Buffalo In The Ganges

The river at Varanasi flows in a long gentle curve and is dotted on one side by temples and steps or landings called ghats that lead down to the River Ganges.

These photos are of buffalo resting in the water of the Ganges and on the sandy bank of the river.

Buffalo On The River Bank At Varanasi

Except for the evening puja or purification ceremonies that take place up and down the river, the lazy relaxation of these buffalo echoes the peaceful quiet here.

The exception is Manikarnika ghat, which is always at work.

At this ghat there are logs stacked everywhere in piles seven and eight feet high. The wood is dark brown, hacked roughly to lengths of about five feet. In the street above the ghat the wood is stacked against the buildings.

There is more wood in piles by the river and more arriving all the time in open boats that are moored by the river bank.

Slight-built men are stepping barefoot over the logs in the boats, each one loaded down with a pile of logs across his back. They make their way up the short sandy bank, past the fires and up to the piles of wood to replenish them.

They offload their logs and make their way back to the river while other men built the stacks of wood in an endless cycle.

There are ten or twelve fires burning in shallow ashy pits. Each one is a cremation.

After being bathed in the Ganges by their family members, the bodies are wrapped in a piece of cloth and placed on top of the pyre, where they are doused in butter oil and sandalwood dust.

It takes 350kg (750lbs) of wood to burn a body properly and the cremation takes about three hours. Doms – men from a class of untouchables who work at the funeral ghats – turn and move the logs to ensure the burning is complete.

The ribs of men and the hip bones of women rarely burn away to nothing. They are collected by the doms and deposited in the Ganges early in the morning each day.

The obligation to light the funeral fire falls on the closest male family member.

In the street above, in front of the small temples that dot the street, these men are taking off their clothes and being dressed in white sheets so they can perform their duty.

The man goes first to a small nondescript fire that is in the entrance to a temple just behind the fire pits. It is said that this fire has been burning continuously for three thousand years.

He makes a bundle of reeds taken from a large pile of reeds that fills a recess, and he lights his bundle from the fire.

Then he walks down to the body on the pyre, walks around it a number of times and then lights the fire. His last job is to take water in a clay pot from the Ganges, which he throws over his shoulder back onto the body.

He does this five times, and the final time he throws the pot itself. It breaks and that ends his relationship with the deceased.

There are hundreds of men at the ghat. Groups of men are leaning on railings or standing erect. Some of the groups are family members gathered together and waiting their turn. Others are just there watching.

There are no women here except for foreign tourists. Even the wife of the deceased stays at home.

There is smoke everywhere and a steady trickle of ash.

There are dogs asleep in the warmth of the ashes remaining from old fires. There are cows wandering through and buffalo with their herders prodding them through the crowds.

There are goats standing on the stacks of wood looking for something to chew or wandering around or standing alert.

By the awning that covers the table where the clay pots are laid out, there is a group of seven men with ages ranging from middle aged to early twenties. One makes a back and forth movement with is hand and arm like a snake: Another grabs his crotch. They are laughing uproariously.

The river is broad and there is more or less nothing built on the opposite bank – just a wide sandy bank receding into the distance and then a line of trees. The scene looking down on the fires and the river is peaceful and uninterrupted.

Two or three hundred people are cremated here each day and cremations continue every day of the year.

A few hundred yards south of this ghat is another smaller burning ghat. It is a simpler affair and from a distance looks simply like bodies being burned on a beach.

Cremation purifies the sexual, so only married men and women are cremated.

Holy men, children, those who are unmarried, those bitten by a snake, and those who are pregnant are weighted down with a stone and lowered directly into the Ganges.

For Hindus, it is good to die and be cremated in Varanasi.

Cremation must take place within 24 hours of death, so trucks are sometimes seen coming into the city from other towns, with the body lying in the open back of the truck and the relatives standing around the deceased, as we saw yesterday morning.

Just by the Manikarnika Ghat is a temple that is sinking slowly at an angle into the sand and mud. Just behind it is the burning ghat.

Vishnu Temple Sinking Into The Mud

This Morning
This morning on the road leading towards the Manikarnika ghat, I saw a hand cart with a body lying in it, bedecked with orange robes and marigold garlands being pushed at a fast trot by ten or more men.

Alongside was another cart, laden with logs. It was being pushed by more men, their hair and faces covered in red powder paint. The men were chanting – singing almost – as they rushed along.

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