Welsh Davids Travel Blog: 20 to 22 June – Agra to and at Varanasi (Benares) via a bush camp (India)

Advertising for schools, colleges and universities is quite common through India with huge hoardings just about everywhere. The advertising starts for nursery and pre-preschool all the way through to courses for the public service, lorry drivers, cooks etc. Then the advertisement advances to finding placements in universities in Europe, Japan and Australia mainly but other countries are included. Education is a big business here and parents do all that they can to have their children educated. I did like one particular sign ‘We have ingenious coaching, we simply inspire our students’. I wonder how many schools in the UK could say that they have a motto like this one!

As a aside, the local English language papers carry hundreds of adverts where parents advertise for a husband or wife for their son or daughter. The qualifications, possible salary and sometimes the caste of the person is mentioned with the requirements of the husband or wife indicated also. An Indian lady told me that arranged marriages were still the norm here with a lot of the women hoping to get a husband who lived overseas as they wanted more than anything to leave India thinking that a better life could be had outside India. I made the comment that perhaps arranged marriages had a good chance of working and was told that was in appearance only as divorce was not a consideration in India except for the very rich who had their own rules.

Street advertising

After travelling all day we set up a bush camp on some open space on the side of the highway and cooked a meal. The local youths were out in numbers to watch us and everything was alright until they began getting too close and stones started to be thrown at the group and the truck. It was thought that the stone throwing was because some of our ladies were not covered up properly and the Muslims amongst them were offended. I did discuss this with an Indian lady later and she said that if this had been so then the youths would more likely have called the village elders to talk to us. It was probably a few yobs amongst them who were throwing the stones with the result that we packed everything up in a very quick time and at 2015 hours we left and travelled through to Varanasi, arriving at 2330 hours. This had been a long day for the driver and with the arrival at Varanasi this was appreciated by all.

The crowd at the campsite

Arriving at the Hotel Suiya we were booked to camp on the lawn but I booked a room instead as the rainy season had started, it was hot and humid, and I stank to high heaven and really needed a shower. Here we stayed two full days with some of the happy campers visiting my room to cool down as the temperatures in the tent area was nearing 40C. Apparently a guest in the hotel asked if the tent area was a refugee camp!

The camp in the hotel

The camp in the hotel

In the morning I visited Sarnath where Buddha is said to have given his first sermon. The buildings were constructed in the third century and later 1500 monks lived on the site before the buildings were destroyed by Muslim invaders. There is not much of the site left now except for the thirty four metre high Dhamekh Stupa which marks the spot where Buddha preached his first sermon.

The grounds of Sarnath

The Stuppa

Nearby is the modern Mulagandha Kuti Vihar Temple, (photos below).

The temple

Buddha

Buddha

In the evening I arranged to go on the River Ganges to see the Ganga Aarti fire and dance ceremony carried out on one of the ghats. There was an Indian lady with me and she described what would be going on once we reached the river and on the river interpreted what was said by the boatman. (She also said that she checked with the hotel as to who else would be going to the river that evening and if she had been the only person then she would not have gone saying that a single Indian lady was not safe in Varanasi if she was by herself. Also, if the only others on the boat were Indian men she would not have gone as well). Once on the boat the colours of the river and ghats could be seen with the chaos that went with it. People on the ghats and boats on the river were slowly making their way to the two Aarti ceremonies and everything was packed in but with good hearted humour. There used to be only one ceremony but now there are two and apparently religious politics have come to the fore with the two groups being supported by different groups of people, the reason for which I do not know.

Scenes from the evening visit to the River Ganges

Walking from the lanes onto the ghat a funeral was taking place with two bodies being carried down to the river ready for cremation. I asked if I was allowed to take a picture of the bodies and was told that it would be alright.

It was then explained that people request that they be cremated on the Ganges at Varanasi as it is considered to be one of the holiest places in India. If the person lived in Varanasi then they would be cremated after twelve to sixteen hours of dying but if further away arrangements would be made to transport the body there. There are eighty-four ghats on the river but only a few are ‘burning’ ghats. The poor are cremated in two electric crematoriums and the rich on the ghat itself because only the rich can afford the cost of the wood required for the cremation and the cost of the ‘dom’ who organise and control the ceremony. The body is taken to the river and ‘washed’ five times by the eldest son and then the face is cleaned one last time. During the cremation, which takes about three hours, the family wait on the ghat (no women are allowed there) and during this time the hair is removed from the head of the eldest son. If there should be no son then it may be the father or husband who is shaved. Once the cremation is completed the remains are put into the river and a final religious ceremony is held on the ghat.

An older lady would be cremated without her jewels but a bride of under one years marriage would be cremated in her bridal dress with all her jewels. At the end of the ceremony the ‘dom’ would go through the ashes looking for the jewels and melted gold which they are allowed to keep.

There are certain bodies that are not cremated, being, a child under ten years of age, a pregnant lady, a Sadhu (priest) and a person who has died from a snake bite. The last is allowed to float on the river in-case the death is not certain and they come back to life.

The following morning I went back to the river to see the sun rise on the ghats and palaces. It was a dull morning so the effect of the sun was not very good. The palaces were built by various maharajas so as to live and die by the holy Ganges. The palaces are now lived in by the ‘doms’ and those who are involved in the cremation ceremonies and are owned by the brahmans.