Banaras Essay

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Intro to Religions of India-Paper City of Banares In the following paper I will be discussing the city of Banaras, its background, and the strong importance of death within the city. I will also discuss how the river Ganges plays a large role in the importance of death to Hindus here. “I am Vishvanatha, the Lord. Kashi is the light of liberation. The waves of the River of Heaven are the wine of immortality. What can these three not provide?!” (Eck, Diana L) Banaras, a city famous city in India, also goes by many other names to Hindus: Banares, The Luminous, The City of Light, and Kashi—to name a few (Eck, Diana L). Kashi is light, they say, and illuminates truth and reveals reality. It does not bring new wonders into the scope of vision, but allows one to see what is already there (Eck, Diana L). People have called this light the Eternal Shiva or Brahman (Eck, Diana L). Where this Light intersects the earth is known as Kashi. This is a city that rises from the western bank of the river Ganges (Eck, Diana L). Banaras is one of the oldest living cities in the world, as old as Jerusalem, Athens, and Peking (Eck, Diana L). Mark Twain wrote, “Benares is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together!” Unlike other cities, Banaras is a city with little known political history. It is not the events of its long history that make it significant to Hindus; rather, it has such a long history, and it has survived and flourished through the changing fortunes of the century because it is significant to the Hindus (Eck, Diana L). The place itself is what renders the city sacred. It contains and represents all that is Hindu. By visiting Banaras pilgrims may have darshan, a sacred glimpse, of all sites sacred to Hindus. It is said that Kashi is not of this earth; it exists in a time and space that is
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