“The adherents of Shiva bury their dead; the others either burn them or throw them into the river.”

No one can form an accurate idea of India who has not gone beyond Calcutta.  This city has become almost European.  The palaces, the equipages are European; there are societies, balls, concerts, promenades, almost the same as in Paris or London; and if it was not for the tawny natives in the streets, and the Hindoo servants in the houses, a stranger might easily forget that he was in a foreign country.

It is very different in Benares.  The Europeans are isolated there; foreign customs and manners everywhere surround them, and remind them that they are tolerated intruders.  Benares contains 300,000 inhabitants, of which scarcely 150 are Europeans.

The town is handsome, especially when seen from the river side, where its defects are not observed.  Magnificent rows of steps, built of colossal stones, lead up to the houses and palaces, and artistically built gateways.  In the best part of the town, they form a continuous line two miles in length.  These steps cost enormous sums of money, and a large town might have been built with the stones employed for them.

The handsome part of the town contains a great number of antique palaces, in the Moorish, Gothic, and Hindoo styles, many of which are six stories high.  The gates are most magnificent, and the fronts of the palaces and houses are covered with masterly arabesques and sculptured work; the different stories are richly ornamented with fine colonnades, verandahs, balconies, and friezes.  The windows alone did not please me; they were low, small, and seldom regularly arranged.  All the houses and palaces have very broad sloping roofs and terraces.  The innumerable temples afford a proof of the wealth and piety of the inhabitants of this town.  Every Hindoo in good circumstances has a temple in his house, i.e., a small tower, which is frequently only twenty feet high.

The Hindoo temples consist properly of a tower thirty or sixty feet in height, without windows, and having only a small entrance.  They appear, especially at a distance, very striking and handsome, as they are either artistically sculptured or richly covered with projecting ornaments, such as pinnacles, small columns, pyramids, leaves, niches, etc.

Unfortunately, many of these beautiful buildings are in ruins.  The Ganges here and there undermines the foundations, and palaces and temples sink into the soft earth or fall entirely down.  Miserable little huts are in some places built upon these ruins, and disfigure the fine appearance of the town, for even the ruins themselves are still beautiful.

At sunrise, a spectacle is to be seen at the river which has not its counterpart in the world.  The pious Hindoos come here to perform their devotions; they step into the river, turn towards the sun, throw three handsful of water upon their heads, and mutter their prayers.  Taking into account the large population which Benares contains, besides pilgrims, it will not be exaggeration to say that the daily number of devotees amounts, on the average, to 50,000 persons.  Numbers of Brahmins sit in small kiosks, or upon blocks of stone on the steps, close to the water’s edge, to receive the charity of the wealthy, and grant them absolution in return.