View source for Benares City

{| class="wikitable"
|-
|colspan="0"|<div style="font-size:100%">
This article has been extracted from <br/>

THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908.<br/>

OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS.
</div>
|} 
[[Category:India|B]]
[[Category:Places|B]]
''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= 
[[Banaras Hindu University]]
  
[[Benares City]]
   
[[Benares District, 1908]]

[[Benares Division]]

[[Benares Estate]]

[[Benares Tahsil]]

[[Faculty of Law, Banaras Hindu University]]

[[Kashi Labh Mukti Bhawan, Varanasi]]

[[Tulsidas Akhara, Varanasi]]

[[Varanasi/ Banaras]]

[[Varanasi: Sankat Mochan temple]]