For 3000 years people have wor­shiped on the shores of the Ganges at Varanasi.

So what kind of place is it and how does it make one feel to be in one of the most “holy” cit­ies in the world?  This short film con­siders just that by show­ing the city as it wakes and as it goes to sleep.

Varanasi: City of Gods from Basho Mat­suo on Vimeo.

Varanasi is not a city for the begin­ner trav­el­ler.  There are many dangers to being in such a place, both phys­ic­ally and spir­itu­ally. While we were there we unwit­tingly saw the res­ults of a murder, were fol­lowed and threatened by a local tar­get­ing tour­ists, eyed up by count­less armed police and got into some heated argu­ments with the local Tuk Tuk drivers who attemp­ted to rip us off.  For us, hav­ing trav­elled for so long, this was taken all in our stride. The other dangers in Varanasi appear to be spir­itual.  The entire place is full of European Yogic con­verts who live in Ashrams up and down the banks.  That you could lose your­self here was for me the real danger I sought to avoid.

There is a def­in­ite sense of this being a holy city.  It is filthy and down­trod­den like many Indian cit­ies, but its immense ancient­ness is cap­tiv­at­ing.  I have tried to show some of that in this film. The cere­mony shown at the end of the film is known as the Varanasi Dashash­wamedh Ghat Agni Pooja Cere­mony and prac­ticed daily in hon­our of the gods:

“Dashash­wamedh Ghat is loc­ated close to “Vish­wanath Temple”, and is
prob­ably the most spec­tac­u­lar ghat. Two Hindu myth­o­lo­gies are
asso­ci­ated with it: Accord­ing to one, Lord Brahma cre­ated it to
wel­come Lord Shiva. Accord­ing to another, Lord Brahma sac­ri­ficed ten
horses in a yajna here. A group of priests daily per­form in the
even­ing at this ghat “Agni Pooja” (Wor­ship to Fire) wherein a
ded­ic­a­tion is made to Lord Shiva, River Ganga, Surya (Sun), Agni
(Fire), and the whole universe.”

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