Transcript VARANASI
vinhbinhpro VARANASI Tuesday, July 21, 2015 1 VARANASI Tuesday, July 21, 2015 2 SÔNG HẰNG Varanasi Tuesday, July 21, 2015 3 Varanasi (or Benares, Banaras, Kashi), on the left bank of the Ganges, is one of the seven sacred cities of the Hindus. Among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, its early history is that of the first Aryan settlement in the middle Ganges valley. By late 2nd millennium BCE, Varanasi was a seat of Aryan religion and philosophy and a commercial and industrial centre famous for its muslin and silk fabrics, perfumes, ivory works, and sculpture. The capital of the kingdom of Kashi during the time of the Buddha (6th century BCE), who gave his first sermon at nearby Sarnath, it remained a centre of religious, educational, and artistic activities as attested by the celebrated Chinese traveler Hsüan-tsang, who it in c. 635 CE and said that the city extended for about 5 km along the western bank of the Ganges. Varanasi declined during the early centuries of Muslim rule in India, from 1194. Its temples were destroyed and its scholars fled to other parts of India. In the 16th century, Akbar brought some relief to the city's religious and cultural activities. Setbacks came again during the reign of Aurangzeb but the Marathas later sponsored a revival. It became an independent kingdom in the 18th century; under British rule it remained a commercial and religious centre, and in 1910, the British made Varanasi a new Indian state (until 1949). Varanasi has the finest [religious] river frontage in India, with miles of ghats (steps) for bathing; an array of shrines, temples, and palaces rises tier on tier from the bank. More than a million pilgrims visit each year; many hope to die there in old age. A center of Hindu learning through the ages, it has lots of schools and countless Brahmin pandits. Its three universities include the large and important Banaras Hindu University (1915) and over a dozen colleges. A centre of arts, crafts, music and dance, it is also famous for its production of silks and brocades with gold and silver threadwork, as well as for wooden toys, bangles made of glass, ivory work, and brassware. Tuesday, July 21, 2015 www.shunya.net 4 Tuesday, July 21, 2015 5 Tuesday, July 21, 2015 6 Tuesday, July 21, 2015 7 Tuesday, July 21, 2015 8 Tuesday, July 21, 2015 9 Tuesday, July 21, 2015 10 Tuesday, July 21, 2015 11 Tuesday, July 21, 2015 12 Tuesday, July 21, 2015 13 Tuesday, July 21, 2015 14 Tuesday, July 21, 2015 15 Tuesday, July 21, 2015 16 Tuesday, July 21, 2015 17 Tuesday, July 21, 2015 18 Tuesday, July 21, 2015 19 Tuesday, July 21, 2015 20 Tuesday, July 21, 2015 21 Tuesday, July 21, 2015 22 Tuesday, July 21, 2015 23 Tuesday, July 21, 2015 24 Tuesday, July 21, 2015 25 Tuesday, July 21, 2015 26 Tuesday, July 21, 2015 27 Tuesday, July 21, 2015 28 Tuesday, July 21, 2015 29 Tuesday, July 21, 2015 30 Tuesday, July 21, 2015 31 Tuesday, July 21, 2015 32 Tuesday, July 21, 2015 33 Tuesday, July 21, 2015 34 Tuesday, July 21, 2015 35