Thread by @HindooHistory

Omaha Bee, 1910

"Benares, Holy City Where Sin is Nullified Regardless of Conditions"

#HindooHistory #FrankCarpenter #Benares

"This is the holiest city on the face of the globe. All who die within fifty miles of Benares, whether they be Hindoos or Mohammedans, Buddhists or Christians, liars or thieves, go straight to heaven"

"Even to visit Benares wipes away sin, and to bathe in the holy Ganges which flows by it will make you eternally happy. It is the greatest pilgrimage city on earth."

"The tomb of Confucius in China, the birthplace of Mohammed at Mecca and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher at Jerusalem all put together not half the worshippers. More than 1,000,000 pilgrims annually kneel at those shrines"

"Everywhere I go see Brahmin priests consoling and fleecing the pilgrims. They can be told by the caste marks on their faces and half-naked bodies, and by the white strings around their necks"

"There are more than 30,000 of them in Benares. They are found near the temples and under great umbrellas down on the Ganges. They will cure your sins for a price; they will also take care of idols to the number of 500,000 or more"

"Benares is a city of sacred beasts as well as sacred men. It swarms with sacred cows and great white bulls with humps on their backs. It has sacred apes an da great temple in which the monkeys live with a goddess"

"I visited that temple this morning and watched the priests sacrifice a live goat to Durga, the goddess of suffering and death."

"The goat's neck was tied to the fork and cut off by a half-naked Hindoo with the blow of a cleaver. As the axe struck, the blood squirted, and the horrid goddess, it seemed to me, burst into a grin"

"Durga is supposed to love blood. She has a necklace of skulls under her blood-dripping mouth. She is crowned with snakes like the Medusa, and her face was covered with gore. She is fond of sacrifices and thousands of human beings have been killed on her altars"

"The British have forbidden this now, but it is only a little more than a generation ago, during a famine, that a boy was found with his neck out in a temple to Durga not far from here..."

"and within twenty-five miles of Calcutta a human head decked with flowers was placed on the altar of this goddess."

"Among the queer features of the temple are the monkeys which throng its courts and which live in the trees which hang over it. The monkeys are sacred to Vishnu, another great deity"

"They are kept and revered as representations of the monkey god Ram, and are considered gods and goddesses who must not be touched"

"From the monkey temple I went to the Golden temple. This is in the heart ofBenares. It is one of the most beautiful buildings of the city, and it has spires and domes plated with gold. It is dedicated to Shiva, the husband of Durga, another terrible god"

"Shiva is supposed to sit enthroned on one of the Himalaya mountains and to be waited on by minor gods and innumerable spirits"

"He is the god of time and death and destruction. He is also the creator and one of his symbols is the bull. He is the ruler of evil spirits and ghouls, and at nightfall he prowls where the dead lie."

"He is the god of the fanatics who go about naked covered with ashes and who pose themselves standing for months, days and years in one place with their hands stretched up to heaven"

"The Golden temple is about the holiest place in Benares. I was stopped at the door by the priest and told that none but Hindoos could enter. I could see through the doorway, however. The Court was filled with people from all over India"

"Connected with the temple is a courtyard containing a well the water of which is so holy that he who drinks it will go up to heaven. The water is ladled out by priests to the pilgrims, who throw flowers and other things down into the well as their offerings"

"These rot and make the contents filthy and putrid. It smells like bad eggs, but it is bought by the cupful and gulped down with the lips smacking. When the Mohammedans once tried to take Benares it is said that one of the stone gods of the Brahmins jumped into this well"

"Not far from the Golden temple is the Cow temple, filled with animals holy to Shiva. This is more like a stable than a church"

"I saw one pretty girl hugging a bull. She was a slender brown maiden, whose form, worthy to be a model for Venus, was clad in a single strip of dark navy blue cotton. She had a red cashmere shawl around her head, which hid all but the great black eyes"

"She brought this to the biggest and most beautiful bull in the stables, and chanted a prayer and she handed it to him. The dove-colored beast ate the flowers, and as he did so she threw here arms around his neck and gave him a hug"

"It made me think of Apis, the bull of Memphis, who was worshipped by the Egyptians, and also the fair Io, whom Juno turned into a cow because of the flirtations of Jupiter"

"These sacred cows and bulls are to be seen everywhere... The people do not strike them or ill-treat them in any way. They will not eat beef and to slaughter cattle would not only lose them their caste in this world, but doom them to punishment for all time to come"

"Benares is holy largely because it lies on the Ganges. That river is more to the Indian than the Jordan is to the Christian. If a Hindoo prays within 100 miles of its banks that prayer will wipe out the sins of three past generations..."

"Some pilgrims make journeys almost from the source to the mouth, being years on the way. Just now many are coming to the holy places by railroad, and the pilgrimage traffic to Benares is enormous. The city is now filled with pilgrims"

"In some respects this place makes me think of a camp meeting, a great Hindoo watering place where the people come to rest their bodies while saving their souls"

"If you have any doubt that the Hindoos believe their sins are washed away by the Ganges, come with me to the river. We shall take a lunch and ride down among the bathers and see whether their actions prove their belief"

"The sun is just rising, but we find the stream full. The steps are crowded with worshippers clad int he thinnest of cotton..."

"Now and then they duck down into the water, coming up gasping and looking colder than ever. Such bathing for you and me would mean death. It may mean death to them, but here death is salvation"

"There is a gully in the heart of the city lined with what look like bonfires or campfires. Nwo we are nearer and can see that the wood of each fire has been piled up in a square, and on the top of each lies a corpse"

"There are the bodies of the dead whoa re being burned on the banks of the Ganges, that their ashes may float out upon its waters and their souls go straight to heaven. I have seen cremation in many lands, but nothing like this."

"The bodies are burned right out in the open, and the nearest relative of the dead lights the fire. The wood is usually arranged by Doms, a certain caste who, according to Hindoo rites, can start one's soul best toward heaven"

"Now we are just opposite the funeral pyre. The wind has sprung up and is fanning the flame. There is a crackling and frying, the smoke becomes denser and that fat Brahmin at the left has burst out in a blaze"

"It is a horrible sight, and the more so from the hurry of the relatives who stir up the fires that they may burn out the quicker."

"See, there is one warming his hands in those flames, at the fire nearer the river some boys have pulled up their gowns and are toasting their thighs and calves by their burning fathers and brothers"

"We land from our boats and stop a while watching the scene. There are ashes and fires everywhere. HEre a woman lies on the pyre. She is clad in white cotton and her shaved head rests on a dirty blue pillow, six inches in thickness"

"Her arms are folded. She is as thin as a skeleton and probably a widow. Next to her is the corpse of a well-to-do merchant. It is also in cotton. The Doms take it, strip off the clothes and prepare it for burning"

"More wood is piled up, kindling stick of cedar are inserted and a shovel of coal is brought from that fire at the right. Oil is poured on, the fire lighted and the cremation goes on until nothing but ashes is left"

"The relatives throw these into the Ganges and the ceremony is over. The caste which superintends the cremations is said to be rich, and one of them has made $500,000 in burning the dead"

"A peasant may be burned for a dollar or so, while a rajah will get off cheap at $300. I am told that payment must be made before the business begins, and no money no fire"

"The bodies of the poor are often not more than half consumed, and there are vultures hanging about, which feed upon the corpses, snatching the flesh out of the river as it floats down the stream"