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by Jayaram V
Kasi or Varanasi is one of the most ancient, famous and holiest of
the
holy Hindu
pilgrim centers. It is situated between two small streams that flow into
the river Ganges, Varana on its northern border and Asi (or Assi)
on its southern border, from whom it derives its name Varanasi. The name Kasi is
derived from either its original founder or a dynasty that ruled it or the kingdom with which it was associated. According to
another theory the place might have got its name from a grass named
Kusa that grew wildly in the region where the city was built.
Varanasi has been a sacred place since ancient times. It is mentioned
in the Vedas, Puranas, the epics
Ramayana and
Mahabharata and also
many Jain and
Buddhist texts. It also goes by its more popular name Kasi
and the lesser known bur spiritually more significant name Avimukta.
During the British rule, like many place names in India, it was
anglicized into Benares, the holy city of "Hindoos".
During the course of its 3000 or more years of history, the city of
Varanasi witnessed many important events and movements of Hindu religion
and Indian civilization. The city passed through several tumultuous
phases starting from the ascendance of the vedic culture around 1000 BC.
It bore witness to the transformation and integration of the Vedic
tradition in the Gangetic valley, the teachings of the Buddha on the banks of the Ganges
to the new converts, the wanderings of the much revered Jinas
and Ajivakas begging for alms,
the construction, expansion and consecration of its many temples by
generous patrons, the
religious animosity that led to the desecration and destruction of its gods and
temples from time to time, and its reemergence in modern times
into a famous Hindu pilgrimage center.
The ancient city of Varanasi was located on the northern side of
present day Varanasi, in the area known as Rajghat, where remnants
of city wall, pottery and artifacts dating back to 800 BC were unearthed,
suggesting to the evidence of ancient settlements in the area. Kasi is
referenced in the ancient Indian literature as the capital of the
kingdom of Kasi, which had rivalry with the neighboring kingdom of
Kosala. Later king of Kosala annexed Kasi and made Varanasi the
capital of the combined kingdom. Subsequently both Kosala and Kasi were
occupied by the Magadhan rulers and remained part of the Magadhan empire for a very long time.
In ancient India, Kasi was a great center of education not only for
the Hindus but for other religions such as Buddhism and
Jainism.
Students were taught the
Vedas, the Upanishads and other schools of
philosophy and religious thought in the ashrams or study centers that
existed in the nearby forests. The Buddha was well aware of its
religious significance and visited it frequently. Geographically it was
close to Saranath, where he delivered his first sermon immediately after
his enlightenment; and religiously significant as it was inhabited by
people belonging to different religious schools. According to tradition
on several occasions he stationed himself in Varanasi during rainy
season, when heavy rains and
floods prevented him from going to other places. The Jain tradition also
recognizes the sanctity of the place because two of its Thirthankaras
were born and raised in Varanasi.
Apart from the Buddha and the Thirthankaras, the city of Varanasi is
also associated with famous religious personalities such as Panini, the
author of Ashtadhyayi, Sankaracharya the religious reformer of
Hindu school of monism (Advaita Vedanta), Ramanujacharya the great
teacher of Vaishnavism, Madhavacharya the famous Vaishnava teacher
who propagated Dvaita (dualism), Basavanna the social and religious
reformer from Karnataka who founded Vira Saivism and the legendary
Gorakshnatha of the Adinatha tradition of Saivism. According to Buddhist
legends Isa
or Jesus visited Varanasi during his wanderings and lived there for
sometime before he became unpopular with the local priests and escaped
to Tibet.
Traditionally Kasi has been a center of Saivism and it must have been
so even before the advent of the Vedic religion in the Gangetic valley.
Saivism was practiced in ancient India by the Ajivikas, the
Pasupathas
and many other ancient sects of Dravidian origin. From the Himalayas down to the plains
of the Gangetic valley and beyond the Narmada, all along the banks of
the river Ganges, Narmada and Mahanadi, Siva was worshipped in many
forms and with many names. So deep was the connection of Siva with the
mountains and the river Ganges that he became associated with such
descriptions as the dweller of the
mountains and the consort of Ganga (gangapathi or gangadhari). No wonder during the Gupta period, Kasi became the holiest of the
holy places for the followers of Saivism and with its gradual
integration into Vedism, the holiest of the holy places for all the
Hindus.
However, despite the predominance of Saivism and Siva temples, other religions
and religious sects continued to flourish in Varanasi. Hiuen Tsang, the
Chinese traveler who visited India in the seventh century, saw a huge
congregation of the Buddhist monks in Varanasi of the Hinayana sect. He
also saw hundreds of Hindu temples, thousands of priests and ascetics,
some with their hair in knots and some with their hair cut off, with
ashes smeared over their bodies, practicing austerities and penances to
escape from the cycle of births and deaths. Among other things, Hiuen
Tsang also described a statue of Siva that was 30 meters high.
Benares became the capital of the kingdom of Gahadavalas in
1094 AD. The city prospered under their rule. King Govindachandra of
this dynasty made generous donations to the Hindu temples in the city
and encouraged vedic learning. One of his ministers, Lakshmidhara,
composed Krtya-kalpa-taru, an encyclopedic work on medieval Hinduism in
14 volumes besides, preserving information about 150 temples of the city
for the posterity.
The fortunes of Varanasi suffered a reversal during the Muslim
invasion. Starting from the 12th century, for the next 500 years the fortunes of Varanasi ebbed
and flowed depending upon the mood and generosity of the Muslim rulers
who ruled either from Delhi or Agra. Being a religious city of great
antiquity, where idol worship was the regular tradition and where
Buddhism and Jainism also thrived alongside
Hinduism, the city
represented every thing that the Muslim rules wanted to destroy as the
torch bearers of Islam.
The troubles of Varanasi began
in 1194 with the sacking and looting of
the city by Kutubuddin Aibak, the first ruler of the Slave Dynasty and the
founder of the Delhi Sultanate. He destroyed nearly a thousand temples
and erected several mosques on top of them. He plundered the temples and
carried away about 1400 camel loads of gold, silver and precious stones. The
sacking broke the economic status of the city and ruined its temple
traditions, but did not dampen its religious spirit. Many temples were rebuilt and
the city got back to its routine.
In 1351 Firuz Shah, about whom Indian historians are unanimous in
their admiration, ascended the throne of Delhi sultanate. A notorious religious bigot, who styled himself as a deputy to the
Khalifa of Egypt and kept 20000 slaves under him, Firuz Shah proved his
commitment to Islam by persecuting Hindus and destroying many Hindu
temples. In 1376, he ordered the
destruction of Hindu temples in Varanasi and building of mosques over
them.
Sikander Lodi was another ruler of Delhi Sultanate who set his eyes
upon Varanasi. In 1496 he ordered his generals to destroy all the temples in
Varanasi and build mosques over them. His orders were promptly carried
out and the city was renamed as Mohammadabad.
The early Mughal rulers indulged in religious persecution and
destruction of Hindu temples. Akbar set a new example by initiating a
policy of religious tolerance. He allowed Hindus to practice their religion
and build temples without fear of
punishment. During his reign, Varanasi witnessed the construction
of the Visvesvara temple and
Bindu Madhava temple. Auranazeb reversed the earlier policy of Akbar
with an aim to establish Islam in the subcontinent. The empire was
thrown into political and religious turmoil because of his extreme
measures. In 1659, under his
direct orders, the Krittivasevara temple was destroyed and in its place
a large mosque was erected. He also undid the goodwill earned during the
reign of Akbar by giving orders to destroy the Visvesvar and Bindu
Madhava temples and build mosques in their place.
The Muslim rulers did manage to destroy several
Hindu temples in Varanasi, but they could not destroy the spirit and the
religious fervor of the city. Varanasi continued to thrive as a city of
Hindu learning and center of Hindu pilgrimage even during the testing
times. In the midst of all the turmoil, Tulasidas, a great devotee of Lord
Rama and a resident of Varanasi, composed Ramacharitamanas, a monumental
rendering of the
epic Ramayana into Hindi. It has since became a household name throughout India. Narayan Bhatt who
migrated from Maharashtra to Varanasi organized the reconstruction of
Kasi Visveswara temple. He also composed a work on the importance of
Kasi, Prayag and Gaya entitled Tristhali (the three places).
After Aurangazeb, Varanasi came under the rule of
Maharaja Balwant Singh. As the Mughal power waned, there was a resurgence of Hindu
rulers in various parts of the country. Varanasi witnessed
a revival of religious activity, supported by the Rajput and Maratha
nobles. Many new temples were built in the place of the old and
Hinduism received a new impetus from the followers of Saivism, Vaishanavism
and Shaktism.
The British who occupied large parts of India by the end of 18th
century wished to see India becoming a Christian nation, but maintained
a secular outlook outwardly. They encouraged the missionary
activity in the pockets of Hindu influence, but did not associate
themselves openly with the missionaries. Their primary interest was
promoting their business interests in India and keep the local rulers under
control. They used religion to the extent it served their interests but
did not go beyond. The lessons learned during the 1857 mutiny prevented them
from dabbling in the religious lives of native Indians.
In the early 19th century, Christian missionaries did good work in
and around Varanasi, building Churches, schools and hospitals, with a
hope to gain new converts to Christianity. There was lot of hope and expectation in the
British circles that they would eventually succeed in converting the
people of Varanasi to Christian faith. Despite such efforts, Varanasi
remained a strong center of Hinduism and Hindu learning. The name
of Varanasi was anglicized into Benares, but for all religious purposes
Benares remained Varanasi throughout the British rule and was eventually
renamed as Varanasi in 1947. The Benares Sanskrit college, which was
founded in 1791, helped in the revival of Sanskrit education in
the country and later led to the formation of Benares Hindu University in
1906.
The city of Varanasi continues to fascinate the world with its
diversity and rich cultural heritage. About Varanasi, P.V. Kane 1
has to say this,
"There is hardly any city in the world, that can claim
greater antiquity, greater continuity and greater popular veneration
than Banaras. Banaras has been a holy city for at least thirty
centuries. No city in India arouses the religious emotions of Hindus as
much as Kasi does."
The words of Kane are very apt, brief and direct. The history of no
other city, except perhaps Mathura, is more fascinating than the 4000
year history of Varanasi, which is but the history of Hinduism and its
inherent resilience in adopting itself to an ever changing urban
environment, independent of other religions and the whims and fancies of
whoever ruled the country.
Suggested Further Reading
Foot Notes
1. P.V. Kane, History of Dharmasastra, Vol IV
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