Varanasi/ Banaras: ghats

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A backgrounder

As of 2025

Shailvee Sharda & Rajeev Dikshit, TNN, Sep 1, 2025: The Times of India

The makeover of Varanasi’s burning ghats

Balancing faith and future

Cremation at the centuries-old Manikarnika and Harishchandra ghats is regarded as a guarantee of salvation by Hindus. A project that’s underway to overhaul the two sites is throwing up questions of tradition and the need for change

If ‘ moksh ’, or salvation, is Varanasi’s calling card, then Manikarnika and Harishchandra ghats are its two addresses. These crematoriums, whose origins are mixed in mythology and which hold deep significance for Hinduism, are now in the process of getting a makeover. 
At least 35,000 cremations are held in a given year at these two ghats. That implies the burning of thousands of tonnes of wood and a footfall running into lakhs. The numbers are only set to increase. After all, it is believed that last rites at Manikarnika Ghat come with the promise of ‘nirvana’ as Lord Vishveshwar Shiva himself walks up to each soul to set it free. And not just cremations, these ghats, especially Manikarnika, are also important for the performance of several rituals associated with funeral rites, including ‘pind daan’, drawing people from across the length and breadth of India.


Varanasi Municipal Corporation also took into account the city’s air quality and pollution of the Ganga while devising the facelift plan. If the city’s real-time Air Quality Index is said to have never touched the ‘Good’ category (as defined by the World Health Organisation), researchers at Banaras Hindu University (BHU) have concluded that the local Ganga ecosystem is increasingly becoming home to emerging pollutants (EPs) and emerging microbial contaminants (EMCs).


If the city was witness to the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor project that transformed the area around its most famous temple, Manikarnika Ghat, too, has undergone phases of uplift. The current complex — which rests on a 13th century structure — was built in the 1730s under the patronage of Peshwa Bajirao I. Later, in 1791, Maratha queen Ahilyabai Holkar anchored a fresh beautification drive.

Contrasting Viewpoints 
 But there are mixed feelings on the ground about the renovations. While those near Harishchandra Ghat welcomed the idea, the ones at Manikarnika Ghat were not so sure.