Day 53 and 54 – Varanasi
Day 53 – Wednesday, 18th Dec 2013
Day 54 – Thursday, 19th Dec 2013
It’s Wednesday morning 5:30 am, my slumber is briefly interrupted as I check our train status from Allahabad to Varanasi. The train arrives from Hyderabad so I was anticipating that it might be late but to our surprise, it is running dot on time and scheduled to arrive at 10:50 am.
It’s 10 am, Khyati and I are ready, packed and eagerly awaiting for our journey to Varanasi. We take an auto rickshaw to the station. The station is crowded in the morning hour and we slowly make our way to Platform 8. We get into our coach – S5. Only one other couple occupy the adjoining seats, we are comfortably seated. I check the chart and find out that the remaining seats are empty and other people will get on from Varanasi. Lucky us!
The train covers a distance of 130 kms and arrives in Varanasi by 1:15 pm (15 minutes before time). We had reasons to be happy. Varanasi station is a much organized and clean station in comparison to Allahabad. There was counters for prepaid auto rickshaw and we hop into one to go to Bhelupur Jain Dharamshala. It’s 4 kms from the station and an easy ride.
Varanasi station
As our rickshaw pulls into the complex, we see many monkeys hovering around us. Khyati advises me to watch out. We fear they will gang up on us but the staff at the Dharamshala did an effective job to shoo them away. It’s 3:30 pm and we have checked into our room.
It’s 5 pm and post dinner, we head towards the Ganga ghat area to witness the grand Aarti held at Dasashwamedh Ghat. On our way, we visit the Kashi Vishwanath temple. As we walk towards the temple, some people in normal clothing tag us along and offer to say our prayers to the God. In return, they ask for money and sometimes you are obliged to shell out a lot. We were forewarned about this and politely declined every invitation that came our way. These people are called “Panda” in local language. The Ghat is beautifully decoarted with lanterns, lighting and the stage is set for the grand Aarti. We grab some seats on the high steps to get a good view of the Aarti being performed. The Aarti began sharp at 6 pm and the inaugural was the blowing of Shankh (musical instrument in the shape of a shell). There were 5 priests performing the Aarti. The songs played on the loud speaker were mesmerizing but one thing that we thought was the synchronization of the priests could have been improved. Each seemed to do a bit of their own routine. The Aarti lasted an hour. Most tourists like us remained glued to our seats all throughout.
Ganga Aarti at the Ghat
It’s 7:30 pm and we walk back to our Jain Dharamshala. We call it a night around 10 pm.
It’s Thursday morning, 7:30 am and Khyati and I walk across the street to our Jain Bhojanshala. One thing I fail to understand is why do car drivers have the need to blatantly sound their horn at that hour? There was hardly any traffic and we were the only two people crossing the road. Annoying as it is, there is nothing we could do.
It’s 10:30 am and we leave for another day of sight seeing. Our first stop is a Jain temple in Bhadaini area of Varanasi. We take a cycle rickshaw there. There is a beautiful Jain temple on the Ghat and the Ghat name is “Jain Ghat”.
Jain Ghat on the banks of Ganga river
The sun shone bright and overlooking the Ganga, we spend some time near the river. As we trace our steps back to the main road, we notice a sign board for Rani Laxmi Bai’s museum. In history books, I have always known her to be Rani Laxmi Bai of Jhansi but what’s her relation to Varanasi? Apparently, this was her birthplace and there is a nice monument erected the place she was born. We visit the museum and admire her valor and fight against the British Raj.
Rani Laxmi Bai
Varanasi should be called the religious capital of India because at every nook and corner, there is a temple. During the afternoon, we visit other temples – Birla Mandir, Tulsi temple, Sankat Mochan mandir and Nariya Jain temple.
It’s 4 pm and we are a bit tired of walking in the afternoon sun. We cry for some shade and in the distance, we see the campus of Kashi Hindu Vidyapeeth (Benares Hindu University).
BHU – Benares Hindu University
It’s a sprawling campus laden with trees. We walk in the university and find a park to rest.
It’s 6 pm and we head back to the Jain Dharamshala. We call it a night around 9:30 pm.
Hope you enjoyed this post with us. Tomorrow we visit Sarnath. Stay tuned for our next post.
Thank you all for your comments and continuous readership.
Best wishes,
Paras