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BENARES
THE SACRED CITY
SKETCHES OF HINDU LIFE
AND RELIGION
BY
E. B. HAVELL, A.R.C.A.
PRINCIPAL OF THE GOVERNMENT SCHOOL OF ART, CALCUTTA
With mam Illustrations
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LONDON: BLACKIE & SON LIMITED
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PREFACE
It is, perhaps, because Benares is not forbidden, that such
a mine of human interest, and one of the most extraordinary
cities of the East, is now probably less known to most Euro-
peans than Lhasa. Even of the Europeans who have seen
Benares, few have any adequate conception of the ideas and
beliefs which many millions of our fellow-subjects associate
with it. Few, indeed, have either the time or the inclination
to read through the increasing accumulation of very solid
literature which deals with the philosophic side of Hinduism;
and the more popular missionary accounts (with our national
tendency to underrate the enemy's strength) generally make
the mistake of representing all Hinduism as a mass of de-
graded superstitions and idolatry, only held together by the
profound ignorance and backwardness of the Indian people.
These sketches are not offered as a contribution to oriental
scholarship, or to religious controversy, but as an attempt to
give an intelligible outline of Hindu ideas and religious prac-
tices, and especially as a presentation of the imaginative and
artistic side of Indian religions, which can be observed at few
places so well as in the sacred city and its neighbourhood —
the birthplace of Buddhism and of one of the principal sects
of Hinduism.
The illustrations have been, for the most part, specially
prepared to elucidate the text, and include some of the re-
V
228036
vi BENARES, THE SACRED CITY
markable discoveries made this year at Sarnath. They will,
it is hoped, give some idea of the wonderful artistic wealth
of Benares life, and at the same time be more instructive than
those of ordinary books of travel.
The authorities consulted include Sherring's Sacred City of
the Hindus â– ; The Life and Times of Sri SankaracJiarya, by
C. Krishnasami Aiyar; and the works of Barth, Beal, Sylvain
Levi, Rhys Davids, Monier Williams, Max M uller, Taylor,
and many others. My acknowledgments are due to Messrs.
E. J. Lazarus & Co., of Benares, for permission to use
Mr. Ralph Griffiths' translation of the Rig- Veda; and to
Messrs. Som Brothers, Calcutta, for extracts from Pandit
Tattvabhushan's translations of the Upanishads.
I am indebted to H.H. the Maharajah of Benares and staff
for much courteous assistance; and to Babus Abanindro
Nath Tagore, Dinesh Chandra Sen, and other Indian friends
for valuable information.
Mr. J. H. Marshall, Director-General of the Archaeological
Survey of India, Dr. Vogel, Messrs. Johnstone & Hoffman,
Calcutta, and Messrs. Saeed Bros., Benares, have kindly
helped me with some of the illustrations.
E. B. HAVELL.
Calcutta, October, igo^.
CONTENTS i x
Chapter XI. Remains of Old Benares— A Hindu-Muham-
madan Riot— A Weavers' Colony—
The study of Indian sculpture and painting — Miniature stone
temples— Mosques built of materials from ancient temples
The Lat Bhairo — Bakariya Kund iqo
Chapter XII. Benares under British Rule—
Chet Singh and Warren Hastings— The murder of Mr. Cherry
— Influence of British rule— Benares and Neo-Hinduism - 210
>V (B4S8)
ILLUSTRATIONS
Page
Manikarnika Ghat Frontispiece
A Vyas, or Public Reader, at Benares - - - - - 21
The Coronation of Rama and Ska - - - - 27
Site of Deer-Park, excavated 1905 - - - - 41
Miniature Votive Shrine, excavated at Sarnath, 1905, showing the
sikra crowned by the amalika ornament - - - 43
Model of a Nepalese Buddhist Temple - - - 45
The Asoka Column, marking the place where Buddha began to
preach. Discovered at Sarnath, 1905 47
Buddha Preaching. Discovered at Sarnath, 1904 - - 51
Carving on the Dhamek Stupa - 53
Excavations below Hurnayun's Tower, Sarnath, 1905 - - - 55
Shiva, as Natesa. From a bronze in the Madras Museum - - 69
The Goddess Durga — a fresco painting 74
A Benares Street - - - - - 11
A Village Temple in Bengal - - - - - 79
Gai Ghat — A Classic Group - - -'- - - - -80
An old Sacrificial Vessel - - - - 82
An old Benares Brocade - - - - 83
An old Benares Lota - - - - - - - - -§5
Temple at Dasasamedh Ghat - - - = - 88
"Lighting up the recesses of the cave-like shrines' 5 . - - 91
A Sannyasi's Water- Vessel - - - - 95
A Shivaite Rosary - - - - - 96
" He will sit like a living Buddha, motionless" 97
The Burning Ghat - - - - - 101
XI
xii BENARES, THE SACRED CITY
Page
Dasasamedh Ghat - - -107
The Temple of Sitala - - - - - - 114
A Sanskrit School - - Il6
Carved Snakes at Chauki Ghat - - Il8
An Aghori - - - - - - 120
A Suttee Stone - - - - 121
"Another venerable hermit, seated on a leopard's skin" - - - 123
Shivala Ghat - - - - " I2 7
Balcony of Man Singh's Observatory - - - - - - 129
The Nepalese Temple - _I 3 I
The Shrine of Ganga - - - r 33
" Groups of women . . . are performing puja" - - - - ! 35
" Like a painted frieze from Pompeii, or the decoration of an antique
vase" - " J 39
Scindhia Ghat ... - - 141
An Encampment of Sadhus - ! 45
The Buildings at Ghosla Ghat - - - -147
The Head of Bhima - - - - - 148
Bhima completed - - - 149
Lamps for the Pitris - - - - - - - - -I 5 r
Lamp-stand at Panchganga - l S 2
" Three old women, who pause to barter with a seller of pots and
pans, unconsciously posing themselves in their classic drapery
like the Fates, or the Weird Sisters" - - ! 53
Palhvad Ghat - - 156
A Vaishnavite Nun reading the Ramayana - - I S7
The Salagram Stone ... - - - 161
Plan of Hindu Roofing - - - - 162
The Temple of Durga, or " Monkey Temple" - - - 163
Durga - - - - - - 167
Mask of Shiva - - - - 169
In the Ahmety Temple: a Brahmin performing his sandhya - - 170
The Ahmety Temple - - - - - 171
A Sacrificial Spoon - - - - - - - - - * 1 75
The Temple at Ramnagar - - - - - - - - ] 7 8
Mask of Bhaironath - 1 79
ILLUSTRATIONS xiii
Page
Ganesha - - - - - - 181
The Well of Knowledge - - - 183
The Panch-kosi Road - ... „ . . 189
A Village Deity - - - _ _ igo
The Temple and Tank at Khandawa - - - - 191
Ancient Carving, Khandawa Temple - - - - - 193
"Thin vaporous clouds of smoke rise from the funeral pyres. The
slanting rays of the morning sun cast long shadows across the
ghat" - - - - 195
Ancient Votive Stones - - - - - - - - -201
Tomb of Lai Khan - - __.-.__ 203
u
An idyll of peace and self-satisfaction - - - 207
Panchganga - - -215
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CHAPTER I
IN THE VEDIC TIMES
History, in the conventional European sense, has
never possessed much interest for the Hindu mind.
Thoroughly permeated with the idea of the un-
reality of material things, the Brahmin priesthood,
while taking extraordinary precautions to preserve
their inheritance of spiritual culture, have never
troubled themselves to mark the footprints which
kings and dynasties leave upon the sands of time.
It is chiefly through the exertions of European
scholars, with the help of the old Buddhist records,
that the main outlines of Indian history, previous to
the Muhammadan invasions, have been made in-
telligible.
The detailed history of the petty kingdoms into
which northern India was divided would probably
possess little interest, even if it were sifted out of the
wild legends which Eastern imagination has woven
into it. Benares will always possess supreme interest
as the chief centre of the evolution of two of the great
world - religions - - Brahminism and Buddhism; but
while the development of Buddhism can be, to some
extent, traced and mapped out with exact dates and
events, the history of Brahminism must always be
regarded from a different stand-point.
, f r
2 ^KAAllES, THE SACRED CITY
Of the antiquity of Benares there can hardly be
any question. From its peculiar situation on the banks
of a spiendicl river, with its eastern boundary con-
verted by the current into a magnificent natural
amphitheatre, facing the rising sun, it is not un-
reasonable to conjecture that even before the Aryan
tribes established themselves in the Ganges valley,
Benares may have been a great centre of primitive
sun-worship, and that the special sanctity with which
the Brahmins have invested the city is only a tradition
of those primeval days, borrowed, with so many of
their rites and symbols, from their Turanian pre-
decessors.
The first definite historical event known about
Benares is that the Kasis, one of the Aryan tribes
which were then occupying northern India, established
themselves in the Ganges valley, near Benares, at
a date supposed to be between 1400 and 1000 B.C.
The origin of the Aryans is still a much -debated
question, but the researches of ethnologists have com-
pletely disturbed the theory of philologists, which
placed the home of the Aryan people in Central
Asia, and point to more northern and western
latitudes as the cradle of the race. Certainly the
Aryans brought with them into India all the habits
and ideas of northern people — they were fair-skinned,
ate horse-flesh and beef, and drank fermented liquor-
the soma juice, which they held to be the amrita, or
nectar of the gods. Like the ancient Britons they
were polyandrous. Their religion, at first, was a
simple adoration of the beneficent powers of Nature,
with little of the mysticism and dread, born of a
tropical environment. They worshipped the sky,
EARLY WORSHIP 3
Dyaus-pitar, as Heavenly Father, and Prithivi, the
earth, as Mother; Varuna, the all-embracing firma-
ment, the upholder of heaven and earth, king of
eods and men, who made the sun and moon to shine,
whose breath was the wind —
"He knows the path of birds that fly through heaven, and sovran
of the sea,
He knows the ships that are thereon.
True to his holy law, he knows the twelve moons with their
progeny, l
He knows the moon of later birth.
He knows the pathway of the wind, the spreading-high and mighty
wind.
He knows the gods above."
— Rig- Veda, Hymn 25. Griffith's translation.
They invoked Indra, the rain-god, as brother, friend,
and father, who heard their prayers; Agni, the Fire-
god, slayer of demons, who protected them day and
night from evil; Surya, "the soul of all that moveth
not, or moveth", and Savitri — the sun and sunshine.
The early Yedic hymns are redolent with the fragrance
of a bright and genial spring-time, reflecting the joy
of a simple, pastoral life in the golden age, when the
children of men played with Mother Nature in her
kindest moods, and the earth and the stars sang to-
gether. The gloom and terrors of tropical forests, the
fury of the cyclone, the scorching heat, and the mighty
forces of the monsoon floods, had not yet infected
Aryan life and thought. Their poets loved to sing
the beauties of the dawn -Ushas, the lovely maiden,
daughter of the sky; but her dark sister, Night, was
also to them a kindly divinity: —
1 The days.
( b 488 ) C
4 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY
" Friend of the home, the strong and youthful maiden,
Night, dear to Savitar the god, and Bhagu,
All -compassing, all-glorious, prompt to listen, hath with her
greatness filled the earth and heaven.
Over all depths hath she gone up, and mounted, Most Mighty One,
the sky's exalted summit.
Over me now the loving Night is spreading with her conspicuous
God-like ways like Mitra.
Excellent, high-born, blissful, meet for worship, Night, thou hast
come; stay here with friendly spirit.
Guard us the food for men that we have gotten, and all prosperity
that comes of cattle."
— Atharva Veda. Book xix, 79. Griffith's translation.
They had no idols, and the nature-gods whom they
worshipped provided their only temples. The Aryan
ritual consisted of burnt-sacrifices, oblations of clarified
butter, and libations of so?na-]mce or milk, accom-
panied by hymns of praise and prayer. Far back in
time, in that dim region which modern historical
telescopes are ever trying to explore, the father of
the family was both sacrificer and priest; but when
the Aryans appeared in India, their ritual had already
become so complicated as to call for a separate class
of priests and poets, like the Druids — the Brahmins
of ancient Europe. Caste was still unknown, but the
poets and thinkers of the people had already begun
to concern themselves with those speculations regard-
ing the origin of all things which form the basis of
modern Hinduism :-
" There was neither existence, nor non-existence,
The kingdom of air, nor the sky beyond.
What was there to contain, to cover in —
Was it but vast, unfathomed depths of water?
There was no Death there, nor Immortality.
No sun was there, dividing day from night.
EARLY RITUAL 5
Then was there only that, resting within itself.
Apart from it, there was not anything.
At first within the darkness veiled in darkness,
Chaos unknowable, the All lay hid,
Till straightway from the formless void made manifest
By the great power of heat was born that germ."
— Rig- Veda. Hymn of Creation.
There had also sprung up the idea of the com-
pelling power of prayer and sacrifice, which became
the key-note of the later Brahminical ritual. Certain
individuals, families, or tribes acquired a reputation
for the success which followed their sacrifices and
prayers, and by a post hoc, propter hoc line of reason-
ing, it was assumed that the divine powers could
not only be propitiated, but coerced into granting the
favours desired, whether it was victory over enemies,
wealth, rain, recovery from sickness, or spiritual
benefits.
The hymns and prayers which seemed specially
efficacious were handed down to posterity as most
precious legacies, and the rule of sacrifice gradually
developed into a complicated science, the practice of
which required the most exact knowledge and ex-
perience. The priestly office thus tended more and
more to become a hereditary position of great power
and responsibility, for though the virtue ascribed to
a successful sacrifice was great, the disasters which
would result from a blundering performance might
involve a whole tribe or kingdom in ruin.
Every tribe had a purokita, or high priest, who
always performed the proper sacrifices before a battle^
and claimed a liberal share of the booty which might
6 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY
be gained from a victory. The composers of the
sacred hymns, now known as the Rishis, or sages,
also expected and generally received handsome re-
wards for their services. But some of them have
celebrated the niggardliness of their patrons in sar-
castic verses, which shows that their minds were not
always above worldly considerations. One disappointed
author, who had composed an ode to the Ashvins,
the twin heralds of the dawn, and received as a
reward a chariot without horses or harness, expresses
his indignation thus: —
" This teamless chariot I received from the Ashvins, owners of
many horses. It gratified me greatly!
It must get on somehow with me to the place where men drink
soma, the precious car!
Dreams and wealthy niggards, both are unprofitable.
Let me have nought to do with them."
Though the purohitas and priests thus occupied
a very important place in Aryan society, they were
as yet entirely subordinate to the nobles and chiefs
of the warrior class, and were very far from the
position of absolute supremacy w T hich they gained
for themselves in later times. As in the middle
ages in Europe, the functions of warrior and priest
were often combined. Many of the finest hymns pre-
served in the sacred books of the Hindus were com-
posed by the Kshatriyas, or fighting chiefs.
A very important part of the sacred lore treasured
in the relio'ious literature of the Hindus is contained
in the Upanishads, the records of the debates on
metaphysical questions and the theory of sacrificial
practice which excited the profoundest interest of
our Aryan forefathers. Kings, nobles, and priests,
RELIGIOUS LITERATURE 7
wise men and women, took part in the discussions.
The Greatest freedom of thought was allowed, and
the rules which regulated the debates were only those
which were approved of as likely to lead to sound
conclusions. The rewards for debaters who showed
profound thought and argument were not less liberal
than those which were given to successful composers
and sacrificers, but the penalties for those who in-
fringed the rules of logic, or spoke foolishly, were
heavy.
These disputations, or " Brahmodyams ", after-
wards became so much a national institution, that,
if we may believe the Sanskrit traditions, even kings
would yield their thrones and become the servants
or pupils of the wisest philosophers. The methods
of the Inquisition, and the argument of the sword
and stake, never became popular with Hindu religious
teachers. Whatever may be urged against the Hindu
system, it must be admitted that it has always stood
for absolute liberty of conscience. One religious
movement after another has swept over Indian soil,
but until the Muhammadan conquest it was never con-
sidered justifiable, or necessary, to suppress the voice
of the preacher and the argument of the philosopher
with torture, bloodshed, and judicial murder.
The old Buddhist records, though referring to a
considerably later time than the Vedic period, throw
much light on the character of these ancient universi-
ties, and on the distinctions which were given as
rewards of learning.
A member of the Buddhist order who had thoroughly
mastered one section of the philosophical books was
exempted from the common drudgery of monastic
8 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY
duties. As he progressed the rewards were propor-
tionately increased. When he could expound two
sections he was allowed to reside in a furnished upper
room. The privileges attached to expert knowledge
of the third and fourth sections were the services of
a number of attendants, first of a lower class, and then
of lay-disciples, called "pure men", upasakas. For
the fifth section he was granted an elephant carriage,
and finally when he attained to complete knowledge
of all six sections he was entitled to the dignity of an
escort.
When one of the members had won all that pure
scholarship could gain, and had acquired a reputation
as a great teacher, he had the right to call together
and preside over a meeting for philosophical discus-
sions. In this convention he would be the judge of
the merit or demerit of the debaters, commending
some and reproving others. If one of them should
become distinguished above the rest for elegant Ian-
guage, profound logic, and depth of thought, he would
be placed upon a splendidly-caparisoned elephant and
escorted from the convent with great state and dignity.
But when a member presented an ill-reasoned argu-
ment, or tried to sustain it bv breaking the rules of
logic, and was feeble and clumsy in his rhetoric, the
assembly would paint his face, smear him with dirt,
and then take him from the monastery to some de-
serted place, or throw him in a ditch. " Thus they
distinguish between worth and demerit, between the
wise and the foolish."
The natural evolution of Aryan thought and religion
had so far produced three classes of literature — first the
Vedic hymns, which I have already described ; secondly
BRAHMANAS AND UPANISHADS 9
the Brahmanas, which embody the priestly traditions of
sacrifice; and thirdly the Upanishads, or philosophical
discussions. Sanskrit scholars have made widely dif-
ferent estimates of the periods covered by these three
classes. No doubt the hymns of the Vedas reflect
traditions of the Aryans long antecedent to the time
when they reached India. Max M tiller has fixed the
date to which they belong as approximately B.C. 2000;
other authorities place them as far back as B.C. 6000;
while an Indian scholar, Mr. Tilak, from a study of the
astronomical data given by the Rig- Veda, and from
the description of the dawn and sunrise, and the
phenomena of the seasons, believes that some of them
refer to a time when the original Aryan home must
have been at or near the Arctic circle.
The Brahmanas probably represent a development
of Hinduism, for the most part, if not entirely, Indian.
The age of their first compilation has been put be-
tween B.C. 1300 and B.C. 1 100, but there are many later
additions extending to perhaps B.C. 600. They are an
extraordinary compilation of ritual practice and ex-
planation, evolved by the imaginations of the priestly
families, who piled form upon form and rite upon rite,
until the simple piety of the early Aryans was buried
in a mass of superstitious observances.
To European readers they are chiefly interesting for
the light they throw upon modern Hindu ritual, and
for the Aryan legends regarding the creation and the
flood which have been preserved in them. The story
of the deluge is as follows : —
The seventh Manu of the fourteen mythical pro-
genitors of mankind was one day washing his hands
when he caught a fish. The fish spoke and said,
io BENARES, THE SACRED CITY
" Take care of me, and protect me from the big fish
that would eat me, and I will one day save you ".
Manu asked, " From what will you save me?" The
fish answered, "A flood will come and destroy all
living creatures. I will save you from that." Manu
kept the fish in a jar, until it grew so big that it begged
to be put into a ditch, at the same time telling Manu
to build a ship to prepare for the coming catastrophe.
Manu built the ship accordingly, and as the fish grew
too bio- for the ditch, carried it down to the sea. When
the Mood came, Manu tied the ship to the horn of the
fish, which dragged him swiftly towards the northern
mountains, the Himalayas. Arrived there, the fish
instructed him to tie his ship to the mountain-top, and
then swam away.
As the flood subsided, the ship gradually descended
the slope of the mountain, and Manu left it to perform
worship and sacrifices. After a year a woman was
produced from the sacrifices. Manu asked, "Who art
thou?" "Thy daughter," she replied. "How, illus-
trious one, art thou my daughter?" he asked. She
answered, "Those offerings of ghee, sour milk, whey
and curds, which thou madest in the waters, with them
thou hast begotten me. I am the blessing; make use
of me at the sacrifice! If thou wilt do so, thou wilt
become rich in offspring and cattle." He accordingly
made use of her as the benediction in the middle of
the sacrifice. " With her he went on worshipping
and toiling in religious rites, wishing for offspring.
Through her he generated this race, which is the
race of Manu."
The Upanishads, like the Brahmanas, are now incor-
porated in the four Vedas. Their first compilation is
BRAHMANAS AND UPANISHADS n
attributed to a time shortly after the offshoots from the
first Aryan settlement of the Punjab began to spread
to the Ganges valley. They form the basis of the
later schools of Indian philosophy. Though deeply
tinged with Oriental mysticism, they, unlike the Brah-
manas, are almost free from ritualism and sectarian
spirit; they are chiefly devoted to discussions as to the
nature and means of realizing a knowledge of Brah-
man, the Universal Soul and Cause of all things.
The Brahmanas and Upanishads, in fact, seem to
represent two different currents of thought, which can
be traced throughout the whole development of Hin-
duism. The one, the exclusiveness and pedantry of
the narrow-minded priest, always concerned with the
interests of priestcraft; the other, the true religious
feelings of the people, interpreted by their most earnest
thinkers.
The ethical stand-point of the Aryan race, as put
forward in the Upanishads some three thousand years
ago, can hardly be surpassed in the present day: —
" Having taught him the Vedas, a teacher exhorts
his pupils thus: 'Speak the truth. Practise virtue.
Do not neglect the study of the Vedas. Having paid