Varanasi at dawn on the Ganges: India's oldest continuously inhabited city

It’s 5:14 a.m. on the Ganges and I’m in a flat-bottomed wooden rowboat being pushed slowly past the bathing ghats of Varanasi. A boy of about twelve is rowing; he was rowing yesterday and the day before, and his father before him, and his grandfather before that. The mist is coming up off the river. On the ghats, pilgrims are stripping to bathe. A sadhu — an ascetic, ash-smeared, dreadlocked, naked except for a saffron cloth — is sitting cross-legged on a stone step, watching the river. Somewhere upriver, smoke rises from the cremation ghat. The city, which has been continuously inhabited for at least three thousand years, is doing what it has been doing for three thousand years.

Why I keep coming back

Varanasi (Kashi, Banaras) is one of the seven holy cities of Hinduism and arguably the most important. The Ganges flows north here, against its general direction, and the bathing of one’s body in the river at this stretch is considered to purify lifetimes of karma. The cremation at the Manikarnika and Harishchandra ghats — open-air, on wooden pyres, in full view of the river and the public — is the death-rite that Hindus across India hope for. The city has been the centre of Hindu philosophy, Sanskrit study, and classical Indian music for centuries.

It is, for the Western visitor, an experience without analogue. The proximity to death is the unsoftened feature. The cremations happen continuously, 24 hours a day, on pyres twenty metres from where pilgrims are bathing.

Where to base yourself

Near the ghats (Assi Ghat at the southern end is the calmer option; the central area around Dashashwamedh and Manikarnika is more intense). The narrow lanes behind the ghats are where the heritage guesthouses are.

What to actually do

Take a boat at dawn. A rowboat with a local boatman, hired from the ghats, around 500–800 rupees an hour. Start at 5 a.m. The boatman will row from the southern Assi Ghat past the entire 6.5-km riverfront of bathing ghats; the light is the experience. Allow two hours.

Walk the ghats in the early morning. All 84 ghats (named bathing terraces) line the riverfront for 6.5 km. The walk is the entire trip. Morning is mandatory — by midday the heat and the people make it harder.

Witness an aarti. The fire ceremony at Dashashwamedh Ghat at sunset; an elaborate, choreographed offering of fire to the Ganges, performed by Brahmin priests with brass lamps the size of footballs. Crowded, theatrical, free. Arrive at 5:30 p.m. for a seat on the steps or on a tied-up boat just offshore.

Visit the burning ghats respectfully. Manikarnika and Harishchandra. Photography is generally forbidden and locally enforced — you may be approached, sometimes aggressively, by the families and Doms (the lower-caste cremation specialists). Do not photograph. Observe quietly from a distance. Donations are sometimes solicited; small notes are sufficient.

Day-trip to Sarnath. 10 km north; the place where the Buddha gave his first sermon after his enlightenment. The Dhamekha Stupa from the 5th century, the small Sarnath museum with its famous Lion Capital. Half a day.

Hear classical Indian music. Varanasi is the home of the Banaras Gharana of Hindustani classical music. Evening concerts at the Sankat Mochan Temple during the spring festival or at the Tulsi Ghat at irregular intervals are not always easy to find but are extraordinary when they happen.

Where to eat

The food is vegetarian (the city is deeply observant), heavily spiced, and starch-rich. The street food is some of the best in north India.

Kachori sabzi at any of the morning stalls in the lanes — puffed pastries with potato curry, the local breakfast. Lassi at Blue Lassi — Banana, mango, almond — thick, served in clay cups. Chai at any street stall — Varanasi makes some of the best masala chai in India; the small kullad clay cups (smashed after use) are the local tradition. Banaras Restaurant at Hotel Surya — Reliable mid-range north Indian. Brown Bread Bakery (Bengali Tola lane) — A long-running expat-friendly café-bakery for when you want something familiar. Pizzeria Vaatika Café (Assi Ghat) — Travelling-cliché Italian, but the rooftop view is the value.

When to come

November through February. Pleasant temperatures, the river clear-ish.

Avoid April through September — extreme heat (45°C+) and monsoon flooding.

Dev Deepawali (the full moon two weeks after Diwali in November) is the city’s most spectacular festival — every ghat lit with thousands of oil lamps, the river floating with diyas. Accommodation books a year ahead.

Practical notes

• Visa: E-visa for most Western passports.
• Money: Cash is essential here. ATMs in the older centre are unreliable; carry small notes.
• Transport: From the airport, a pre-paid taxi to the ghats is the safest move. Tuk-tuks within the city; agree the fare before. The lanes behind the ghats are too narrow for cars.
• Health: Bottled water only; avoid raw vegetables and fruit unless you peel them; pack rehydration salts.
• The hassle: Real. The persistent touts, the unwanted boat ride offers, the ‘guide’ who attaches himself to you. Politeness and firmness are the strategy.
• The water of the Ganges: Holy. Also genuinely polluted. Do not bathe in it. Do not, despite local encouragement, drink it.

A final thought

Varanasi is, of all the cities I have written about, the one most resistant to a tidy travel-writer’s summary. The experience is unfiltered: religious life proceeds at full intensity, death is visible and continuous, the sensory load is enormous and at times overwhelming. Western visitors are sometimes startled in ways that leave a permanent mark.

What the city offers, if you can receive it, is the reminder of mortality as a present and unsoftened fact, performed continuously in a public landscape that has been doing this since before recorded history. The cremation fires never go out. The river keeps running. The boats are rowed by the same families. The bathers go in at dawn. The mist comes up.

Go for three or four nights, minimum. Take the dawn boat. Walk the ghats slowly. Don’t try to make sense of it on the first morning. Eat at the small vegetarian places. Sleep with the river noise. The city is older than your assumptions. Let it be.