Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1882-05-24
BENARES, THE HOLY CITY.
A View of the Ancient Portion of the City by the
Gauges Banks-A Perfect Type of India as 1t
Was,

A View of the Ancient Portion of the City by the
Ganges' Banks-A Perfect Type of India as 1t
Was.
tCorr. N. Y. Times.I
Allahabad and Benares, the chief
towns of this part of India, symbolic,
respectively, its past and its present.
The city of Akbar, with it's wide, level
streets, its well-kept gardens, It's neat,
white "bungaloo" houses, it's large Eu-
ropean population, admirably represents
India as it is. Benares, on the other
hand, looking down upon the smooth,
bright stream of the sacred Ganges from
the carved towers of 5000 Hindu tenn
pies, beneath which lie outspread miles
of fat-roofed houses and narrow,
gloomy, intertwisted lanes, is an even
more perfect type of India as it was. In
most great Hindu cities the European
quarter lies in pretty close proximity to
the "bazaar, or native town, diluting
the barbaric picturesqueness of the lat
ter in way that completely spoils it's
first effect. With Benares, the very re-
verse is the case. The moment you
leave the train at Raj Chat, on the OPP
posite bank of the river, the oriental
richness of a panorama which has not
single European house within three
miles of it bursts upon you in all it's
fullness. The rude causeway of planks
laid upon dismantled barges, such as
Mahmoud or Timour may have used to
bridge the rivers of the Punjaub, is one
creeping swarm of bullock-carts and
Brahmin oxen, white turbans and
swarthy faces, bare, brown limbs, gay
colored robes, and ear-piercing yells.
Thousands OF dusky figures, clad in
every hue of the rainbow, are swarming
over the broad, white stairs of stone
leading down to the river from the huge
white mass of towers and domes
and battlements and fretted doorways
piled up like an Alpine glacier against
the cloudless blue overhead. Thousands
more are splashing about in the river
itself, washing themselves and their
clothes or household utensils or stand
ing waist deep in the sacred water to say
their prayers. Here, side by side, go
the pointed and gilded barge of the
Maharajah of Jeypur, with it's tall up
right PROV and swan-shaped fgure-head
rising above IL scarlet-frocked oarsmen,
and queer little native boat very much
like parody of the Venetian gondola,
the passengers sitting on the roof of the
cabin instead OF inside of it. The ashes
OF human corpse and of the funeral
pile which has consumed it are scattered
over you by gust of wind, while an
other pile is seen rising behind that mo-
tionless brown figure close to the waters
edge. The tall, slender, dark-red NINA
rets Of Al1rengzebe's famous mosque
tower ITO feet above you, while further
up the stream vast gray wall, massive
even in ruin, marks the site of the an
cient fortress where the last Raiah of
Benares was imprisoned by the soldiers
of Warren Hastings. Despite the mo-
mentous changes that have passed over
India, It's great religious center has de-
generated but little from the splendid
picture drawn by "a keen observer of it's
appearance hundred years ago: cit
was commonly believed that half mil
lion of human beings were crowded into
that labyrinth of lofty alleys, rich with
shrines and minarets and balconies and
carved oriels, to which the sacred apes
chung by hundreds. The traveller could
scarcely make his way through the press
of holy mendicants and not less holy
bulls. The broad and stately flights of
steps which descended from these swarm
ing haunts to the bathing places upon
the Ganges were worn every day by the
footsteps of an innumerable multitude
of worshipers. The schools and tenn
pies drew crowds of pious Hindus from
every province where the Brahminical
faith was known. Nor was superstition
the onl y motive which allured strangers
to the great metropolis. Commerce had
as many pilgrims as religion. All along
the shores of the venerable stream lay
great fleets of vessels laden with rich
merchandise. From the looms of Ben
ares went forth the most delicate silks
that adorned the balls of st. James and
of the Petit Trianon; and in it's bazaars
the muslins of Bengal and the sabres of
Dude were mingled with the Jewels of
Golconda and the shawls of Cashmere. /"