Varanasi - Off the Beaten Track

Erato

Hi,

I'll be spending a week in Varanasi during Diwali this year. I saw most of the "major" attractions on a previous visit (ghats & Ganges boat ride, Sarnath, etc.).

Although wandering the ghats and back streets is interesting and occupied much of my time last visit, I'm looking for other activities or things to see this time, a little more "off the beaten track".

I'm also open to suggestions within 1-2 hours by train/bus.

What are the interesting things you'd recommend that aren't listed in guidebooks?

ChrisJ

Well this is hardly off the beaten track - but did you get a boat down to Ram Naggar?

Its an interesting daytrip to have a look at the fort etc if you didnt go last time

Chris.

phantom

You can go inside the BHU (Banaras Hindu University).. and see the stark contrast it presents from the city.
There is a Huge vishwanath temple inside the University.
Apart from that.. you can visit the old vishwanath temple and see the all the controversy surrounding it, in the form of a fortified mosque just next to the temple.

There are a lot of places (mostly waterfalls) nearby for trekking as well as outing.. like
Devdari, Rajdari, ... etc.

Gayamom

Important disclaimer: I have not been to Varanasi since 1986. I very much want to go back! If it has not changed beyond all recognition, then here is what I personally would try to do:

1) Use Richard Lannoy's book Benares Seen From Within as the basis of a full day's walking tour through old Kashi.

2) Repeat the next day using Diana Eck's City of Light. Would probably need to hire a graduate student from BHU or SSU to make this happen.

3) Take an eating tour of Varanasi. Focus on mithai (sweets) made with ghee, milk products of all kinds (rabri, lassi, yogurt, milk sweets), and the beautiful, beautiful produce available in the local markets. The mishti paan (betel nut) is supposedly famous (yuck). Could a cooking lesson be arranged? Recover in bed for a day or two, or resort to recommendation 10.

4) Try and attend a classical concert, or two or three. If I were lucky, I would be there when the all-night vocal music festival on the ghats were taking place [does it still happen?]. Or when Ram Lila were going on. Or at a venue when the power was cut, the concert lantern-lit, and I'd end up listening to night ragas on the rooftop of a crumbling 18th century zamindar's mahal. [Happened. Who can resist such a city's allure?]

5) Take a silk tour. As a tourist, this would be tricky, but the industry is fascinating, and the product, Benarasi brocade silk, gorgeous. How to arrange this without getting dragged to every rip-off, rayon-selling "silk" emporium? Hmmm. Similar interesting industry: musical instruments.

6) Try and visit Sankat Mochan Foundation (still around?) and find out about progress on cleaning up the Ganges River. Their guesthouse, Amar Bhavan near Assi Ghat, was a delightful place for rooms and great conversation. Still open?

7) Visit BHU (as previously suggested). If I were a young woman, then avoid ill-mannered BHU students at all costs. At my advanced age, relax and enjoy the campus, once a pre-eminent center of British colonial education.

8) Learn more about Sanskrit scholarship, of which Varanasi is an old (think in terms of millenia) center. Are any of the old masters still alive? Doubt it. they were quite elderly when I was in Varanasi. Have the old schools survived or after 1000s of years, is this learning tradition now dead?

9) Contrive a visit with the local journalists. A lively bunch of scalliwags when I was there. They'll tell you what's what and know where the good cheap eats are.

10) Spend a lot of time sitting on a charpoy on one's guesthouse roof, drinking hot chai and reading very fat novels. Especially recommended for chilly days, when you need a warm shawl wrapped around you and the sun on your back feels mahvelous. Never read War and Peace? Now's your chance. Just don't fall asleep, because the monkeys are a sacred pestilence.

11) What is left of the old courtesans' culture? There is some description of this in Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy, I think? Maybe a different novel? Any way, their old quarter was located north of Godowlia, near Tutheri Market maybe? But the one grandmother I visited, a highly successful thumri singer and ex-courtesan, lived way out in the burbs, in a nice house with a successful, middle class family around her. Any of this worldy, louche domain still exist?

12) Are the old kabiraj's still around? Practitioners of a traditional form of medicine. I visited the office/ apothecary of a kabiraj, grandson of a very famous 19th century kabiraj. Fascinating man. His office was straight out of Dickens. All gone? Replaced by an Apollo Hospital or similar chain? Which would be better for those who are sick, but worse for those who just want their imaginations exercised.

13) Avoid druggy Westerners. You can hang with them in your own hometown. Instead, contrive to meet the urbane, cultured and impoverished denizens of this town. The old families, well, I imagine the old Italian trading familes must have had the same aura. They are descendents of a continuous civilization that has existed for a very, very long time. They've been dealing with tourists for most of that time, so don't expect them to be too excited by your arrival.

Skip this advice if you're into that scene, in which case, no offense intended. [Just, why do in old, anciently corrupt and serpentine Varanasi what can be done so much more safely in Amsterdam? Never understood that. Unless it's Siva Ratri, in which case please stay indoors, unless you really know what you're doing.]

14) Give alms to the widows and bestow a smile upon them too. Their lives are hard. Are there respite houses where a large gift of warm blankets or shawls would be welcome? Mother Theresa was doing this work, I think. Seek this out.

15) Visit the smaller temples, of which there are only a zillion. Diana Eck's book will help here. There was a Durga (?) mandir, not too far from Kashi Vishwanath Mandir (?), where women gathered to sing bhajan very beautifully. Another small Siva (?) Mandir near Kedarnath (?), very clean, on whose verandah the community drama types gathered to talk, a tiny family shrine which had two small handprints set in concrete, a young sati from the 19th century who was worshipped by the family as an incarnation of Lakshmi . . .

16) Have not gotten into "scary" Varanasi. But this is an old place (as in, second millenium B.C.). And, like many old places, well, some would argue that its heart is rotten. So, stay alert. Keep the scam alert level on high. Don't go out at night until you know what you're doing.

All of the above assumes that Varanasi has not entered the digital era with the gusto that, frankly, every other Indian city I've been to recently has. That the kids are not spending their nights on World of Warcraft, their parents plugged into whatever the latest TV soap is, their older brothers and sisters listening to the same rap/ bollywood cr@p that young people everywhere are. That the nuanced culture I am eluding to, on its last legs when I witnessed it back in the 1980s, has not been flattened by our (pretty cool, possibly more hopeful) cyber world.

So, after a lengthy post, I have to end by saying the off-the-beaten track Kashi yatra I'm imagining may be a late 20th century hallucination.That's not to say digital Kashi won't be fascinating. I suspect Siva meets HAL would lead to some interesting fireworks. Maybe someone else can post some itinerary ideas that take the last <cough> twenty years into account.

GM

bijapuri

Jaunpur is an interesting, and very different day trip, easy to wander around that town and see stuff

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lookit me!!!: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bijapuri/

Utube fuzzy logic:
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phantom

Just a few notes to Gayamom's excellent post.
1) For silk, there is a small village next to Benaras where you can actually see them working on the saris. Buy from there, instead from the city. I dont remember the name right now.
2) I'll second Gayamom on, if you are a female, avoid BHU.
3) Visit Tulsi Manas Mandir. It is one of the oldest temples in Varanasi. Tulsidas is supposed to have written the epic "Ramayana" sitting at that place.
4) The night long concert on the ghats, generally happens during "Deep Dipawali" I forgot the date .. but its one of the major festivals and you will be stunned by the grandeur of it.

somnath

You can visit Chunar fort, Patal kali, Bindhyachal, kali kho, bhairav temple etc. you need to hire a car for that (not sure about the local bus service). Still if you have some extra days, can try for Lucknow for a couple of days.

- Somnath

yatrayatra

Very very thoughtful post Gayamon.

What do you think of the following suggestions ?

a)vist Mirzapur and Bhadohi and see the local carpet making in progress - certainly one could buy one at factory prices.

b)drink thandai in the Chowk area ; about five different shops I would say.

c)fly a kite if one is in town during the patang festival which is the 14th of January

d)visit Ramaleela at Ramnagar during the winter Navratra and the vijayadashmi celebration viz. the burning of Ravana at DLW.

e)Bharat Milap at Nati Imli.

f)drink Tadi at Ramnagar or at Padaav !

Great post there Gayamon, you certainly seemed to have enjoyed Benares.

Mother Ganga

Fly a kite with the children in any Ghat, later play chess with the grown ups in Pandey Ghat,
Pray in Mother Ganga temple, and bring flowers in Golden Temple.
Have a paan and a lassi, a must in Benares!
Get lost in the alleys and say namaste to the children 100 times.
Sit by any Ghat and while you have a chai watch the indian pilgrims do snan in the holy waters. Admire their bald heads, their customes, their devotion.
Admire the sunset and watch the ceremony every afternoon in Dashaswmedh from a boat.
Cross the river and take a horse ride in the other side. Take pics from there.
Enjoy the local cuisine, a maharaja thali in Keshari or any tasty dosa.
Talk to any baba or sadhu but not too long...
Yes, take some silk item as this is the city of the silk saris and silk handicrafts.
Study hindi, yoga, sitar, etc etc....
Keep coming back to Benares as you will miss it so much... :-)

nedhopkins

Palace on Ganges is a fine hotel: clean, well-appointed rooms and a good restaurant. Its only disadvantage is that it's at Assi Ghat.

Check its website: www.palaceganges.com

nedhopkins

Oops! That's www.palaceonganges.com

Gayamom

Yatra-squared -

Thanks for your kind words! Suggestions a) - f) all sound good, as do those of MG.

I am curious as to how Kashi has absorbed the digital age. Any updates?

GM

palerider

Gayamon, my Uma, please write a book?. I want ten copies.

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robotvoice

second that! Thank you for the wonderful post, thorough and brief at the same time, just the way i like it!
hmmm... can't really say because i haven't done half the things you did when i was there, and i also can't compare it to what it was like fifteen years ago. But i don't think it has changed much, and the things you mentioned should still be possible.
I guess you'll have to go back for yourself and write that book...

Darmabum

don't worry Gayamom . . . Kashi - in Spirit - is much the same, and isn't Spirit what Kashi is all about? . . . (least it is for me)(in fact, my avatar photograph was shot near Asi ghat . . . in? . . . '89) . . . My last two trips to India have been Varanasi, only, for six months each time (my last trip ended in August of last year). I go to study bansuri (bamboo flute) and write; for those things Kashi is ideal. Musically it's a great city, and I second your suggestion to find music there; there is a classical music festival at the Sankat Mochan Temple in early April. It lasts for four or five days, goes each day from sunset to sunrise . . . was falling asleep on the last night last year when I heard/dreamed an amazing voice . . . sat up and heard Pandit Jasraj (one of the premier vocalists in India) singing/finishing the festival as the sun rose the last day. I stay in the Asi area, for it's neighborhood feel and distance from the center of town.
I can hardly say any more, or say any better, what Gayamom said . . . though I would give yourself more time if you are to do a Diana-Eck-Tour . . . her book, and it's a beauty, is 300 pages long . . . Kashi is 3000 years old . . . amazing place. So much so that I haven't gotten over sunrise over the river yet (I've seen over 300 sunrises in Kashi) and haven't tired of them yet.
Find classical music there . . . I remember too during Diwali in 2000 a km long ribbon of floating candles on the Ganges at night . . . maybe take a boat on the Ganges that night (as I did) . . . see and hear Divali from the river . . . Have a Great Trip. Scott.
P.S. Gayamom - while the e-volution of Kashi is happening (I found a wireless place near Asi ghat last year), one of the big issues is the importation of Chinese silk(!!!!!!) into Varanasi. I always buy a desk when I'm there . . . I brought along my guesthouse owner to help me shop - as the desk would be his when I left - he picked an imported one . . . "Made in China"

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