decoration the temple of Durga, at Ramnagar, on the side of the river opposite to Benares, is a very good example of modern Indian BENARES, THE SACRED CITY 178 temple architecture. It was commenced by Raja Chet Singh in the last half of the eighteenth century, and finished about 1850. Chet Singh also constructed a fine bathing tank at Ramnagar, which is frequented by large crowds in the month of Magh (January- b'ebruary). Vedavyas, the reputed compiler of the Vedas, is said to have appointed Ramnagar to be a place of pilgrimage in that month, so that those who performed it might be relieved of the penalty of being re-incarnated as asses, which they would otherwise incur if they happened to die on this side of the river. The palace of the Maharaja of Benares, an im- posing pile of buildings on the river bank, is also at Ramnagar. It contains a fine library, including a splendidly illustrated copy of the Ramayana, and a very interesting collection of old Indian paintings. Some of the Benares temples, though architecturally unimj)ortant, are interesting as illustrating the ideas of Hindu mythology and popular superstitions. One at Manikarnika, next to the women’s bathino- ghat, named Tarakeshwar, is so called from the belief that to worshippers at this shrine Shiva will whisper in their ear while dying a iiiantravi, called Tarak, which will secure admission into his paradise. Another called Barahan Devi, near Man-lMandil ghat, is resorted to by those who have swellings in the hands or feet. The temple of Briddhkal is supposed to have been granted by Shiva the virtue of curing all kinds of diseases, and of prolonging life. Sukreswar, near the Golden Temple, is believed to bestow beautiful sons on those who worship at the shrine. Bhaironath, whose chief temple is not far from the town-hall, is the kotival, or spiritual magistrate of BHAIRONATH 179 Benares. He exercises jurisdiction over the whole of the district within the limits of the Panch-kosi road, and is supposed to act as defender of the Hindu faith and to keep away evil spirits. His va/ian, or vehicle, is a dog; for this reason dogs, which are excluded from other temples, are admitted into his. MASK OF BHAIRONATH His weapon is a huge club, which receives worship as well as his own image. The officiating priest is armed with a rod of peacock’s feathers, with which he punishes the worshippers for the offences they have committed, and at the same time absolves them. There are very interesting copper or silver masks of Bhaironath sometimes to be found in Benares. An unfinished, but very expressive one, suggestive of an Egyptian mummy, is here illustrated. ( B 4S8 ) 2 B i8o BENARES, THE SACRED CITY Ganesha, the son of Shiva, has many temples in the city. Being the god of wisdom, he is the especial patron of school-boys and authors. He is invoked by merchants before all business transactions. He is also the keeper of roads and the protector of house- holds. In the latter capacity his vehicle is a rat — an association ot ideas which would not commend itself to modern plague specialists. There are severed popular legends to account for this deity and his ex- travagant appearance. One is that, while Shiva was away from home, Parvati, his wdfe, took a bath, and to guard her apartments from intruders, fashioned Ganesha from the scurf of her body and placed him at the door. Shiva, returning, w'as angry at being- opposed by the unknown doorkeeper, and cut off Ganesha’s head. Parvati was indignant at her hus- band’s violence, and refused to be pacified. Shiva then gave orders to his attendants to search for a living creature that slept with its head towards the north, to cut off its head, and to fit it upon Ganesha’s body. The first creature they found was an elephant. So Ganesha goes to this day with an elephant’s head. The same story is given as an explanation why Hindus should not sleep with the head towards the north. This .sad misadventure apparently did not teach caution to the god of wisdom, for on a subsequent occa- sion he lost a tusk in trying to oppose the entrance of another visitor, Parashu-Rama, one of the incarna- tions of Vishnu, into Shiva’s abode. He is known on this account as Eka-danta, “the one-tusked ”. The Hindu pilgrim holds in high veneration the sacred wells of Benares, but until recently their in- SACRED WELLS i8l GANESHA conceivable foulness, caused by the decay of doral offerings constantly thrown into them, rendered them anything but attractive to Europeans. In the last few years a great deal has been done for the sanitation of Benares, both by the municipality and by the exer- tions of a private society founded in honour of Queen Victoria’s jubilee, so that most of the wells are now i82 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY approachable. Few of them, however, are artistically interesting, except the Gyan-kup. The famous well at Manikarnika, the starting-point of every pilgrim’s round of ceremonies, has been already described. The Gyan-kup, or well of knowledge, stands in the large quadrangle between the Golden Temple and the mosque of Aurangzib, which is built on the site of the old \ushweshwar temple. It is covered by a graceful Saracenic colonnade, erected in 1828 by the widow of Doulat Rao Scindhia of Gwalior. The colossal stone bull of Shiva, close by, is a very picturesque accessory, and the crowds of pilgrims always give much to observe and study. A Brahmin sits by the well with a ladle to give each pilgrim a sip of the water. The colonnade is a favourite resting-place, and there you may often see pilgrims, who carry with them the image and symbols of their patron deity, arranging a little shrine on the floor and going through all the prescribed forms of piljd. ddie legend connected with this well is that once upon a time Benares was suffering from a great drought. No rain had fallen for twelve years, and the city was in a terrible plight. At last a Rishi, one of the great Hindu sages, or divinely-inspired prophets, grasping the trident of Shiva, thrust it into the earth at this spot. A spring of water immediately bubbled up, sufficient to relieve the misery of the whole city. Shiva, on hearing of the miracle, took up his abode in the well, and remains there to this day. Another legend, perhaps with more historical foundation, says that when the old tem|)le of Vishweshwar was de- stroyed by Aurangzib, a priest took the idol and threw it down the well. THE WELL OF KNOWLEDGE SACRED WELLS 185 Not far from the temple of Bhaironath is the Well of Fate — Kal-kup — in which a square hole is arranged over the trellis-work surrounding the well, so that at noon the sun’s rays strike on the water below. He \;ho looks down in the well at this hour and cannot see his own shadow in the water is a doomed man, for he will surely die within six months, unless he can persuade Maha-kal, “Great Fate”, or Shiva, whose temple adjoins the well, to intervene with Yama, the god of death, on his behalf. The clocks of Benares are set by Madras time, which is some minutes behind the true local time, so the well is likely to be a source of much an.xiety to ignorant pilgrims, and correspond- ing profit to the proprietors of the temple. Another interestinq- well is the Naq-kuan, in which a great snake is said to reside. Indian folk-lore is full of legends of the snake-king and the snake-people — powerful sorcerers who could assume human shape at will — who lived below the water in palaces glittering with gold and jewels. The Nag-raja who lives in this well is propitiated by offerings of milk. Once a year, in the month of Sawan, a pilgrimage is made to the well, and Nag-puja, or worship of the snake-god, is performed by crowds of pilgrims. The well is ap- proached by four flights of steep stone steps. In a niche placed in the wall over one of the sides is a shrine of the snake-god. The steps leading to the well were constructed or put in order about 1 50 years ago, but the well itself is doubtless of great antiquity. CHAPTER X THE PANCII-TIRT]! AXD THE PILGRIMAGE OF THE PANCH- KOSI ROAD THE PILGRIMAGE OF THE SOUL One ot the spiritual aids which IHnares is supposed to afford to Hindus is that it contains within its limits various shrines constituted by P)rahminical authority as equal in sanctity to the most sacred places of Hindu |)ilq-rimape, such as Allahabad, where the Jumna joins the Ganpes; Kedarnath, in the Himalayas; or Rames- waram, in the extreme south. The pilgrim, therefore, without the toilsome journeys which the longer dis- tances involve, can obtain all the merit and spiritual benefit he desires by visiting certain shrines in Benares, specially distinguished from the thousands it contains. One of the pilgrimages is known as the Panch-tirth, from the hve holy places the pilgrim must visit, namely, Asi Sangam, where the river Asi joins the Ganges, Dasasamedh Ghat, the well at Manikarnika, Panchganga Ghat, and Barna Sangam, at the extreme north. He will thus have traversed the whole length of the ghats from the south to the north. But the most interesting and the most meritorious of all the pilgrimages is that of the Panch-kosi road, the sacred road which limits the area of Benares on the land side. Throughout its length of about fifty miles, it is reckoned to be at a distance of panch-kos, 18G PANCH-KOSI PILGRIMAGE 187 or five kosfi from Manikarnika well. It is believed by the Hindus to be of great antiquity, and I see no reason to doubt this, though Sherring discredits the tradition. It is possible that the alignment of the road may have varied from time to time, but the practice of circumambulating a shrine, or other holy place, is one of the most ancient of religious observances, and it is interesting to note that the recent Tibet expedition found crowds of Iluddhist pilgrims circumambulating the sacred city of Lhasa. The pilgrimage of the Panch-kosi road is now one which every Hindu inhabitant of Benares is enjoined to make, especially every third year, in the intercalary month which regulates the Hindu lunar calendar. The merit ascribed to this pilgrimage is immense. All the sins which have been committed within the limits of the city can be expiated by the proper fulfilment of the rules of the journey, for along this road the pilgrims circumambulate all that is holy in the holiest of cities. Manikarnika is the starting-point. They must walk on foot without shoes, except in the case of the sick or infirm, taking with them only necessary food, without luxuries of any kind. They must refrain from quar- relling or using bad language. They must not give or receive food or water, nor take any gift from anyone. But as human nature is the same all the world over, the wealthier pilgrims often find means to soften the austerities of the journey by arranging with members of their own family, who are not making the pilgrimage, to meet them at the difl’erent halting-places with food and other comforts. Whatever w^e may think of the special virtues attri- 2 c ( B 488 ) ^ A kos is about two miles. i88 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY buted by Hindus to the pilgrimag-e, there is no doubt that there is a great charm about this old country road in the crisp air of a late December morning, and some- thing of the Vedic spirit in the simple piety of the old traditions which cling to it. From IManikarnika the crowd of pilgrims, young and old, rich and poor, wend their way along the ghats to Asi. Sangam on the south, where the little stream called Asi flows into the Gany-es. Crossing this, a path leads along the river for some distance through fields of wheat and barley, then widens out into a broad avenue lined by splendid mango-trees. Framed in the noble colonnade of their massive trunks and the deep rich foliage are vistas of tender green cornfields, varied with clumps of sugar- cane, patches of yellow mustard and marigold, and the lilac of linseed flowers. The pilgrims pause to pay their devotions at the little wayside shrines placed between the trees. At one place the road is strewn for some distance with broken moulds, where a colony of brass-workers is engaged in making the vessels for which Benares is famous. Ne.xt we pass a Hindu monastery. d'he first day’s halting-place is at Khandawa, a ty[)ical Hindu village, si.x miles from IManikarnika along the sacred road. As you approach it you may see a kid lying by the roadside, sacrificed by some low- caste villagers to appease the spirits of evil. Here a bamboo with a red flag marks the altar of Devi, per- haps the Earth goddess of the Dasyus, or another of the primitive aboriginal divinities afterwards brought into the Hindu pantheon as one of the wi\'es of Shiva. At a little distance from the village is the usual collec- tion of huts occupied by potters, rope and basket KHAXDAWA VILLAGE 189 THE PANCH-KOSI ROAD makers, and others whose low-caste occupations render them undesirable as inhabitants. These locations are survivals of the early Aryan times when the dark- skinned Dasyu slaves, who plied the lowest trades, were not allowed within the Aryan pale. The potters are twirling the clay on the primitive native wheel a relic of almost prehistoric times, and women with 190 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY a stately pose and prait are carrying on their heads the finished vessels, baked in a heap of cow-dung- fuel, for sale in the village. Another roadside shrine larther on con- tains a rude carving of an ancient village deity, hardly higher in the artistic scale than the fetish of a South Sea savage. Beyond this a row of magni- ficent tamarind trees, whose gnarled and twisted trunks prove their venerable age, affords a grateful shade for the pilgrims, and a splendid portico for one of the dhannsalas, or rest-houses, in which they may halt and take their food. The vil- lage itself is nestled round a spacious tank, one of those splendid A VILLAGE DEITY WOrks which Hindu rulers and pious benefactors of olden days bestowed on their posterity. It is a refreshing contrast to the narrow, crowded streets of the city, the dirt, bustle and unrest, the plethora of monstrous idols and their never-ending rites — this broad e.xpanse of placid water mirroring the VILLAGE LIFE 191 tall red spire of a fine old temple, and the dense, rich foliao-e of the sacred trees which cluster round it. It o is in the village life, and not in the life of the crowded cities, that Hinduism is seen at its best. The organiza- tion of the village communities, dating back from the THE TEMPLE AND TANK AT KHANDAWA earliest Aryan settlements, has still in some parts of India survived all the storms of contending races and creeds, and remained the political unit of the state. The change which British administration has brought about in this respect seems to be a doubtful advantage. The ordinary affairs of such village communities are administered by a hereditary headman, or patel, as- igj BENARES, THE SACRED CITY sistecl by a council of elders called the panchayct, exercisino- certain kinds of judicial and legislative powers, and acting as intermediaries between the go\’ernment and the people. Among the recognized officials, having sj)ecihc duties and privileges, are hereditary police, traders, and artisans; the priest who performs religious ceremonies, and sometimes the dancing girl who assists at festivities; the guru who is the village schoolmaster, and the accountant who acts as hnance minister for these miniature republics, d hey are paid by allowances of grain, or by the grant ol CLiltix’ated land as hereditary possessions. Khandawa, however, has not retained its ancient Hindu constitution, but has become part of a zemin- dary, the system of private proprietorship which grew out of the Mogul method of collecting land-revenue. I'he old temple is one of the few within the limits of Benares which date farther back than the first Muhammadan invasion. It is much bolder and finer in style than the modern Benares temples. Embedded in one side of the portico are a few fragments of sculpture belonging to a still older shrine. Among them is a piece of vigorous carving of those quaint and playful dwarf-like figures which are frequent in Indian sculpture of the early Buddhist times, when the disembodied spirit was believed to resemble a human dwarf in size and appearance. The only touch of modernity about the temple is an English eight- day clock, presented by the owner of the village, so that its inhabitants might know the time of day. It is hung up inside the shrine over the phallic emblem of Shiva. Round about the temple are picturesquely grouped VILLAGE SHRINES 103 ANCIENT CARVING, KHANDAWA TEMPLE several smaller shrines. They each contain a few pieces of old sculpture, representinp- one or other of the 300,000,000 deities the Hindu pantheon is said to contain. The Hindu peasant is as confirmed an idolater as the Muhammadan is iconoclast. W ith a profound indifference to archaeological or sectarian distinctions he will take a fragment of sculpture, Bud- dhist, Jain, or Hindu, headless, armless, or legless, build a little shrine for it, give it the name which pleases him best, and worship it as a manifestation of his favourite divinity. Alono- the four sides of the tank are broad avenues o of trees. Under them the cattle tread out the corn and turn the slow, creaking mill which crushes the juicy sugar-cane. Their mangers, like village altars, are raised on mud pedestals between the trees. Beyond the neat thatched huts an endless expanse of ripening crops promises a plenteous harvest. Leaving Khandawa, the pilgrims continue their journey by the shady road through the fertile fields, and on the second day reach Dhupchandi, a village 194 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY eight miles farther on. The third clay’s journey of fourteen miles brings them to Rameswar, and to a temple there dedicated to Rama. On the fourth they arrive at Shivapur, eight miles farther. Here there is a tank and a Shiva temple containing a number of shrines in which fragments of ancient sculpture are set up for worship, including one of the Panch Pan- da\ais, the five heroes of the Mahabharata, and one of Surya, the sun-god, in his seven-horsed car. At Rapildhara, the fifth day’s stage, six miles beyond Shivapur, the pilgrims offer oblations to the Pitris, the souls of the ancestors. It is one of the places deemed propitious for the Shradha ceremonies of deceased relatives, which are believed to help the souls of the departed on their final pilgrimage to h ama-puri, the kingdom of Death. According to the Hindu doctrine of the future life, there are two paths, followed by souls of different states of development, according to their karma, d'he saints wdio have fulfilled their karma travel by the Devayana, the way of the gods, through the rays of the sun, and never return to be reborn on earth. Ordinary souls, which have yet to finish the cycle of transmigrations, travel by the Dhumayana of the seven planes, but they can only reach two — Swar- loka, heaven, or Bhuvar-loka, the astral plane, accord- ing to the life they have led in the world. The souls of ordinary mortals will, it is believed, always remain tied to earth, and eventually become evil spirits tor- mentino- mankind, unless the Shradha ceremonies are O duly performed to help them on their way to Yama. P'or the first ten days after death the ceremonies performed by the relatives are to help the disembodied ? u Thin vaporous clouds of smoke rise from the funeral pyres. The slanting rays of the morning sun cast long shadows across the ghat” (page 137) '.I i t .1 CEREMONIES EOR THE DEAD 197 spirit to obtain a form, or preta-bocly, which will carry it on its appointed pilgrimao'e. This is supposed to be effected by the pinda offerings, the food presented to the spirit (consisting of barley or rice-flour, mixed with sesamum Hour, sugar, and honey), and by the recitation of appropriate mantras. The first day’s ceremony furnishes the spirit with a head, the next a neck and shoulders. When the preta-body is fully formed, on the tenth day, it feeds on the pinda and offerinos of milk. o On the thirteenth day after death, the soul is equipped for its solemn journey. There are twelve stages in the pilgrimage, each stage taking a month to accomplish. Throughout the twelve months the relatives follow the departed spirit with the Shradha ceremonies, sixteen in number, performed at stated times to provide it with sustenance and to prepare it for the goal. When that at last is reached, the preta-body is dissolved. The soul now becomes a Pitri, and assumes another body adapted for enjoying heavenly bliss, or for suffering the pains of hell. In this state it appears before the judge, Yama, the Lord of Pitris. To those who have lived virtuous lives, Yama has a pleasant and glorious aspect when he receives the pilgrims into the bliss of Swarga. He has four arms, bearing a conch-shell, a discus, a mace, and a lotus. He rides, like Vishnu, on a mighty eagle, Garuda. A splendid crown adorns his brow', and jewelled orna- ments glitter in his ears. His complexion is like the blue lotus, a gracious smile beams on his lips. He wears a sacred thread like gold on his breast, and a garland of forest flow-ers on his neck. BENARES, THE SACRED CITY [g8 But to the sinners Yama appears in a g-igantic and terrific shape, with black complexion and eyes vast as lakes. His nostrils breathe fire. His bristling hairs stand out long and thick like rushes. His deep voice sounds like the thunder of the Last Day. tie is mounted on a ferocious buffalo, and holds a mighty club in his hand. W hen the souls have enjoyed their bliss, or suffered their allotted punishment, they are again re-incarnated on earth to fulfil the remainder of their karma. d'his belief in the efficacy of S/zraMas is often the source of reckless e.xpenditure bringing ruin upon Hindu families. h'or not only do the dead recjuire assistance in their pilgrimage to Varna’s kingdom, hut for three generations afterwards they are sup- [)osed to need the attention of their descendants. oreover, the mantras and ceremonies performed at certain holy places are believed to have the power of mitigating the penalties for sins committed in this life, an idea sedulously fostered by the Brahmin priests, though it is absolutely inconsistent with their own teaching of the law of karma. Whth this digression we will return to the Panch- kosi road. The sixth and last stage of the pilgrimage is from Kapildhara to Barna Sangam, and thence along the ghats to the starting - place, Manikarnika. On this day the pilgrims carry bags of barley, from which they scatter grain all along the route, as an oblation to •Shiva. Arriving at Manikarnika, they bathe in the river and give presents to the Brahmins. P'inally they proceed to the temple of Sakhi-Yhnayak, the witness- bearing Ganesha, to have the fact of the pilgrimage attested by the priest, in presence of the deity. CHAPTER XI REMAINS OF OLD BENARES A IlINDU-MUIIAMMADAN RIOT A weavers’ COLONY A thorough examination by trained archaeologists of the ruins and fragments of sculpture which are scat- tered about Benares and built into modern shrines and temples might throw much light on the ancient history of the city. Hitherto this work has been left chiefly to Pluropeans without sufficient critical knowledge of Hindu art, whose judgment has been biassed by a fixed idea that nearly everything old in Benares is of Buddhist origin. Sherring, while recognizing the pro- bability of many of the antiquities of the city being of Brahminical or Jain origin, is too much inclined to attribute to Buddhists every ancient column with a plain bracket capital and every stone carved with the lotus flower. Eergusson’s review of Indian architectural styles, admirable though it is, stands in need of explanation and modification in the light of recent knowledge. In his time it was hardly realized that Buddhism was only an oft'shoot of Hinduism, which grew up in India, flourished, and decayed side by side with dozens of other sects of even older origin, some of which, like the Jains, were most active builders. The artistic study of Indian sculpture, like that of 199 200 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY Indian painting, has hardly yet been commenced, though there is much of extreme interest to the artist, as well as to the archaeologist, in both. It is very unlikely that rapid progress will be made in this direc- tion until Indians of education and means learn the protoLind truth of Emerson’s well-known aphorism, “Art is Nature passed through the alembic of man"; and until they begin to realize that, unless they under- stand and appreciate the value of the presentment of Nature their own artist-alchemists have given them, nothing that they see through European spectacles has any artistic value or meaning for them. In the meantime, while Indian art is fast decaying beyond all hope, it is left to a few Europeans to attempt the solution of problems which to competent Indians should be comparatively easy. Scattered about Benares in odd corners, and placed under pippal and banian trees for worship, are numbers of miniature temples elaborately carved in single blocks of stone, and all of them with the characteristic Hindu sikra or curvilinear spire. Some of them are multiple shrines, that is, carved all over with numerous minute representations of temples, all of the same shape. The popular tradition about these is that Raja Man Singh of Jaipur made a vow to present 100,000 temples to the city, and ordered them to be commenced and finished in one day. In order to accomplish this extra- ordinary architectural feat they were all carved In miniature. d'he tale is obviously a Brahminical Invention. These stones seem to be votive shrines of a very much earlier time than Man Singh, who lived at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Many of them OLD REMAINS 201 are of the early Buddhist period, and numbers of them are now being dug up in the neighbourhood ol Sar- nath. They are not, however, Buddhist, but dedi- cated to various Hindu deities. The Deer-park at Sarnath was, as we know, a retreat, or kind oi sacred grove, where religious devotees of all sects met. ANCIENT VOTIVE STONES The most interestino- of the ruined buildino-s of o o ancient Benares now existino- are those which have o been appropriated by the Muhammadans. At the back of the mosque of Aurangzib, near the Golden Temple, is a fragment of what must have been a very imposing Brahminical or Jain temple. The south wall of the mosque is built into it. Tradition points to this as being part of the original temple of Vishweshwar destroyed by Aurangzib. From the style it would appear to belong to the time of Akbar, or about the 202 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY be ginning- of the sixteenth century. The raised terrace in Iront ot the mosque is built upon some very much older structure, which Sherring suggests might have been a Buddhist vihara or temple-monastery. This, however, is mere conjecture. On equally substantial grounds it might be supposed to be one of the public halls for the discussion of philosophical and religious subjects which existed in Buddhist and pre-Buddhist times. It is cjuite possible that the whole quadrangle in which the mosque stands originally contained a nuniber ot Brahminical, or perhaps Jain, temples and n-ionasteries of many diflerent periods, such as are often found grouped together in places considered especially sacred by any sect of Hindus. In the northern side of the city there are several Muham- madan moscpies which have been built out of the remains of old Jain, Buddhist, or Brahminical temples or monasteries. The most interesting and picturesque of these is 0})posite to Kasi railway -station. The Muhammadans, in converting it to their own use about one hundred and twenty years ago, gave it a symmetry suggestive of a Greek or Roman temple. d'here are several other mosques of the same kind in the same part of the city. The Arhai Kangura mosque is a large one in the (quarter bearing that name, constructed in the same way from abandoned or demolished Hindu or Buddhist buildings. In the roof of the second story a slab is inserted, upon which is a long Sanskrit inscription, and the date 1191 a.d., showing that it originally belonged to a Hindu temple or monastery. The Muhammadans, iconoclasts as they were, have been more respectful to ancient art in Benares than British utilitarians like the district MUHAMMADAN TOMB 203 officer mentioned by General Cunninghamd who carted away a quantity of statues and carved stones ex- cavated from Sarnath to strengthen the foundations of the bridge over the Barna. Wdthin the area of the old Raj Ghat Fort, and not far from Kasi station, is one of the few original Mu- tomb OF LAL KHAN hammadan buildings in Benares which are specially noteworthy for architectural beauty. This is a hue monument, as rich in colour as cloisonne enamel, the whole surface of the exterior and interior being de- corated with tiles, in the style which the Muham- madans introduced into India from Persia and Central Asia. It is the tomb of Lai Khan, a minister of a former Raja of Benares. 1 ( B 4S8 ) Archaeological Report, 1861-2, p. 123. 204 BENARES, THE SACRED CEFY This form of decoration with coloured tiles and tile mosaic is closely related to the stone and marble mosaic and inlay which the Saracenic architects em- ployed when they established themselves in countries where the latter materials were plentiful. The gradual change from tiles to marble mosaic and inlay can be easily traced in the Muhammadan buildings in Delhi and Agra, ending in the decoration of the Taj Mahal, which has been attributed to Italian designers on evi- dence which does not bear careful scrutiny. d'he tomb at Raj Ghat was originally surrounded by a garden, but only the four corner towers of the enclosure now remain. The Moguls usually built their own tombs in gardens which were used as pleasure- grounds when their owners were alive, and conse- crated to religion and the memory of the dead after- wards— an old Tartar custom which they brought with them into India. In the planting of the gardens they symbolized life with Howering trees and shrubs, and death and eternity with the evergreen cypress tree. About a mile to the west of Raj Ghat, at the junc- tion of the Ghazipur road with the Raj Ghat road, there are a large tank in a ruined state, called Kapil- mochan Tank or Bhairo-ka Talao, and vestiges of ancient buildings of considerable extent, interesting to the archmologist, but not otherwise attractive. On a great terrace above the tank is the Lat Bhairo, already alluded to, which is believed to be the fragment of one of the columns put up by Asoka to commemorate some event in the life of Buddha, or to record a proclama- tion of the faith. The Hindus in later times built a temple there dedicated to Bhairo, the god-magistrate of Benares. Aurangzib destroyed the temple and HINDU-MUHAMMADAN RIOT 205 built a mosque in its place. Since then the terrace has been a frequent battle-field for contending Hindu and Muhammadan factions. The Hindus, after the destruction of their temple, continued to worship the lat, which was then about 40 feet high, as an emblem of Shiva. They were permitted to do so by the Muhammadans on condition that the custodians of the mosque received a share of the offerings. About the beginning of the last century the jealousy between the rival religionists led to an outbreak in which the lat was thrown down and broken to pieces. The circumstances which caused the disturbance are such a fruitful source of serious riots even in the present day that the details given by a contemporary writer ^ may be interesting. It so hap- pened that at the Mohurram, the great Muhammadan festival, and the Holi, a somewhat licentious celebra- tion very popular with the lower classes of Hindus, the processions of both parties, infiamed with religious excitement, bhang, and alcohol, met in the streets, and, as usual on such occasions, neither party would yield a passage. A free fight followed, and the Muham- madans were beaten. In revenge some of them rushed to the courtyard of Aurangzib’s mosque and overthrew the sacred lat of Bhairo, while others seized a sacred cow and killed it on the ghats, mingling its blood with the water of the Ganges. Now there was a tradition that the lat had been originally much higher. It was said that it had been gradually sinking, and that, when the top became level with the ground, all nations would become of one caste, or, in other words, all Hindus would be out- ' Rev. William Buyers in Recollections of Norther): India. 2o6 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY casted. The overthrow of the lat was interpreted as a fulfilment of the prophecy, and the outrage on their deepest religious sentiments roused the whole of the Hindu population to fury. Headed by the Brahmin priests, the sannyasin, and all the religious devotees of Benares, a furious mob seized any sort of weapon within reach. A general massacre of the Muham- madans and the destruction of every mosque in the city was only prevented by the intervention of the British authorities. At this crisis the native Sepoys behaved splendidly. Many of them were Brahmins, whose sympathies were entirely wdth their co-religion- ists; but, nevertheless, when posted to guard the mosques, they never wavered for a moment in loyalty to their officers, but kept oft the infuriated mob at the point of the bayonet. Order was at last restored, but the excitement remained for many days afterwards. The double sacrilege was regarded by the Brahmins as a stain which might have destroyed the sanctity of the city as a ])lace of Hindu jiilgrimage. The scene wdiich followed is thus described by Mr. Buyers: “All the Pirahmins of the city, many thousands in number, went down in deep sorrow to the river-side, naked and fast- ing, and sat on the principal ghats, with folded hands and heads hanging' down, to all appearance incon- solable, and refusing to enter a house or to taste food”. After two or three days’ fast, however, they, yielding to the persuasion of the magistrates, and others who went to comfort them, decided that Ganges’ purity was inviolable, and that the desecration of the city could be purged by a series of costly cereiuonies. The chief English official wdio brought the unhappy An idyll of peace and self-satislactioii ” (page 155) M i ( COLONY OF WEAVERS 209 event to a satisfactory termination was much impressed by the evident distress of the people. ‘ ‘ The gaunt, squalid figures of the devotees, their visible and ap- parently unaffected anguish and dismay, the screams and outcries of the women, and the great numbers thus assembled, altogether constituted a spectacle of woe such as few' cities but Benares could supply.” The famous lat of Bhairo is now reduced to a height of a few feet. It is covered with copper sheeting, painted red, and worshipped as a lingam. No INIu- hammadan is permitted to approach it. At Bakariya Kund, in the northern quarter, there are also remains of ancient buildings, adapted by the Muhammadans, and a ruined tank. E.xcept to ardent archaeologists, there is more human interest in the colony of w'eavers close by, making the cloth of gold and silver, the rich brocaded silks and muslins for which Benares is famous. d'he preparation of the silk for the looms is made in the open air, under the trees. Very beautiful it is to see the long lines of crimson, saffron, or purple, vibrat- ing w'ith iridescent tints in the chequered light of sun and shade, and the men and women passing up and down tw'irling the spindles from which the gossamer- like thread is unwound. Watchino' this, one realizes the favourite simile of the Vedic poets, likening their hymns to the weaver’s web stretched betw'een earth and heaven; the priests and the people weaving into it the weft of sacrifice and prayers unceasingly, until the glorious fabric of immor- tality was made. CHAPTER XII BKXAKKS UNDER BRITISH RULE Re nares for a brief period played a very conspicuous part in the early history of the Rritish empire, and filled an eventful chapter in the life of the first gover- nor-general. The treatment of Raja Chet Singh of Renares by Wdirren Hastings was one of the principal indictments against the latter in the famous seven years’ trial. Ihider Mogul rule Renares ceased to have any great political importance, and when that empire crumbled to pieces after the death of Aurangzib, the city and district became subject to the Nawab of Oudh. In 1/75 Warren Hastings, who had previously interfered to prevent the Nawab from confiscating the zemindary, concluded a treaty by which the feudatory rights of Oudh were transferred to the Rritish Government. The latter then granted a charter to Raja Chet -Singh confirming him in his possessions, subject to an annual fixed rent or triliute, and conferring upon him various rights and privileges which he had not enjoyed before. These concessions nevertheless did not pre- vent the Raja from taking advantage of the extra- ordinary difficulties of Warren Hastings’ position to evade his obligations as a vassal and dependent of the East India Company. 210 WARREN HASTINGS 21 I The financial embarrassments of the Company, in- creased by the terrible famine of 1770, the wars with Haidar Ali in Mysore and with the Mahrattas in Bombay, had forced Hastings to call upon the Raja for further monetary aid and a special contingent of troops. The right of the sovereign power to exact such aid from its vassals was indisputable. Under the M ogul rule any disobedience to such demands would have been visited with confiscation of the vassal’s possessions, and imprisonment, or death. But Chet Singh, who was well informed of the dissensions in the Council at Calcutta, and of the critical state of the Company’s affairs, hoped that with diplomatic pro- crastination he might soon be in a position to defy the British power. He paid the first year’s subsidy with an ill grace and protestations of poverty, the next year’s not until two battalions of Sepoys had been quartered upon him, and the Company’s troops in the field had been reduced to dire distress for want of money. The demand for a contingent of cavalry was not complied with at all. In 1781 Hastings felt himself strong enough to bring the recalcitrant Raja to account. h'rancis, his bitterest enemy, had retired to England after the historic duel, to vent his malice with fresh schemes and misrepresentations. The difficulties with Impey and the Supreme Court, brought about by the foolish attempt to impose the strict letter of the English law upon Indian courts of justice, had been arranged satis- factorily. On the other hand, the straits to which the Company’s finances had been reduced made it impera- tive to raise fresh funds without further delay. On the 7th July Hastings left Calcutta by river. ( I! 488 ) 2 K 212 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY At Buxar, near to the boundary of the Benares zeininclary, Chet Singh met him with a fleet of boats crowded with two thousand well-armed troops. This, as Hastings observes in his narrative, was a deviation from the rules of decorum between vassals and their superiors, for the Governor-General had taken with him only a very small escort. The Raja, however, had not yet the courage to show open hostility, but, placing his turban in Hastings’ lap, tried to keep up an appearance of humility, with many vows and protestations of sincerity. Hastings received him civilly, but telling him plainly of his dis- pleasure and determination to enforce the demands of Government, closed the interview. He arrived at Benares on the morning of the 14th of August. The Raja came a few hours later, but was forbidden to come to the Governor- General’s quarters at Madhu Das’s gardens, and ordered to await a communication from the Resident. The next morning Hastings sent the latter with a letter formulating charges of dis- affection and infidelity to the Government, based on the Raja’s previous conduct, with a demand for an immediate answer. Chet Singh replied in terms which Hastings characterized as “not only unsatisfactory in substance, but offensive in style, and less a vindication of himself than a recrimination on me”. The Resident then received orders to repair next morning with his guard to the Raja’s palace at Shivala Ghat, to place Chet Singh under arrest and to await further orders. The latter submitted cjuietly, but by some fatal mistake, or carelessness, the two companies of Sepoys who were placed in charge of the palace had taken no ammunition with them. The e.xcitement PERIL OF THE BRITISH 213 among Chet Singh’s followers was intense, and before any steps could be taken to repair the blunder, large bodies of armed men crossed the river from the Raja’s Fort at Ramnagar, surrounded the palace, and fell upon the sepoy guard. The reinforcements which were sent arrived too late to prevent the massacre which followed. During the tumult Chet Singh escaped to Ramnagar by lowering himself from one of the windows of the palace, for the river was in high hood and boats could be brought close under the palace walls. The position of Hastings was then critical in the extreme. “ If Chet Singh’s people,” as he observes, “ after they had effected his rescue, had proceeded to my quarters at Mahadew Das’s Garden, instead of crowding after him in a tumultuous manner, as they did in his passage over the river, it is most probable that my blood, and that of about thirty English gentle- men of my party, would have been added to the recent carnage, lor they were over two thousand in number, furious and daring from the easy success of the last attempt, nor could I assemble more than fifty regular and armed Sepoys for my whole defence.” Wkirren Hastings does not overestimate the dangers of the situation to the whole British empire in India when he adds; “Such a stroke as that which I have supposed w'ould have been universally considered as decisive of the national fate; every state around it would have started into arms against it, and every subject of its own dominion would according to their several abilities have become its enemy”. The history of British India is largely the history of the blunders of incompetent bureaucrats, and the 214 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY struggles ot ca[)able men of action with an impossible official machinery. There is no doubt that the loss to the Government at that crisis of Hastings’ administra- tive courage and genius would have been a blow from which the British power might never have recovered. A fresh disaster added to the peril of the British community in Benares. Hastings, immediately on the news of the outbreak, had sent orders to Captain IMahaftre, commanding the remainder of the detach- ment near Mirzapur, to bring u]) his men without delav, ljut on no account to risk an attack on Ranmagar, which was strongly defended by the Raja’s followers. That officer, profiting by what he believed to be an opportunity for distinguishing himself, in direct defiance of orders, attempted to rush the Fort, and paid the penalty with his own life and the loss of most of his men. This success elated the enemy so much that they de- termined to assume the offensive and attack f^astings at his quarters in Madhu Das’s Gardens. The whole British force there collected now amounted to only four hundred and fifty men, under Major Popham, and, finding his position indefensible, Hastings, with that officer’s approval, determined to retreat to the fort of Chunar, a strong position higher up the river. The retreat of the little British force, accompanied by the whole British community of Benares, was effected in safety. Hastings then, in consultation with his most capalde military adviser, prepared to collect reinforce- ments and to organize defensive and offensive war against the Raja. In the meantime Chet Singh, while still making feeble attempts to gain time by sending half-apologetic. PANCHGANGA (page 150) By permission of H.H. the Maharaja of Benares i * \ •a INSURRECTION CRUSHED 217 half-defiant messages to Hastings at Chunar, had collected round him an army of over twenty thousand regular troops, and about the same number of irregulars. Half of Oudh was in insurrection, and some ot the zemindars of Behar showed sit^ns ol disaffection, rhe general respect and loyalty which Hastings inspired here stood him in good stead. The Sepoys of his little garrison remained staunch, although their pay was four months in arrear. Immediately on news of his difficulties, the Nawab of Oudh sent sup- plies and troops, and came himself to Chunar to offer his services. The Nawab Saadat Ali, in whose charge Hastings had been compelled to leave his wounded Sepoys at Benares, not only protected them from Chet Singh’s vengeance, but supplied them with pro- visions, money, and medical attendance. It was not long before Hastings received sufficient reinforcements from the nearest British commanders to enable him to attack the enemy, and before the end of September Chet Singh, whose incapacity and cowardice were only equalled by his duplicity, had been driven out of all his strongholds by Major Popham, and was a miserable refugee at Gwalior. On the 25th of that month, Hastings was back in his old quarters at Madhu Das’s Gardens, and the whole country had returned to a state ol tranquillity. Thus ended a formidable insurrection, crushed in a few weeks by Hastings’ indomitable courage and resource. Chet Singh being proved guilty, not only of open rebellion, but of the murder of defenceless travellers and prisoners of war, was formally deposed. The next lineal heir, Babu Mehipnarain, from whom the present Maharaja is descended, was then in- 2i8 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY stalled as Raja. The city of Benares was placed under a separate magistracy directly controlled by the Company. .Se\’enteen years after these events, Madhu Das’s C'jardens had another occupant — not the British Governor-General, but a deposed Indian prince. In 1797, Asaf-ud-daulah, Nawab of Oudh, died. His brother, Nawab .Saadat Ali, whose name we have heard before, was next in succession, failing legiti- mate male issue of the late sovereign. The throne, however, was claimed by Whizir Ali, a generous but headstrong and somewhat dissolute youth of seventeen, whom ,Asat-ud-daulah had recognized as his son and heir, but whose legitimacy was disputed. d'he British Government, represented by a weak and vacillating Governor-General, Sir John Shore, at hrst acknowledged his title and proclaimed him nawab, but a tew months afterwards, persuaded by the repre- sentations of the opjjosite ])arty, deposed him and brought the rival claimant, .Saadat Ali, to occupy the palace at Lucknow. Then, with a fatuity which deserved the consequences which ensued. Sir John placed Wkizir Ali at Benares, a very hotbed of in- trigue, close to the borders of Oudh, and gave him an allowance of A 15,000 a year, wherewith to finance his schemes of vengeance upon the British Govern- ment. h'rom his retreat in Madhu Das’s Gardens, WAzir .Ali immediately commenced to plot against the British power with all the disaffected Muhammadan and Hindu nobles of northern India. He entered into corre- spondence with Zeman Shah, the Afghan ruler of Kandahar, who had invaded the Punjab with a large WAZIR ALI’S PLOT 219 army, and was now threatening- Delhi. His chief fellow - conspirators at Benares were Jagat Singh, a relation of the Raja, and Shionath, the leader of a gang of Bankas, licensed banditti, who could be hired for any ach^enture or scheme which promised plunder. T he Resident at Benares, and agent of the Governor- General, was then Mr. G. F. Cherry, an amiable sporting civilian of many accomplishments and social graces, but greatly wanting in political insight. Wazir AH found it easy to conceal from him his treasonable designs, and neither the warnings of the judge, Mr. Samuel Davis, nor the representations of the military authorities and the police, sufficed to put the easy- going Resident on his guard. Mr. Davis being in close touch with native society, was able to get reliable information of Wazir AH’s proceedings. Finding it impossible to arouse his chief to a sense of the impending danger, he reported the facts direct to the Calcutta Council. H'ortunately for the British Empire, the Marquis WAllesley, who soon after the deposition of Wazir AH had succeeded Sir John Shore as Governor-General, was a statesman of a very different stamp to his predecessor. Imme- diately he realized the situation he sent orders to Mr. Cherry to inform WMzir AH that the Govern- ment had decided to remove him to Calcutta at once. This was a terrible blow to the ex-nawab, whose plan was to seize a favourable opportunity, when the projected war with Tippu Sultan had depleted the British garrisons in northern India, to massacre all the Europeans in Benares, barricade the city, and wait for a general rising to prepare the way tor the ( n 4SS ) 2 G 220 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY advance of Zeman Shah’s army. At Calcutta, under the eyes of the British Government, he would be helpless, and all hopes of recovering his lost kingdom would be gone for ever. b'inding it impossible to persuade the Government to revoke these orders, Wdizir Ali sent notice to Mr. Cherry that he would be ready to start on the i6th January, 1799, and would breakfast with him on the 14th. At the same time he warned his fellow'-con- spirators to prepare for immediate action. On the morning of the 14th, Wdtzir Ali and two hundred desperate followers, fully armed, each Muhammadan wrapped in a winding sheet dipped in Mecca’s sacred well, started from Madhu Das’s Gardens bent on the slaughter of every European in Benares. On their wa}" to the Resident’s house they met Mr. I )avis and his wife on an elephant returning from their usual morning ride. It was probably some superstitious idea such as forms the motive in many an Oriental’s action, good or bad, which induced them to spare the very man who was destined to frustrate their evil designs, for after a hurried consultation they passed by with the usual salutation. Their first victim was a young civilian named Graham, who was on his way to breakfast with the magistrate. Him they dragged from his palanquin and killed on the spot. When they reached the Residency, Mr. Cherry, still unsuspecting — in spite of repeated warnings from various quarters — received Wazir Ali with his usual friendliness, and took him in to breakfast. Four oi the Nawab’s escort, armed with swords, bucklers, and pistols, followed him to the table. As IMr. Cherry WAZIR ALPS TREACHERY 22 I handed the first cup of tea to his principal guest, Wazir Ali began shouting in his face a fierce tirade against the Resident and the Government, ending with a defiant refusal to obey their orders. Then, as one of his followers moved to a chair at Mr. Cherry’s side and pinioned his arms, Wazir Ali rose, seized the Resident by the collar, and slashed at him with his sword. The unfortunate man wrenched himself free, and rushed through the verandah into the garden, only to be cut to pieces by the ruffians outside. His private secretary, named Evans, who was also at the breakfast-table, and an officer staying in the house, were the ne.xt victims. In the meantime Mr. Davis, who had received fresh warnings from the head of the police, had sent a messenger to Mr. Cherry, and was awaiting his return with an.xiety. His worst fears were confirmed by the approach of Wazir Ali’s murderous gang, and the sound of firing as they shot down the sentry posted at the entrance to his compound. There was no time to be lost. He hurried his wife and two children, with their ayahs, up the narrow winding staircase which led to the only place of refuge — the terraced roof of the house, and rushed back for his firearms. It was too late! The ruffians were already at the door of the house. The only weapon within reach was a pike, over six feet long, used by one of his retainers. It was of iron, plated with silver, and had a sharp triangular steel blade. He seized this and retreated to the top of the stair- case, prepared to defend single-handed the only ap- proach to the roof on which his terror-stricken wife and children were crouching. BENARES, THE SACRED CITY The mob hesitated for a moment. The stairs were narrow and steep, only admitting one at a time. An English sahib with a formidable pike was at the top. Then one more courageous than the rest crept up with drawn sword, while the others supported him from behind. A rapid thrust from the pike pierced his arm, and caused him to retire precipitately. Soon another ventured, and, more de.xterous than the last, managed to evade the first thrust and to seize the pointed end of the pike. The brave magistrate replied to this manoeuvre by dropping the shaft on the head of the staircase and, throwing his whole weight on it, jerked the point upwards. His assailant retired with his hands cut to the bone. The howling mob turned heel also, after firing pistol volleys up the staircase, and commenced to smash the furniture, pillage the house and stables, and to murder any servants who interfered. An hour passed without any further attack — an hour of terrible suspense for Mr. Davis and the little party on the roof, who could only imagine the pandemonium downstairs by the crash of broken glass and furniture, and the shouting of Wazir Ali’s myrmidons. The gallant defender of the staircase did not dare to move from his position, and one of the ayahs who ventured to peep over the parapet was shot through the arm. Then the tumult suddenly ceased. Soon afterwards stealthy steps were heard upon the stairs, and, pre- pared for any cunning ruse of the enemy, Mr. Davis grasped his trusty spear and awaited the ne.xt attack. But this time it was the scared face of a faithful old servant, who held in front of him a rescued teapot as a sign of friendliness. He brought the welcome news of WAZIR ALI CRUSHED Wazir All’s retreat from the house. The arrival of fifteen armed policemen at the same time was a sub- stantial reinforcement which relieved Mr. Davis from the intense strain of the situation. The murder of the Resident had been the signal for all of Wazir All’s adherents to rally round him and commence a general attack on the Europeans in the cantonment, some of whom concealed themselves in the fields of maize close by, while others fied to Bita- bur, the military station ten miles from Benares, and Q-ave the alarm. The general commanding, on the first intelligence, started off with his whole force. It was the approach of the British cavalry which drew off Wazir All’s gang from the magistrate’s house. The rest of the story is soon told. Wazir All’s men made a feeble attempt to harass the advanced guard, which arrived about eleven o’clock, but the infantry and guns, which followed soon afterwards, forced them to fall back on Wadhu Das’s Gardens. Here they made a last stand, but before the sun had set their resistance was broken, and the chief conspirators had fled to the hills. The only partakers in the miserable plot who played their part with any sort of distinction were Shionath and five of his gang of Bankas, who held at bay an overwhelming force of British troops for five hours, and then sallied out sword in hand to meet their fate like men. Wazir All reached the Nepal Terai, and was joined by a few thousand adherents. A few defeats caused them to desert, and he was driven to take refuge at Jaipur. He was then extradited and brought as prisoner to Calcutta. After many years of close con- 224 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY finement in Fort William, he was sent to the State prison at \"ellore, where he died. Mr. Davis, whose clearness of judgment and per- sonal courage probably averted a great disaster to the whole of British India, received only a formal letter of thanks from the Calcutta Council during the absence of the Marquis Wellesley at the seat of war in the south. He died in England in 1819 after many years ot brilliant service as one of the directors of the East India Company. Madhu Das’s Gardens, the head-quarters first of Whirren Hastings, and afterwards of the e.x-Nawab Wazir Ali, in those stirring times, is an old pleasure- ground of the IMogul period, laid out with stone water- channels for irrigation and a square platform with a fountain in the centre. For the accommodation of the owner and his zenana there were airy pavilions in the centre of the four walls which surrounded it. I'he gardens are now in native hands, the water- channels are dried up, and the quarters are seldom occupied. ICxcept by an occasional riot between low -class Hindus and Muhammadans, such as has been de- scribed in the last chapter, and some trouble with a native regiment in the days of the Mutiny, Benares has not disturbed the pax Britannica since 1799. From the Hindu point of view, the city has nour- ished exceedingly under British rule. Its temples and shrines have multiplied, and the strong arm of the law now prevents the desecration and destruction to which they were subject in Muhammadan times. I'he railways have largely increased the numbers of pilgrims who throng the ghats and holy places, and MODERN PROGRESS have thus added to the offerinQ-s which enrich the Brahmin priesthood. British influence has undoubtedly made for order, decency, cleanliness, and general sanitation in the city. But its effect on the foundations of Hindu beliefs is not very evident in Benares, the Rome of Hinduism, unless the spirit of e.xclusiveness which has sprung up of late years should be regarded as a sign of the Brahmins’ alarm at the increasing influence of Chris- O tianity. When Sherring wrote his Sacred City of the Hindus, in the middle of the last century, he was allowed access to the most sacred places, which are now entirely closed to Europeans, even to the few who claim admission within the pale of the Hindu religion. Benares has not ceased to be one of the great centres of the intellectual life of India, held in love and veneration by all Hindus; but the orthodox Brahmin looks askance at the efforts of Hindu pro- pagandists, like Swami Vivekananda, who would strengthen resistance to outside influences by enlarg- ing the borders of Hinduism. The Hindu monasteries of Benares are still resorted to by students from all parts of India, for the education imparted by Brahmin Pandits, totally ignorant of modern research, and reoardino- as worthless all know- ledge not contained in Hindu sacred literature. On the other hand, there is the extraordinary spectacle of a college for Hindus, supported both by Indians and Europeans, with English men and women e.x- pounding Hindu philosophy and religion to Hindus, and seeking to re-state the ancient \Tdic wisdom on a basis of modern science. 226 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY Whether the Hindu Central College at Benares will survdv'e the remarkable personality of its leading spirit, Mrs. Besant, may well be questioned, but there is no doubt that Hinduism will continue to be pro- foundly modihed by the intlow of Western ideas. There can be no greater mistake than to consider Hinduism as so many immutable customs and forms of ritual and belief, which may be uprooted, but cannot be trained or adapted. Just as thousands of years ago the Vedic Rishis, \kisishtha and Yishwamitra, represented two opposite schools, one of rigid orthodoxy and exclusiveness, the other of tolerance and progressive thought, so to-day there is, on the one side, the Brahmin of the old school, jealous of his social privileges, and guarding the ancient forms of his religion from the taint of innovation; and, on the other side, the Hindu who seeks to adjust the canons of his faith to social changes and the progress of human knowledge. The strength of Hinduism has always lain, not in its e.xclusiveness, but in its extraordinary power of adaptation and assimilation. It is waste of energy for Christians to inveigh merely against Hindu super- stition, idolatry, and caste. It is rather by sympathetic study of Hinduism in all its aspects that we shall learn to reach the hearts of the people, as our great Teacher did on the shores of Galilee. ' r,' i'4 V- ■! 'k: r>' ^/= V.' \ '.-A -- -f' s i - :• . i - • t-r-I - ; '■ : > . • '-