The Kautilya Society blog

Despite the presence in Banaras of thousands of temples, the centre of religious practice in this city is a vast hidden altar. Most people can’t see it even while moving over it. There is a threshold to cross over in order to perceive it, the threshold of devotion. The altar is revealed to the pilgrim performing purification’s rituals.

It is the altar of the great Sun Temple, that rises on the banks of Ganga-ji, (the name devotees use to refer to their mother, the river Ganges). It is a temple in the form, of an amphitheater, where the ghats form the platforms, the water the altar and the sun is God. Here Ganga-ji, which normally flows eastward, takes a sudden turn towards the North. Banaras is situated on its western banks where it flows northwards. That is why the sun rises perpendicularly to the river forming a burning line that cuts across the river at dawn.

Raising from the purifying dip in the river, the devotee opens joint hands and pours the Ganga water into the burning stream of light. In the offering of water to the Sun, a unity is created between the Sun and Earth, between the fire and the water, between the source and receiver of the offering, between the soul of man and the soul of nature.

Though a bit forgotten in today’s Hindu pantheon, the Sun God was at the core of the original Vedic experience. That was the first religion of the Aryans who had declared Banaras to be the holiest amongst their cities, because of its unique combination of primary elements. Here, they worshipped Aditya, Surya the Sun, Usha- the Dawn, and Indra- the Rain with elaborate rituals.

Hinduism has changed in the past five thousand years. It is Shiva and Vishnu, with their female counterparts and their incarnations who are praised in the temples and addressed in the religious songs. Vedic Gods receive little attention in daily worships. But even now the holiest prayer of Hinduism has remained the Gayatri Mantra, the Vedic hymns to the Sum God. It is this mantra that the Hindu devotee recites as he /she rises out of the cold water, eyes closed, facing the warm, rising Sun. A main stream in the changing currents of Hinduism, the continuous performance of the Gayatri Mantra has given unity to a religion which manifests itself in hundreds if different Shiva, Vaishnava and Shakta sects.

Though over the centuries, temples and palace have been built long the river, such constructions have always maintained a curtain of respect for this ancient sacrifice performed on the altar of the Sun Temple. The kings built their palaces, but bowed before austerity. Wealthy merchants, as well, lived in palaces, but they came to Banaras to adopt a discipline. The flaunting of one’s status was expressed through the promotion of learning the building of schools, the erecting of temples. One came to Banaras to make contact with the beyond, not to exhibit wealth.

The adhesion to this philosophy of life laid the foundation for the architectural and social unity of the Sun Temple which, astonishingly enough, continues to exist. But even if palaces crumbled to rubble, the place would simply return to what it was before, nature’s temple where the sanctifying elements of water, sun and prayers are all that are needed.

For this reason, the Mogul armies failed to destroy the true altar of the temple though they destroyed its walls several times. They may have succeeded only if they had managed to change the course of the river, obliterate the sun rise, of cut the faith out of the hearts of devotees.

Do we know that the Ganga riverfront ghats and the old city of Varansi fulfill the criteria of being proposed to the World Heritage List of UNESCO: the criteria of being a cultural landscape, charatcerised by living traditions and constituting a unique artistic and aesthetic accomplishment.

The city represents a unique natural shape along the Ganga river which flows northerly in crescent shape for about 7km, rendering sacred the city that has grown along its western banks, facing the rising of the sun and making the ghats (stone steps that rise from the river towards its shores) sacred for all Hindu rituals. The area along the right side is a flood plain, preserving the natural ecosystem. The natural setting, the spirit of place, and the continuity of cultural traditions have all blended together to create and preserve a unique lifestyle known as Banarasi. It is the only city where textually described cosmogonic frame and geomantic outlines are existent in their full form and totality, thus the city becomes universally significant.

The city considered as the microcosm of Hindu pilgrimage, is visited by thousands of Hindu, Buddhist and Jain pilgrims and foreign visitors each day and known the world over as the “sacred city”, is rich in architectural, artistic and historical buildings (temples, palaces, maths, mosques, ashrams, etc.). Besides being an indelible part of our heritage, these buildings, along with the local religious and cultural life, constitute an immense resource for tourism, domestic and foreign, one of the major economic activities of the city. Varanasi is a living symbolisation and a living expression of Indian culture and traditions in all its religious rituals, in its multi-ethnic artistic traditions, in its architectural treasures, in its life-expressions, in its particular relationship with life and death, in its ancient educational forms and methods and in its multi-ethnic population.

Development pressures are altering irreversibly many aspects of the cultural, architectural, artistic and above all the historic fabric of the city that is the very base and the very resource of economic sustainability of the city. In order to make development economically, environmentally and socially sustainable, conservation has to become a determining factor for development plans and due attention must be given to heritage conservation issues and related action plans. In order to achieve this, the city needs broad-based policy initiative to protect and utilise its built heritage. Destruction of the architectural heritage and modification of urban spaces in the old areas of Varanasi could negatively alter the religious and cultural life for which the city is sacred.

Read more in the article on “Rationales for proposing Varanasi to UNESCO” available on our web site: http://www.kautilyasociety.com/heritage/file/index.php

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In Banaras, the tourism industry is greedily investing in building new structures to lodge tourists who stop over for short visits to get a quick view of the life and those parts of the “old” city that are world famous for their unique features. It is little concerned with sharing the benefices of development with the local community. In fact, one of the features of the city is that here the tourism industry is less capable than elsewhere of preserving the resources upon which the tourism business is based, i.e. the architectural, social and cultural heritage of the historic city centre.
Many of the historic palaces, that are the stars of the city, are in a dilapidated state. The state blames this on the lack of budget provisions and pressing matters of higher national importance. Developers lobby for new constructions and not for conservation of the old. The result is the rampant erosion of an increasing number of neglected old structures along the Ghats. So the “developers” are raising this issue to force their solution, i.e. to transform these structures into luxury hotels along the Ganges. But unplanned commercial exploitation of the Ghats will lead to disharmony with the traditional life along the river, provoke crises in the identity of the resident community of the historic city centre and will also undermine the resources upon which tourism is based. So, the challenge is to contrast such an unsustainable model of development. This challenge is now being taken up by some people, including visionary administrators, responsible political people, motivated traditional stalwarts, professors, lawyers, media and civil society bodies like the Kautilya Society.

In Varanasi, we have the paradox of it being one of the cities where traditional life style is best preserved, but also where architectural heritage is least conserved. There is a timid ordinance that forbids new constructions within “200 meters” distance from the river banks but this ordinance is little policed and extensively disrespected. State Government will continue to forget monitoring its implementation unless local community is involved in the process of policy planning for the conservation and management of the historical city centre. In a vacuum of legislations, even aggressive initiatives like the one of demolishing the the Darbhanga Palace demolished by a chain of hotels to make a five star structure, have public support. This constructed has been stopped for the moment only because the media, some responsible political people and civil society synergised to move the administration the high court of the state of Uttar Pradesh and because it was within 300 meters of a “National Monument” (the Manmandir observatory), protected by the Archaeological Survey of India.

The population growth is over burdening the carrying capacity of the urban environment and the river eco-system and unplanned mass and luxury tourism could potentially have a hard impact on the cultural carrying capacity of the old city centre. Social hygiene and sanitation services too are beginning to bend under the pressure of a growing resident population and a constant large floating population. While demographic pressures force new illegal and low-standard housing to mushroom in the low lying areas along the River Ganga at the two ends of the city, beyond the river Varuna in the North and the river Assi in the South, new illegal structures get added on to old historical buildings, temples and ashrams along the river in the ancient sacred part of the city. Not only are the historical, cultural and religious buildings today in peril of being demolished or mutated forever in a misused interpretation of “development”, but so are the old trees of this once famous “city of the gardens”, the haveli-s of the benefactors of this city, the sacred water bodies or kunds, the riverfront and the Goddess Ganga herself. Like most urban areas in India, Varanasi is being submerged by steep demographic increase and urban migration. Tourism is seen as the potentially most promising industry. So there is an increased attention to look at tourism as the source to provide funds for the badly needed restorations. But should the buildings along the river-front be converted into hotels? Does development always have to imply construction? Can we not develop preserving our heritage? By betraying the traditional usage of urban space, would we not be destroying the very resource for tourism, which is the “personality” of Varanasi.
If you want to know more on it, do read the article- “Why Varanasi needs a conservation policy” on www.kautilyasociety.com/heritage/file/index.php

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