Havell, Ernest B.: Benares, the sacred city: Sketches of Hindu life and religion (London, [1912])

PREFACE

It is, perhaps, because Benares is not forbidden, that such
a mine of human interest, and one of the most extraordinary
cities of the East, is now probably less known to most Euro-
peans than Lhasa. Even of the Europeans who have seen
Benares, few have any adequate conception of the ideas and
beliefs which many millions of our fellow-subjects associate
with it. Few, indeed, have either the time or the inclination
to read through the increasing accumulation of very solid
literature which deals with the philosophic side of Hinduism;
and the more popular missionary accounts (with our national
tendency to underrate the enemy's strength) generally make
the mistake of representing all Hinduism as a mass of de-
graded superstitions and idolatry, only held together by the
profound ignorance and backwardness of the Indian people.

These sketches are not offered as a contribution to oriental
scholarship, or to religious controversy, but as an attempt to
give an intelligible outline of Hindu ideas and religious prac-
tices, and especially as a presentation of the imaginative and
artistic side of Indian religions, which can be observed at few
places so well as in the sacred city and its neighbourhood—
the birthplace of Buddhism and of one- of the principal sects
of Hinduism.

The illustrations have been, for the most part, specially
prepared to elucidate the text, and include some of the re-