Varanasi: India's religious capital

From Agra and the Taj Mahal, we made a stop in Khajuraho to see the Jain temples of love (pictures here) before winding up in our last stop in India: Varanasi. Like Agra, Varanasi has a reputation for being quite busy with a relentless onslaught of pushy touts. We were warned by many who went before us that it would be a trying experience. When we arrived though, we found it to be one of our more pleasant destinations in India. Two factors go into that: 1) we had already been in India for going on a month at this point, so we were largely immune to pushy guys peddling their wares, and 2) we stayed in Assi Ghat, well to the south of Old Town, where all the pushiness is centered.

Besides that, Varanasi has quite a bit going for it, whether you're just passing through, like us, or looking for a place to stick around in India long-term.

Boating down the Ganga

The Ganga

The big draw to Varanasi is indirectly the same for us as it is for Indians: the Ganges River. Indians flock like holy cows to the river, and we in turn come more or less to watch them. The Ganges, or Ganga as the locals call it, is simultaneously both the holiest river and the unholiest mess in all of India. It is the source of everything, the holiest of holies, the... bath for the local cows and buffalo, the repository for dead bodies and body parts, the emptying point for an overloaded sewerage system, and the dumping point for industrial waste, all in one river. Wow.

It's mind-boggling to us, but Indians have no moral dilemma with the most sacred of rivers being so polluted. How bad is it? Well, Lonely Planet seems to think that it has about 3,000 times the fecal coliform bacteria safe for bathing water. This doesn't keep thousands from coming to the ghats of Varanasi daily to not only wash their clothes and bathe in, but also brush their teeth with, and even drink and bottle the holy waters. To them, a holy river is holy no matter what gets put into it, and they nonchalantly toss spare wrappers and trash into their holy Ganga just as if it were a common toilet. (I think common toilets are actually cleaner, but I digress.)

Varanasi: the religious capital

Praise Shiva for this filth!

Varanasi is like a Hindu Mecca, denoted as one of the seven sacred cities due to its auspicious (Indians love this word) location along the Ganga, the source of life and gods in the Hindu dogma. To Hindus, to die here and have your body or ashes dumped into the sacred Ganga ensures the soul a release from the cycle of its transmigrations.

As if that weren't enough, Varanasi is also the birthplace of Buddhism. It is the last of four sites which Gautama Buddha traversed on his path to enlightenment and home of the site where he gave his first sermon.

The ghats

Dashashwamedh Ghat

The riverfront in Varanasi is lined with 80+ ghats, which are basically stone steps leading down into the river where people gather. There are basically two main kinds of ghats: bathing ghats and burning ghats.

At the bathing ghats, you'll find people on pilgrimages swarming the ghat steps to bathe in the holy waters. It doesn't matter who—men and women, young and old, rich and poor—everyone gets in the mix. The biggest crowds will come out at dawn, usually offering up some kind of prayer and sometimes an offering to the mighty Ganga. The biggest ghat, Dashashwamedh, has a ceremony called Agni Pooja at sundown where Hindu priests make offerings. 

The two burning ghats house a much more solemn scene. These are the places where people send their dead for cremation so that their ashes can become one with the river. Anyone is allowed to view as they delicately place the bodies on the pyres to burn. According to Hindu teachings, small children do not need to have their bodies purified by the flames; their bodies are simply weighed down with stones and put out on the river, ironically further polluting the waters while washing away the sins of mankind. Besides children, other groups which are not burned for various reasons are pregnant women, holy men, snake bite victims, lepers and small pox/chicken pox victims.

The city maze

Woman makes an offering at the ghat

As mentioned previously, the draw in Varanasi is largely centered around the river. I highly recommend not visiting Varanasi in the monsoon season as you will not be able to traverse the city as it was meant—down the river, from ghat to ghat. We only really got to see about 4-5 of the ghats, but if it were the dry season this is how I would've liked to see things.

If you visit in monsoon season like we did, you will be faced with an entirely different challenge: navigating through the maze of small back streets and alleyways of Old Town to get to the ghats. As a word of forewarning though, maps here are just about worthless; even Google throws its hands up at this place. This certainly does have its own charm to it, and even in the dry season I would recommend getting lost here at least once. Take a moment to sit down and smell the roses, or masala chai as it were. Chat up a monk, chase a cow or just have a seat and take it all in—whatever your thing is.

The third option is by river boat, of which there are quite a few. You can't spit without hitting a boat or driver at Dashashwamedh, but given the currents I'd recommend hiring someone down by Assi Ghat to just drop you up by  Manikarnika, the main burning ghat. Depending on your haggling skill and patience, you shouldn't pay more than 100Rp/person per hour for the boats.

Varanasi: the learning center

For the long-termers, Varanasi is also home to a major university, which just so happens to find itself near to Assi Ghat. There’s also supposed to be quite a large Jewish population. Unlike other cities we visited, Varanasi seems to have bunches of foreigners who come here to study Hindi, practice yoga, or simply do some soul searching. It's quite a spiritual place for some—we saw our fair portion of hippie peeps, or whatever they want to be called. (In case you didn't notice, this is not why we were there.)

Whatever your druthers, the presence of longer-term travelers down around Assi Ghat makes for a much more relaxed area with plenty of options for quality food. If you decide to stay up in the Old City, at least take the time to wander around here and hit up a restaurant or cafe.

Our experience

As touched on before, we came to Varanasi at the tail end of the monsoon season and stayed in the Assi Ghat area, a bit removed from the Old City area of twisting roads. The water levels were still too high to walk along the river as we planned, but the boat ride we took at dawn from Assi up to Manikarnika gave a nice view of the ghats.

Dawn is a great time to just sit there and watch the people at the ghats. Everyone that comes to bathe seems to have their own little ritual, and dawn is probably the most crowded time. Each ghat is supposed to have its own thing going, but if you're pressed for time then I'd suggest Assi and Dashashwamedh as the main two not to be missed. Ending the day at Dashashwamedh offers the chance to watch the Agni Pooja ritual as well.

Also be sure to make the time to stop by one of the burning ghats, either the main one up at Manikarnika or the smaller one down at Harishchandra, closer to Assi Ghat. At the burning ghats, there will be priests there which offer to explain things to you or guide you up to a higher point to get a good view, but be certain that they’re not doing so out of the goodness of their hearts. Explanations will be of varying quality, but expect them to look for a donation of at least 100-200Rp for firewood for those families who can’t afford enough for their troubles.

Recommended shops

Blue Lassi

Blueberry lassi

First and foremost: if you only go to one shop in Varanasi, make it Blue Lassi up in front of Manikarnika Ghat. If you don’t know what a lassi is, it’s a usually sweet yogurt drink flavored with your choice of fruits or other flavoring.

Blue Lassi serve up the best lassi either of us have ever had. Now in their third generation since opening, the family that runs Blue Lassi makes their reasonably-priced lassis the traditional way, right before your eyes with fresh ingredients. As they are made to order, expect it to take 10-15 minutes for them to mix it right before your eyes. They have all kinds of flavors. My favorite was chocolate and banana, and Akemi’s was the plain, which the owner topped with a bit of pomegranate. If you ask, he’ll even make you his secret bhang lassi, a traditional flavor laced with bits of marijuana.

All wet and ready for lassis

I think he took pity on us as we arrived there at about 7:30 am—a full hour before they open—as our tour of the ghats got cut short by the rains, which started shortly after we boarded a boat a little after dawn. He put out stools so we could have somewhere to sit out of the rain as he went through his daily rituals to pray for a good day of business. We chatted with him for a while after ordering, and he even gave us some complimentary chai.

The store isn’t much to look at, but they have wi-fi to go with ample seating and big hearts.

Aum Cafe

There were several options present in the Assi Ghat area that are worth stopping by, but if I had to pick one then this would be it. Aum Cafe is a hippie's dream come true—a fully vegetarian menu with nothing but fresh ingredients. 

Everything we had there, from the tea to a rather sizable veggie burrito, was fresh and fabulous. With a nice, bright setting and free wi-fi, the only drawback here was that limited seating and tons of foot traffic may make it hard to stay if you're looking for a place to camp out for the afternoon. Oh yeah, and they close around 4:30 pm or so, so no dinner.

Aum Cafe sits a little out of the way from the main path, but is well worth the trouble to find. From Assi Ghat, go up the steps and past Pizzeria Vaatika Cafe (also a decent option, by the way), and Aum Cafe will be on the right. Alternately, look for signs on the road leading to Assi Ghat, turning right at the big banner hanging over the road.

And there you have it—Varanasi in a nutshell. This was our last stop in India before making the arduous 2-day trek up into Nepal. For more Varanasi pictures, check the Flickr account, and stay tuned for more!