Benares City
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Benares City
Banaras, or Kasi
Head-quarters of Benares District, United Provinces, with cantonment, situated in 25° 18' N. and 83 degree 1' E., on the left bank of the Ganges ; distant by rail from Calcutta 479 miles, and from Bombay 941 miles. The city is the second largest in the United Provinces ; but its population includes a large number of pilgrims and is liable to considerable fluctuations. The numbers at the last four enumerations were as follows : (1872) 175,188, (1881) 214,758, (1891) 219,467, and (1901) 209,331. In 1901 the population included 153,821 Hindus, 53,566 Musalmans, and about 1,200 Christians. The cantonment contained a population of 4,958, included in the figures already given.
The ancient name of the city of Benares was Varanasi, the etymology of which is uncertain ; its popular derivation from Varana (Barna) and Asi, the names of the two small streams which confine the modern city, is, however, untenable. A more recent name, still commonly used by Hindus in all parts of India, is Kasi or Kasi, which is possibly taken from the name of a tribe of Aryas, though popularly explained as meaning ' bright.' In the eighteenth century the city was officially known as Muhammadabad. The great antiquity of Benares is attested by its mention in both the Mahabharata and the Ramayana ; but details of its history are very scanty, and even the Puranas record only one dynasty of kings. It was close to Benares, in the deer-park which is identified with the country round Sarnath, that Gautama Buddha commenced to preach. In the seventh century a. d., Hiuen Tsiang found the kingdom of Benares inhabited mostly by Hindus, and only a few followers of the law of Buddha. The city at that time contained twenty Hindu temples, with a gigantic copper image of Siva. It is probable that Benares was sacked by Mahmud of Ghazni early in the eleventh century, and nearly 200 years later it fell into the hands of Muhammad Ghori. Throughout the Musalman period its political importance was slight, and the active cultivation of the Hindu religion was forcibly restrained. In the eighteenth century, as has been shown in the history of Benares District, the city and surrounding country gradually came under the Raja of Benares, and finally in 1775 were ceded to the British.
Benares or Kasi is at the present time one of the holiest places to the orthodox Hindu, and attracts great concourses of pilgrims, while many of its inhabitants are persons who have settled there in the hope of salvation through a death within its sacred precincts. The native town lies for four miles along a kankar ridge on the north-west bank of the Ganges, which forms a slightly curved reach below it, thus permit- ting the eye to take in at a single sweep the long line of picturesque ghats surmounted by irregular buildings of various styles and propor- tions, the slender white minarets of Aurangzeb's mosque rising high above the general level. For a distance of from one to two miles from the bank the city consists of winding labyrinths and narrow alleys, lined by many-storeyed buildings used as shops or private houses, with innumerable shrines in every part, ranging from a shapeless fragment of stone smeared with vermilion to magnificent temples. Raja Man Singh of Jaipur is said to have presented 100,000 temples to the city in a single day.
The ordinary throng of a large city is swollen by the presence of strings of pilgrims being conducted from one to another of the more important shrines, and by the number of sacred bulls which wander about the streets. Along the ghats strange figures of religious mendi- cants and ascetics are to be seen, some superintending the ablutions of the pilgrims in the sacred stream of the Ganges, while others practise devotions or various forms of austerity. Within the city there are many handsome houses substantially built and elaborately decorated ; but the narrow, dirty, and crowded environments usually disappoint the visitor, after the high expectations aroused by the view from the river. Even the temples are generally small, and are not more than a few hundred years old. From a religious point of view, the Bisheshwar or Golden Temple, dedicated to Siva, is the most important. Siva in the form of Bisheshwar is regarded as the spiritual monarch of the city, and this is the holiest of all the holy places in the sacred city. It contains the venerated symbol of the god, a plain lingam of uncarved stone. The building is not of striking dimensions and has no great pretensions to beauty, but is crowned by a dome and spire covered with copper, which was gilded at the cost of Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Lahore. It was built by Ahalya Bai, the Maratha regent of Indore. Subordinate to Bisheshwar is Bhaironath, who acts as his minister and magistrate. The other temples to which pilgrims are specially directed are those of Bhaironath, and his stafif or Dandpani, Ganesh or Dhundi Raj, Vindumadhava or Vishnu, Durga, and Annpurna. These were chiefly built by Marathas during the seventeenth century, and are all compara- tively small. The Durga temple is, however, remarkable for its simple and graceful architecture, and is situated in the outskirts on the bank of a large tank. Along the river front the Dasashwamedh, Manikarnika, and Panchganga ghats are the most esteemed. At the first of these Brahma is said to have performed ten horse-sacrifices. Near the second is situated the famous well, which Vishnu dug with his discus and filled with his sweat, forming one of the chief attractions for pilgrims, thousands of whom annually bathe in the fetid water. The Panchganga ghat is so named from the belief that five rivers meet at it, but the Ganges alone is visible to the gross material eye. Raja Jai Singh's observatory, built in 1693, is a handsome and substantial building overlooking the Man Mandir ghat It includes a number of instruments which have been allowed to fall out of repair. Close by stands the Nepalese temple, which is ornamented by a series of obscene wooden carvings. The huge mass of Aurangzeb's mosque, built from the remains of a temple, towers high above a steep cliff over the Panchganga ghat and is the most conspicuous building in the city when seen from the river. Another mosque, also built on the remains of a temple of Bisheshwar, stands close to the Gyan Bapi or ' well of knowledge,' where Siva is said to reside. The older buildings and remains are found chiefly in the north and west of the present city, and the ancient site appears to have been situated on both banks of the Barna. This stream flows into the Ganges about a mile beyond the present northern limit of the city. West of the city lies the suburb of Sigra, the seat of the chief missionary institutions. Northwards, the Sikraul cantonments and parade-ground stretch away to the bank of the Barna, which is here crossed by two bridges, of stone and iron respectively. The civil station, including the courts and Central jail, occupies the northern bank. The most noteworthy of the modern buildings are the Mint, the Government College, the Prince of Wales's Hospital, built by the gentry of Benares in commemoration of the visit of His Majesty to the city in 1876, the police station, and the town hall, a fine building constructed at the expense of a Maharaja of Vizianagram. Benares is the head- quarters of the Commissioner of the Division, who is also a Political
Agent for the payment of certain pensions ; of an Inspector of Schools, and of an Executive Engineer in the Roads and Buildings branch. It contains three male and three female hospitals, besides a lunatic asylum, a leper asylum, a poorhouse, and branches of the Church Missionary, London Missionary, Baptist, and Wesleyan Societies. Some members of the ex-royal family of Delhi reside at Benares in a large building called the Shivala, which was once occupied by Chet Singh.
A municipality was constituted in 1868. During the ten years ending 1901 the income averaged 4'8 lakhs, and the expenditure 5.8 lakhs; the latter, however, included capital expenditure on water- supply and drainage. In 1903-4, excluding a loan of 1.5 lakhs, the income was 4.7 lakhs, the chief items being octroi (3 lakhs), water rate (Rs. 83,000), other taxes (Rs. 34,000), and rents (Rs. 30,000). The expenditure amounted to 6.4 lakhs, including repayment of loans and interest (I'l lakhs), water-supply and drainage (capital, 22 lakhs, and maintenance, Rs. 72,000), conservancy (Rs. 70,000), roads and build- ings (Rs. 28,000), public safety (Rs. 50,000), and administration and collection (Rs. 40,000). An excellent system of water-works was con- structed between 1890 and 1892, which has cost upwards of 26 lakhs. In 1903-4 the daily consumption of filtered water amounted to over 16 gallons per head of population, and there were more than 5,000 house-connexions. Water is pumped from the Ganges and filtered before use. An elaborate drainage scheme is still under construction, which is estimated to cost 15 lakhs. It includes a system of sewers, with house-connexions.
The cantonment is usually garrisoned by British and Native infantry. The receipts and expenditure of the cantonment fund during the ten years ending 1901 averaged Rs. 12,500. In 1903-4 the income was Rs. 12,700 and the expenditure Rs. 13,100.
The wealth of Benares depends largely upon the constant influx of pilgrims from every part of India, whose presence lends the same impetus to the local trade as that given to European watering-places by the season visitors. Some of the pilgrims are Rajas or other persons of importance, who bring considerable retinues, and become large benefactors to the various shrines and temples. Hindu princes of distant States pride themselves upon keeping up a ' town residence ' in holy Kasi. The city thus absorbs a large share of the agricultural produce of the District, and it also acts as a distributing centre. Its manufactures include ornamental brass-ware, silk, both plain and embroidered with gold and silver, jewellery, and lacquered wooden toys. The brass-ware has a considerable reputation among Europeans as well as natives. The trade in silk kamkhwab or kincob, woven with gold and silver, is decreasing as native taste inclines towards European fabrics. A good deal of German-silver work is now turned out in Benares, employing a number of workmen who formerly prepared gold and silver wire. This is perhaps the most flourishing industry of the place. The only factories are three ice works, two brickyards, two chemical works, and a few large printing presses.
The Benares College was opened in 1791, and the fine building in which it is now housed was completed in 1852. It is maintained by Government, and includes a first-grade college with 97 students in 1904, and a Sanskrit college with 427 students. The Central Hindu College, opened in 1898, is affiliated to the Allahabad University up to the B.A. standard. It contained 104 students in the college and 204 in the school department in 1904. It was founded largely through the efforts of non-Indian theosophists, and is intended to combine Hindu religious and ethical training, on an unsectarian basis, with modern Western education. The missionary societies maintain a number of schools for both boys and girls ; and the Church Missionary Society is in charge of Jai Narayan's collegiate school, which was founded by a Hindu, after whom it is called, in 18 18, and presented to the Society. The same society manages a normal school for female teachers. The municipality maintains fifteen schools and aids seven others, attended by more than 1,300 pupils. Benares has produced a number of Hindu scholars and authors, and was the residence of the celebrated religious teachers Vallabhacharya, Kabir, and Tulsi Das, and the nineteenth- century author and critic, Harish Chandra. The Sanskrit college issues a periodical called The Pandit, dealing with Sanskrit learning, and a society called the Nagari Pracharini Sabha has recently com- menced the publication of ancient vernacular texts. A few newspapers are published, but none of importance.
[Rev. M. A. Sherring, The Sacred City of [the] Hindus (1868).]
See also
Benares City
Faculty of Law, Banaras Hindu University
