Evening star., 1959-12-09

loincloth, he is naked. His face
and forehead are streakeG with
white paint. From time to time
the priest stirs. raises his arms
and shouts loudly to the crowc
around him.
A young man squats before
the platform carefully parting
his wet hair with a red plastic
comb. His lean brown shoulders
glisten in the sun. When he Is
finished he stands and leans
closer. Without looking UP. the
priest dips his hand into q
paint pot beside him and daubs
the boys forehead with two
fingers.
"He's an eager one" says the
guide. He came early, before
the dawn. Now he is finished
and will go to the temple to
pray"
Imerse Selves in River
The foot of the steps are lined
with bathers who push their
way into the water between
boats tethered to the CHAT,
oblivious of the bloated carcass
of a pig that floats nearby.
The boatmen shout good
natured encouragement to a
group of women standi n g
waist-deep in the brown water,
clutching their soggy saris
around them. Slowly the wom-
en- wade deeper. sweeping the
scum from in front of them.
Finally, with a gasp and a
splash, one ducks completely
beneath the surface. She
emerges several seconds later
with radiant face and stream
ing hair.
For a mile up and down.
stream, the scene repeats itself
a thousand times. Whole fam
lilies stand together in the river.
fathers energetically dunking
their squealing offspring. A
hugely fat, surprisingly pink
old man stands in the shadows
soaping himself briskly from
head to foot. Boisterous young
sters dive headlong from the
concrete embankment SWIM
ming strongly for midriver.
Ganges Scene
"A group of old women crouch
together, singing a monotonouS
chant One of them a little up
stream spoons water into a
brass pot and stares at the sun.
Downstream, smoke hangs IN
the still air above the sIrning
CHAT. Passing boats stir bam-
boo stretches at water edge
with their shrouded burdens
Above them on the concrete
quai, two funeral pyres burn
tended by bereaved relatives
with white robes and shaved
heads. Ashes from earlier fires
are collected by a sweeper into q
large basket and dumped into
the river below.
At the ornately decorated
400-year-old Depalese Temple
overlooking the river, the guide
draws your attention to a frieze
OF erotic carvings explaining In
detail the moral significance Of
each, while a priest g::2veiy
points out the details with 9
bamboo pole.
Religion Key TO People
"To understand any coun-
try" he concludes, you must
understand its religion first Of
all. In India, it is very i'm
portant."
Banaras, you learn. is the
hottest place in India, sacred
to Buddhists and Hindus alike
A few miles outside Of town lie
the buried ruins of Sarnath
where Buddha preached his
first sermon about 600 B.C.-s
quiet brooding place with its
crumbling brick towers and
monastery walls destroyed
centuries ago by invading
MoSlemS.
For Hindus, Banaras is the
birthplace of the world and the
home of all the $50 million
gods and goddesses who rule
their teeming and violent
heavens. Like Mecca to Mos
lens, it is a place of pilgrim
age. At least once in his life
time, every good Hindu hopes
to wash away his sin in the
murky Ganges and he wants
to have his ashes strewn on
Its waters when he dies.
Wields Strong Power
Here, indeed, you can feel
something of the power Of this
religion and the hold that it
exerts over India today. Some
thing, too, of the drag that II
represents to the handful of
leaders in New Delhi who Are
determined to force India into
the goth century.
A religion, for instance
which despite everything the
leaders can do still divides In
dians from one another in the
most rigid caste system in the
world.
Or which forbids the slaugh-
ter of animals while thousands
of human beings die annually
from starvation. For the visitor
in Banaras, it may seem pic
turesque to see COWS wander
ing in and out of the crowded
Bharat Mata Temple. He may
find it amusing that his tax
driver will dash Willingly
through swarms of pedestrian:
and rickshaws, even forcing {
funeral procession unceremoni.
ously off the road but will stor
dead when a bullock threatens
to move into his path.
To the leaders, however it il
hardly a laughing matter thaf
India's 155 million largely un'