Benares, the sacred city; sketches of Hindu life and religion

Perhaps because Benares is not forbidden, such a source of human interest and one of the most unusual cities in the East, at the time of publication in 1912, was probably less known to Europeans than Lhasa. Even among the Europeans who have seen Benares, few have any adequate understanding of the ideas and beliefs that many millions of our compatriots associate with him. Indeed, few people have the time or inclination to read the growing body of very solid literature on the philosophical side of Hinduism; and the more popular missionary stories usually make the mistake of presenting all of Hinduism as a mass of degraded superstitions and idolatry, united only by the deep ignorance and backwardness of the Indian people. These sketches are offered not as a contribution to oriental studies or religious controversy, but as an attempt to provide an intelligible outline of Hindu ideas and religious practices, and especially as a representation of the imaginative and artistic side of Indian religions, which can be observed in few places as well as in the holy city and its surroundings - the birthplace of Buddhism and one of the main religions of Hinduism. Most of the illustrations have been specially prepared to clarify the text and include some of the remarkable discoveries made this year in Sarnath. They were made in the hope that they would provide some insight into the wonderful artistic richness of Benares' life, while at the same time being more instructive than travel books.