Traditions6 min read
A Morning at the Ghats
A slow walk from Assi to Dashashwamedh at first light, with the boatmen, bathers, yoga teachers, and sweepers who make a Varanasi morning.
Anjali Rai·
Varanasi
Varanasi
City on the Ganga, home to ghats, weavers, scholars, and an unbroken ritual life.
Varanasi is not one city but several layered on top of each other. There is the ritual city of the ghats, where the Ganga is treated less as geography than as a presence. There is the trade city of Chowk and Thatheri Bazaar, where brassware, silver, and silk have changed hands for generations. There is the learning city — of Sanskrit, Urdu, Hindi, and music — still alive in small academies and household traditions. And there are the neighbourhood lives of Madanpura, Lallapura, and Pandeypur, where weavers, cooks, boatmen, and teachers go about their days.
Stories
From Varanasi
Music6 min read
Kajri Season
Kajri is a song for the monsoon, and the monsoon is a song for women whose husbands have gone away. An essay on one of the great seasonal forms of Bhojpuri music.
Editorial Team·
Traditions6 min read
Sarnath: The First Turning
The Dhamek Stupa, Ashokan remains, and the modern-day monasteries of Sarnath — a visitor's guide that takes the site on its own terms.
Editorial Team·
Cuisine7 min read
Flavours of Purvanchal
Litti-chokha, thekua, kachori-sabzi, malaiyo — a walk through the kitchens and street carts of Purvanchal, dish by dish.
Kavita Singh·
Music8 min read
Bhojpuri Music: Roots and Rhythms
A primer on the song-forms of Purvanchal — Kajri, Birha, Sohar, Nirgun, Chaita — where they are sung, who sings them, and what they are really about.
Editorial Team·
Textiles9 min read
Banarasi Weaves: A Morning in Madanpura
A morning in Madanpura, where the looms of Banaras still turn — and the economics of a 500-year-old craft strain against the present.
Rahul Verma·
Festivals7 min read
Dev Deepawali on the Ghats
A night-long walk along the Ganga on Kartik Poornima, as lamps, rituals, and crowds transform the stone steps into a shared public stage.
Anjali Rai·
Festivals8 min read
Chhath at the Waterline
Chhath draws whole streets to the water at sunrise and sunset. A report from two neighbourhoods — one in Varanasi, one in Ballia — and the women who keep the vow.
Anjali Rai·