Banaras Region A Spiritual and Cultural Guide

by Rana P.B. Singh

This book is the first compendium of cultural sites in and around Varanasi, written by two of the most renowned specialists of the city. It covers a very wide range of places and subjects and provides a huge quantity of information, being a veritable small encyclopaedia of the Banaras region. The first section includes Setting, Historical background, Religious landscape, Cosmogony, Festivities, Riverside landscape, and 7 detailed Area Walks along the ghats and the old city. Also included are the Panchakroshi pilgrimage, Ramanagar, Sarnath, the Jain and Muslim sacredscapes, etc. The second section `Around Banaras' covers the sites lying at less than 80 km, like Chunar, Ahraura, Lekhania, Vindhyachal, Kaithi, Shitala Dham, Jakhini, Bhadohi, Sitamarhi, Jaunpur, Chandraprabha and Kaimur Wild Life sanctuaries. The third part covers the places in the range of 100-300 km, Allahabad, Ayodhya, Chitrakut, Khajuraho, Mundeshvari, and many other places.

Paperback

First published November 1, 2002

Reviews

[Bob Woodley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the hand-drawn maps and the descriptive detail on the temples of Kashi. But this is not really a book you'd take on a trip there (and in fact I will not bring it for my upcoming trip). There is too much tangential context to justify carrying around a 400 page book. The 2nd half of the book is about places near Kashi but the places aren't really very near and would be substantial multi-day trips.

Plus substantial parts of the book are devoted to geomancy as well to sacred geographies and 6 day circumambulations of the city.

This would be a good book if you lived in the city or were spending months there.

[Monika Müller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Knowing the town of Banares, today called Varanasi, this book gives me much more insight about the profound background of this town, which is one of the three oldest towns of the world.