Harishchandra Ghat

Harishchandra Ghat sits on the southern stretch of Varanasi's riverfront, between Hanuman Ghat and Kedar Ghat, as one of the holy city's two working cremation grounds.

• It is the older and far quieter of the pair, sometimes called Adi Manikarnika (the "original" Manikarnika), and Hindus believe that a body given to the flames here, on the bank of the Ganga in Kashi, is released from the endless cycle of rebirth.
• The ghat takes its name from the legendary King Harishchandra of the Ikshvaku dynasty, an ancestor of Lord Rama, who was so devoted to truth that he surrendered his kingdom, his family and his royal name, and served humbly as a keeper of this very cremation ground before the gods restored everything to him.
• That story of unbending honesty is woven into the identity of the place, and pilgrims come to bow to it.
• The ghat has been in use for centuries; Sati memorial stones in the area point to cremations here as far back as the 15th and 16th centuries, and the steps were renovated under Maratha (Peshwa) patronage in the 18th century, associated with the religious scholar Narayana Dikshit.
• In 1986-87 an electric crematorium was installed alongside the open-air pyres, one of the earliest such facilities in the city; today wood-fire cremations and the electric furnace operate side by side, tended around the clock by the Dom community who are the traditional custodians of Kashi's cremation fires.
• This is first and foremost a place of grief, ritual and release, not a sightseeing spectacle.
• Respectful visitors usually observe it from a passing boat or from a discreet distance along the riverfront walkway, keeping a low profile and a soft voice.
• Photographing the pyres, the deceased or mourning families is strictly forbidden and deeply hurtful; the dignity of the bereaved comes before any photograph.
• If you wish to understand this side of Kashi, come at first light, when the river is silver and the ghats are calm, and simply watch the eternal rhythm of the city with humility.
• For vegetarian travellers, the surrounding old-city lanes of Bengali Tola and Sonarpura are a comfort: this is deeply satvik territory where pure-vegetarian, alcohol-free kitchens are the norm rather than the exception.
• Within a short walk or cycle-rickshaw ride you can restore yourself with a plate of hot kachori-sabzi, South Indian tiffin, tangy Banarasi chaat or a thick clay-cup lassi.
• Because so much of Kashi's food is traditionally prepared without onion or garlic and entirely without meat, fish or egg, satvik and Jain-leaning eaters will find it unusually easy to eat well here without a single anxious question about what is in the pot.