Banaras. The Sacred Сity

📒 Banaras has been for over two and a half thousand years the pre-eminent sacred city of the Hindus. They believe that to bathe in thу holy river Ganges here is to be cleansed of sin, and that to die in Banaras is to win salvation. It is this transcendental promise that chiefly underlies the lasting hold of Banaras on the teeming Hindu imagination and explains its cardinal position on the cultural map of India. The power of faith has shaped Banaras as an urban amalgam with a unique and subtle flavour - as a citadel of the Hindu tradition, as a seat of ancient learning, as a hive of commerce and crafts, and as theatre of the inimitable Banarasi way of life, with its accent on leisure and gaiety.This book seeks to explain the extraordinary synthsis that is Banaras, and to reveal the reach meaning that lies behind commonplace sights and everyday images. Fifty splendid photographs present the inexhaustible panorama of the ghats and images steeped in the daily life of Banaras.Издательство: Lustre Press