For gods and humans alike, Banaras or Varanasi has always been an object of desire and now a book suggests a series of walks through the city's tangled and twisted lanes to unravel its secrets.
In "Banaras: Walks through India's Sacred City", author Nandini Majumdar says that one of the unique qualities of Banaras is that it demonstrates how the culture of a place is not coterminous with its religion.
"The culture of a city is hopefully not coterminous with a historical period either. Change is of course natural and inevitable. But change can be steered into desired directions," she says.
Replete with photographs by Constantino Schillebeeckx, this book, according to her, is an effort to preserve the most beautiful parts of Banaras.
The author suggests walks around 12 major neighbourhoods of the city. The book, published by Roli, is divided into 12 sections, each beginning with an ancient road map and a recent one.
The places have been described for their historical and mythological importance. Besides directions to reach each place, there are also walk itineraries and sections like things to see mentioned in each chapter.
The lanes of Banaras form a maze parallel to the river, running between homes, palaces and places of worship. They run serpentine or jagged, rarely at right angles to each other, and only those born within them know their eccentricities by heart.
They are paved with fine-grained sandstone quarried from the nearby hills of Chunar.
"Walking through them, you lose your sense of time, place, and self, and are accompanied by a constant sense of discovery. Through the lanes, one can walk from the southernmost to the northernmost tip of the city. Or, head east at any point and you will, around a corner, following a twist, reach the river," the book says.
