THE SACRED CENTRE OF HINDUISM.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVI, Issue 22, 2 June 1906, Page 4

THE SACRED CENTRE OF HINDUISM.

SOME IMPRESSIONS OF BENARES.

(Bv Cecil Leys.)

Concluded from May 19

The visitor to Benares rises early in the morning, and after a drive of some three miles, arrives at the Ganges while the sun is still engaged in lifting the mists from the river, and in driving the chill of dawn from the air. It is then that the pilgrims bathe in greatest numbers. and the various phases of life on the great stairs are best seen.

It is usual to take one of the queerlooking high-sterned craft at Dasawamedh Ghat, about the centre of the line. Ae one enters upon this ghat a stonemason’s yard is worth glancing at. Here temples in stone to suit the buyer's taste may be purchased ready made and complete down to, or rather up to, the

gilt trident or perforated disc that surmounts buildings given over to the worship of Shiva. Descending the steps, and pausing on the platforms where preachers take their stand under the great spreading umbrella, one soon sees that the ghats have their commercial use. Great numbers of native craft are moored alongside, and the platforms are encumbered with their cargoes of stone, fodder or firewood. The usual procedure is to row up stream, keeping close to the edge. As the morning mists clear off the surface of the water the sun shines out on a scene of extraordinary fascination. Although the morning may be cold, the lower steps are crowded with devotees carrying out their devotional ablutions. Here is an old widow with closely shaven pate, almost undistinguishable with her heavy jowl from an ill-favoured fat man. Here, again, is a pretty mite, her only costume a medal

suspended by a string round the hips; her mother is washing her head, and in place of soap scoops up a handful of the black Ganges mud and rubs it in freely—its cleansing properties, I believe, are renowned. Over there is an old fakir covering his lean, hairy body' with ashes; his sunken eyes glare out

of his grey smeared face like coals, their light the light of fanaticism. Alongside is a youthful native whose peculiar lightness of skin immediately attracts the eye. He is suffering from an incurable disease, the whitening of the skin in connection with which is but a symp-

tom. and it is to be feared that his pilgrimage will physically avail him little. Ahead the blue smoke of a funeral pyre rises lazily on the still air from the midst of the blackened remains of many similar primitive cremations. The white shrouded figure is plainly visible through the curling smoke. Alongside is a little

white bundle which a native is busy attaching a stone to. He places it on the prow of one of the rudely constructed native boats, and pushing off some thirty or forty feet into the stream drops his pitiful little burden overboard. Mother Ganga takes the mite

to her ample bosom. A little further yet up stream a man is towing out to the channel the carcase of a buffalo, and as its bloated body on liberation floats down the sluggish stream the evillooking vultures, scenting their prey, gather from the far bank and settle on the derelict. There will be little

left when this ill-omened fowl has. done its repulsive scavengering work. Almost at this point the huge pipe of the great waterworks on the bank immediately above enters the river. The Ganges is said to possess remarkable qualities of self-purification, and samples taken within a few inches of a disintegrating corpse at rest in a backwater are said to yield no traces of unhealthy contamination, but a moruing on the river emphasises the warning that the traveller receives when entering India to eschew indulging in the water of the country as a beverage. The processes through which it is possible to put large quantities of water hardly seem adequate to the occasion, and yet the natives drink indiscriminately while tney bathe on the margin, and apparently sutler no serious effects. Returning down stream, the journey is usually continued till almost opposite the tall and graceful minarets of the mosque. The most interesting of the ghats passed is Panchganga Ghat, situated on the mythical site of the junction of four rivers, it is an act of no mean efficacy to bathe at this spot. Here the flimsy jetties are more numerous and more crowded. Kneeling on the end of one is a devotee facing the river performing his devotions. The variety of his actions and their iteration attracts attention, and the fact that the strange figure is palpably oblivious of all surrounding objects rivets it. Usually the telling of beads and the people’s devotions are less demonstrative if not less sincere. A return is made to the landing at Dasawamedh Ghat. A walk down the three mile length of the ghats is equally interesting, but the closer view that it affords in a measure dissipates to a large extent the belie; in the universal seriousness of the pilgrimage, which is not difficult to maintain when viewed from the river. 1 started in at Assi Ghat, close to the waterworks, and walked slowly the length of the ghats. A boat was just landing its gaily-dressed freight of pil-

For Conclusion see ‘‘Our Illustrations.”