Pilgrims at the Ganga Ghats
Benaras has always been the most inspirational of Indian cities. Thought to be the world’s oldest, boasting an unbroken habitation of 5,000 years, pilgrims and travellers have been irresistibly drawn to it, as have artists of the Raj and after. Recently, Manu Parekh paid a unique tribute to it in a series of 14 landscapes, 12 feet and more in width. In these mysterious, unpeopled panoramas, Benaras is seen as volatile and fearsome, a city of death. Shrines, atilt like tall-masted ships, bob on the turbulent water, and trees, black and foreboding, punctuate the riverbank. These are essentially mood pictures representing one of the great achievements of Indian Expressionist Art. For those with a less imaginative eye, there are other attractions, chief among them being Benaras Hindu University. Spread over 5.5 sq km with its own electricity and clean water supply, the salubrious environs are a welcome retreat from the pressures of a sprawling, chaotic city. The figures are mind-boggling. It has 124 departments; 64 guest-houses surrounded by lush flower beds and lawns; about 15,000 students, many of whom are foreigners on exchange scholarships; a hospital and research centre; and a superb museum. Its defining point is the slender spire of the Birla Temple, rising higher, it is said, than the Qutb Minar.
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