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CHAPTER XX.
Benares, the Holy City of tlie Hindoos—Its Temples and Worshipers—The
Sacred Monkeys.
Returning from Allahabad I visited Benares, the holy city
of India and the ccntre of Hindooism or Brahminism, its
religion, art and literature. It is situated on an elevation on
the east bank of the Ganges about four hundred and
seventy-six miles from Calcutta. Benares is to the Hindoos what
Jerusalem was to the Jews, Rome to the mediaeval
Christians, and what Mecca is to the Mohammedans, and it is
visited by thousands of pilgrims and penitents every year.
The learned men or Pundits of India have their academies
and gatherings there, and many of its princes and nobles
have their costly palaces in which they usually spend a few
weeks every year.
The whole city seems abandoned to sacrificing priests
and idolatry in its most disgusting forms. There are one
thousand four hundred temples for idols, and nearly three
hundred mosques, besides hundred of shrines, holv graves,
wells, tices and other objects of Hindoo worship. Benares
is a very old city; great and renowned when Babylon and
Nineveh were competing with each other; when Tyre sent
out her colonists; when Athens was in her infancy; before
Rome existed, and long before Nebuchadnezzar had carried
the Israelites into captivity.
\\’e arc accustomed to look at hoarv ruins with reverent
200 .
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