वाराणशी

Shivnath Jha — at VARANASI, Uttar Pradesh, India

Tomorrow ·

·

Published a Book

Today

What makes Varanasi or Kashi less privileged than Ping Yao – a 14th Century Chinese city; Ouro Preto – a 17th Century Brazilian city; or Grand-Bassan – a late 19th century town of Côte d’Ivoire? While these relatively new towns are marked as world heritage sites by UNESCO, Varanasi – one of the world’s oldest continually inhabited cities – does not figure in the list? Why should UNESCO delay in including Varanasi or Kashi when the city fulfils its criteria for the selection? While the spiritual significance of Varanasi is undisputed - it is the holiest of the seven sacred cities (Sapta Puri) in Hinduism and Jainism, and played an important role in the development of Buddhism, it has the credentials that no other city in the world can boast of as none can match Varanasi in terms of its legend, history and mythological significance. Varanasi is the city where Lord Buddha delivered his first sermon (at Sarnath, just 10 km away from the Varanasi town). It is the city which finds place in ancient scriptures such as the Atharvaveda, Rigveda, Skanda Purana, as well as the great Hindu epics – Ramayana and Mahabharata. It is the place where the holy epic poem Shri Ramcharitmanas by Goswami Tulsidas was written. And it is the city which celebrated writer Mark Twain described Varanasi as “older than history, older than tradition and legend”. Not many cities can be richer in history and mythology than Varanasi – a holy pilgrimage believed to be created by Lord Shiva that stood on his trident! Shiva — the fascinating deity of the Hindu Trinity (Brahma and Vishnu are the other deities of the Hindu triad) represents death and destruction and for the Hindus, death in Kashi means salvation. The opposite flow of Ganga in Kashi – from South to North against its usual North to South, is symbolically alluded to the life cycle, from death (south, the realm of death, Yama) to life (north, the realm of life, Shiva, i.e. Kailash). Thus, the 84 Ghats (embankments made in steps of stone slabs along the bank of Ganga) of Varanasi are representative of the physical, metaphysical and supernatural concept of divinity. It is believed that it was here that Lord Shiva and his consort Parvati stood when time started ticking for the first time. The name 'Kashi' is derived from the word ‘kasha’ which means ‘brightness’ and signifies ‘spiritual luminance.' For Hindus Kashi or Varanasi is a pilgrimage. It is a city which has withstood the onslaught of time. It has seen it all – from invasions to reverence. It was the capital of the kingdom of Kashi in the 6th century BC and historically Kashi is among the world’s oldest continually inhabited cities. It was the nucleus of Aryan religion and philosophy by the second millennium BC. Archaeological investigations confirm the existence of the city from 800 BCE to CE 800, and further the continuity of residential settlement. Varanasi was invaded in 1194 A.D by the Muslim ruler Qutb-ud-din Aibak who destroyed thousands of the temples and religious monuments. The city remained a part of successive Muslim dynasties. Some of the other old temples were also destroyed by the rulers in the year 1496. It was destroyed innumerable times by foreign invaders only to be rebuilt with renewed vigour and faith. Today the city also has 1,388 Muslim shrines and mosques. Varanasi has been a unique mix of culture, learning and artistic pursuits. It drew many learned men from around the world. The celebrated Chinese traveler Hsüan Tsang was one of them, who visited India around AD 635. Kabir Das, Ravidas who were the superior saints and poets of the Bhakti of the 15th Century, lived here; Guru Nanak Dev (founder of the Sikhism) had visited the city at the religious festival, Shivratri in the year 1507; The old glory of the city was restored yet again when it became an independent kingdom, with Ramnagar as its capital, when the British declared it a new Indian state in 1910. After India's independence in 1947, Varanasi became part of the state of Uttar Pradesh. In recent times the Varanasi Development Authority (VDA) had, with the aim of achieving a sustainable development of the city based on its architectural preservation and the conservation of its cultural landscape, recently undertaken the creditable and immense task of documentation of the vast architectural and intangible cultural heritage of the city and its surrounding region and of formulating a legislative framework to protect the same. In present times, although the architectural heritage of the city is still preserved, its existence is seriously threatened by immense pressures from increasing population, modernization, economic development and tourism. The proposed and identified “The Ganga River and Riverfront & Old City Heritage Zone of Varanasi” satisfies the UNESCO Cultural Heritage Criteria as set out in Article 1 of the Convention, and as set out in the Operational Guidelines- Cultural Criteria Para 24 (a). i, ii, iii, iv, v, vi, and para 27. ii, and the Cultural Landscape Criteria Para 39.ii. and iii. In the light of this, it is indeed a surprise that Varanasi does not figure in the list of UNESCO’s World Heritage Site and its time that the World takes an urgent note of this oversight.