Dashashwamedh and the evening Ganga aarti

In this episode

• Walk north to Dashashwamedh, the city’s busiest ghat, and stay for the evening aarti.
• Watch priests offer lamps, incense, and flowers to the Ganga as the sun sets.
• Sit quietly, respect the crowd, and feel the shared reverence of the river’s light.

Read along

Namaste. In our last episode we spent a morning at Assi, at the southern edge of old Kashi. Today we walk north to Dashashwamedh, the busiest ghat in the city, and we stay until evening, for the Ganga aarti.

We arrive in the late morning. Dashashwamedh is wide and crowded. A broad road runs straight down from the market to the river, and it carries everything with it: pilgrims with bags on their heads, flower sellers with baskets of marigolds, a family carrying a grandmother in a chair, boatmen calling out, children selling small leaf cups with a lamp and a few flowers inside. Under large bamboo umbrellas sit the pandas, the priests who help pilgrims with their rites, each one with a wooden platform, a small mirror, sandal paste and a register of the families he serves.

Many families have gone to the same panda's family for generations. It is said that some pandas keep old registers in which a family's visits to Kashi are written down, grandfather, father and son, so that a pilgrim can sometimes find the name of an ancestor who came here long ago. If you have a family panda, you will know. If you do not, you do not need one to sit on the steps or to bathe.

Let us sit on a step to one side and hear how this ghat got its name.

The Kashi Khanda, the part of the Skanda Purana devoted to Kashi, tells a long story about a king called Divodasa, who ruled Kashi so well and so strictly that even the gods had to leave the city. Shiva, who loved Kashi above all places, wished to return, and sent others ahead of him, one after another. Among them was Brahma.

In the Kashi Khanda's telling, Brahma came to the city in the form of an old brahmin, and asked King Divodasa for help in performing a great sacrifice. The king gave him everything he needed, and Brahma performed ten ashvamedha sacrifices, the great horse sacrifices of the old Vedic rites, here on the bank of the Ganga. Ten horse sacrifices, das ashvamedh. From that, the ghat took its name, Dashashwamedh.

The story continues, and Brahma, like the others, found he did not wish to leave Kashi. He stayed, and the Kashi Khanda says a Shiva linga was established here in his name. We share the story as the text tells it. If you ask on the ghat, you may hear it told a little differently, and that is part of how Kashi keeps its stories alive.

In the afternoon, the ghat slows down. The sun is hot on the stone. Beside Dashashwamedh is Prayag Ghat, named after the meeting of rivers at Prayag, and on the steps there is a small shrine of the goddess Shitala, where women come with water and flowers. Boatmen sleep in the shade of their boats. A barber shaves a man who has just finished a family rite for his father. Someone is feeding the pigeons. This is a good time to sit quietly, drink water, and rest your feet before the evening crowd arrives.

By late afternoon, young men from the aarti committee begin setting up. They lay out a row of raised wooden platforms along the edge of the ghat, facing the river. On each one they place the same things, neatly arranged: a large brass lamp with many tiers, a conch, a bell, incense, flowers, a yak-tail whisk and a fan of peacock feathers. They sweep the steps and sprinkle water. Bit by bit, people start to take their places on the steps behind, and boats begin to gather on the river in front.

The aarti begins soon after sunset. A row of young priests, dressed alike, steps up onto the platforms. The conch is blown. Then, together, in slow and matching movements, they offer each thing to the Ganga in turn. First the incense, turned in circles in the air. Then the great lamps, heavy with flames, lifted and turned so that the light swings out over the water. Then the whisk and the feather fan, moved gently, as one would cool and honour a guest. All through it, bells ring and hymns to the Ganga are sung by human voices, sometimes by a singer, sometimes by the whole crowd.

The whole aarti takes about three-quarters of an hour. The words and order vary a little between organisers, and there are other aartis too, at Assi and on some other ghats, each with its own style. What does not change much is the feeling. Thousands of people, from every part of India and from abroad, go quiet together, and watch the flames move over the dark river.

Why an aarti to a river? For many families in India, the Ganga is spoken of as a mother, Ganga Maiya, and treated the way one treats someone dear and honoured. An aarti is how a guest or a deity is welcomed and thanked in many homes, with a lamp turned before them. So in the evening the city turns its lamps toward the river that has given it water, work and faith all day. You do not need to share this belief to feel what it means to the people sitting beside you.

Now some simple ways to watch the aarti respectfully, so that it goes well for you and for everyone around you.

Come early, at least an hour before sunset if you want a place on the steps. Sit where the volunteers show you, and do not stand in front of people who are sitting. If the space in front of the platforms is kept clear, keep it clear. If you are asked to take off your shoes in some part of the ghat, please do, and keep them with you in a bag.

It is fine to take a photograph or two. But turn off the flash, keep your phone low, and do not hold it up above other people's heads for the whole time. Consider putting it away completely for at least part of the aarti. You will remember what you felt more than what you filmed.

When others stand, you may stand. When others fold their hands, you may fold yours, or simply sit quietly. Nobody will expect you to know every step, and nobody should make you feel you are doing it wrong.

At the end, a lamp is often brought toward the crowd. Many people pass their hands over the flame and then touch their eyes or head, taking the blessing of the light. If you wish to do this, you may. If you would rather not, a small bow of the head is enough.

Many people float a small lamp on the river after the aarti, in a cup made of leaves with a few flowers. If you do, choose one made only of leaves and flowers, and set it down gently from the lowest step or from the boat. Please do not put plastic, foil or packets into the Ganga.

A word about safety. The steps at Dashashwamedh are steep and crowded, and after dark they can be hard to see. Elders will find it easier to sit higher up, away from the water. Hold children's hands, and agree on a meeting point in case you get separated. Keep your belongings close to you.

If you watch from a boat, go with a registered boatman, ask for a life jacket and wear it. Do not let the boat be overloaded, and stay seated. When many boats crowd together in front of the ghat, do not step from one boat to another. In the monsoon, when the river is high and fast, boats may not be allowed out, and the aarti is sometimes held higher up the steps or on a terrace. Follow what the ghat staff and the water police ask.

On certain nights of the year, especially Dev Deepawali on the full moon of Kartik, the whole riverfront is lit with lamps from one end to the other, and the crowds are very large. If you plan to come for a festival, check the exact dates for your city in a panchang, and plan to arrive very early.

By the time we leave, the crowd is thinning out. The priests are packing the lamps into boxes. The small leaf lamps drift slowly downstream, a few still burning. The flower sellers are sweeping up. The river is dark again, and quiet.

One thing to take with you. At the aarti, thousands of strangers stop together and watch one light. Tonight, before you sleep, light a small lamp or simply switch off every light but one, and sit with it quietly for a minute.

In the next episode, we walk to Harishchandra and Manikarnika, Kashi's cremation ghats, and we go gently, with respect.

Keep going

• Listen: Dashashwamedh and the evening Ganga aarti
• Previous: Assi at first light - the river's name and the morning gathering
• Next: Manikarnika and Harishchandra - the cremation ghats, with respect
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• All episodes of Kashi Vishwanath: the city of light