DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0445
Temples and Sacred Places. Benares. 435
PafidakosI—that is to say, within a circuit of ten miles round
the centre of the holy city—nay, if the most desperate
criminal from any part of the world—be he of any religious
denomination, Christian, Buddhist, or Muhammadan—die
there, no amount of the most heinous guilt, not even the
deadly sin of eating beef, can prevent his immediate trans-
portation to the heaven of Siva. Yet Benares is by no means
exclusively dedicated to Siva ; nor are its inhabitants exclu-
sively devoted to the worship of any one deity in particular.
Benares is the very citadel of Brahmanism—the stronghold of
every form of Hinduism—the great central focus from which
all the lines of the most complicated religious system in the
world diverge, and to which they again converge. Here
priestcraft reigns supreme in all its plenitude and power.
Here a population of above 200,000 persons, men, women and
children, and a countless number of pilgrims deliver them-
selves up to be deluded, defrauded, and kept in moral and
religious slavery by 25,000 arrogant Brahmans.
Picturesquely situated on the Ganges and stretching for
three or four miles along this most sacred of all rivers, with
magnificent Ghats or flights of steps conducting pilgrims by
thousands into the very midst of the hallowed waters, Benares
is the home of every form of Hindfi religious earnestness and
enthusiasm, combined with every conceivable variety of
hideous superstition and fanaticism.
No description indeed can give the slightest idea of the
reality of the sight presented to the eye by this unique city.
The traveller bent on investigating its inner mysteries, and
eager to solve for himself the riddle of the grosser forms of
its superstition and fanaticism, finds that his only hope of
traversing its tortuous streets, or penetrating the living tide
which daily ebbs and flows in its leading thoroughfares, is by
trusting to his personal powers as a pedestrian. Pushing his
way through the seething throng he beholds everywhere, as
he advances, the most striking contrasts and curious incon-
F f 2
PafidakosI—that is to say, within a circuit of ten miles round
the centre of the holy city—nay, if the most desperate
criminal from any part of the world—be he of any religious
denomination, Christian, Buddhist, or Muhammadan—die
there, no amount of the most heinous guilt, not even the
deadly sin of eating beef, can prevent his immediate trans-
portation to the heaven of Siva. Yet Benares is by no means
exclusively dedicated to Siva ; nor are its inhabitants exclu-
sively devoted to the worship of any one deity in particular.
Benares is the very citadel of Brahmanism—the stronghold of
every form of Hinduism—the great central focus from which
all the lines of the most complicated religious system in the
world diverge, and to which they again converge. Here
priestcraft reigns supreme in all its plenitude and power.
Here a population of above 200,000 persons, men, women and
children, and a countless number of pilgrims deliver them-
selves up to be deluded, defrauded, and kept in moral and
religious slavery by 25,000 arrogant Brahmans.
Picturesquely situated on the Ganges and stretching for
three or four miles along this most sacred of all rivers, with
magnificent Ghats or flights of steps conducting pilgrims by
thousands into the very midst of the hallowed waters, Benares
is the home of every form of Hindfi religious earnestness and
enthusiasm, combined with every conceivable variety of
hideous superstition and fanaticism.
No description indeed can give the slightest idea of the
reality of the sight presented to the eye by this unique city.
The traveller bent on investigating its inner mysteries, and
eager to solve for himself the riddle of the grosser forms of
its superstition and fanaticism, finds that his only hope of
traversing its tortuous streets, or penetrating the living tide
which daily ebbs and flows in its leading thoroughfares, is by
trusting to his personal powers as a pedestrian. Pushing his
way through the seething throng he beholds everywhere, as
he advances, the most striking contrasts and curious incon-
F f 2