Varanasi

Varanasi

On the banks of the Ganges River in the Himalayas, a city said to be older than mankind, stands in the Himalayan sky. Varanasi is as sacred to India and the East as Jerusalem is to Jews and Christians. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements on earth, where the soul can be freed from the bondage of karma. It was among the first major urban settlements in the central Ganges valley. By the 2nd millennium B.C., Varanasi was the seat of Vedic religion and philosophy, as well as a commercial and industrial center renowned for its muslin and silk fabrics, perfumes, ivory works, and sculpture. During the time of the Buddha, who preached his first sermon in nearby Sarnath, it was the capital of the kingdom of Kashi. According to the famous Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang, who visited Varanasi around 635 A.D. and said that the city stretched for about 5 km along the western bank of the Ganges, Varanasi remained a center of religious, educational, and artistic activities. Varanasi was then in decline during three centuries of Muslim occupation from 1194. During the Muslim period, many of the city's Hindu temples were demolished, and its learned scholars left for other areas of the country. Some relief to the city's religious and cultural activities came from the Mughal Emperor Akbar in the 16th century. It suffered a further setback under the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in the late 17th century, but was later revived by the Marathas. In the 18th century, Varanasi became an independent kingdom and continued to be a commercial and religious center under the subsequent British rule. The state of Varanasi became part of the state of Uttar Pradesh in 1947, after the independence of India.