Chapter 13 The Somaesthetic Sublime: Varanasi in Modern and Contemporary Indian Art
Pradeep A. Dhillon
Are there not many holy places on this earth? Yet which of them would equal in the balance one speck of Kashi’s dust? Are there not many rivers running to the sea? Yet which of them is like the River of Heaven in Kashi? Are there not many fields of liberation on the earth? Yet not one equals the smallest part of the city never forsaken by Shiva. The Ganges, Shiva and Kashi: Where this trinity is watchful, No wonder here is found the grace that leads to perfect bliss.1
1 Varanasi as a Cosmopolis
Hindus say of the city of Kashi, also called Varanasi or Banaras, that it “stands at the center of the earth as the place of creation, and gathers the whole of the sacred universe in a single symbolic circle, the mandala. Yet it is not an earthly city. Kashi is said to sit above the earth as a ‘crossing place’ (tirtha) between this shore and the ‘far shore’ of the transcendent Brahman.”2 It is said to be the oldest inhabited city in India located on the banks of the sacred river Ganges. This river is said to flow from Lord Shiva down to the Himalayas onto the Bay of Bengal. It considered by most Indians, and all Hindus, as the divine made material. This river, is also the Goddess Ganga, the consort of all three Hindu gods: Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. In the words of the lesser Hindu deity Skanda,
O Agastaya, one should not be amazed at the notion that this Ganges is really Power, for is she not the Supreme Shakti of the Eternal Shiva, taken the form of water?
1 Kāshī Khanda 35.7–10, cited in Diana Eck, Banaras: City of Light (New York: Columbia Uni- versity Press, 1999), dedication. The spelling of the city as “Benares” is also common and is sometimes used in this text. 2 Eck, Banaras: City of Light, 4.
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The Ganges filled with the sweet wine of compassion, was sent for the salvation of the world by Shiva, the Lord of Lords. Good people should not think this Triple-Pathed River like the thou- sand other earthly rivers, filled with water.3
Kashi then is not merely an earthly city. It is said to be a crossing place between the embodied, mundane, world and spiritual transcendent. Dying in this city, being cremated here, or even having your ashes immersed in the sacred wa- ters of the River Ganges, is said to ensure freedom from the embodied cycle of death and rebirth, from reincarnation. The Sanskritist Diana Eck, seeking to comprehend the city in terms of its place in the Hindu imagination, but as someone who stands outside the tradi- tion, speaks somaesthetically when she says,
As we stand at the riverfront at dawn, we are challenged to comprehend the whole of India in one sweeping glance. The India we see here reflects the elaborate and ancient ritual tradition of Hinduism. It is a tradition of pilgrimage to sacred places, bathing in sacred waters, and honoring divine images. It is a city in which all of the senses are employed in the apprehension of the divine. Its shrines are heaped with fresh flowers and filled with the smell of incense, the chanting of prayers and the ringing of bells. It is a tradition that has imagined and imaged God in a thousand ways, that has been adept at discovering the divine everywhere and in bringing every aspect of human life into the religious arena. It is a reli- gious tradition that understands life and death as an integrated whole. Here the smoke of the cremation pyres rises heavenward with the spires of a hundred temples and the ashes of the dead swirl through the river waters of the Ganges, the river of life.4
This is not to say, however, that Varanasi, like India, is not a multi-religious city. Almost one-third of its 4.1 million inhabitants are Muslim. As noted by Rajnish Mishra, “Muslims have always been a minority in the city, but a very promi- nent and significant one. They have contributed to the formation of the mate- rial and cultural essence of the city.”5 Jains, Buddhists, Sikhs, and Christians have established centers of pilgrimage, research and education in the city. For the Jains, Varanasi has been a site of pilgrimage since the 8th century bce.
3 Ibid., 217. 4 Ibid., 6. 5 Rajnish Mishra, “The Minority in Banaras: Intercommunity Power Friction and Heterogene- ity,” Voices 4, no. 1 (2014): 50.