Benares A World within a World

by Richard Lannoy

This book is the most inclusive presentation of Benraras city ever attempted. It is the fruit of a lifelong interest in Benaras from 1953 until the present day by an author well known for his unusual combination of reflective thought, scholarship and poetic sensibility. This book shows the metaphysical substructure of the city organized as a microcosm of the universe. Also the extremely ancient cults of the pillar and the sun-wheel survive and continue to underpin the society's ritual calendar in unbroken continuity for millennia. This book highlights the significance of this venerable city.

Table of Contents:

• Acknowledgements
• Foreword by Dr. Anand Krishna
• Preface
• Introduction: The Last Cosmic City
• The Center of the World
• The Cosmogram
• Benares as a State of Mind
• A Guide for Benares
• The Interconnectedness of Things
• Forest of Bliss
• The Meaning of Pilgrimage
• Ganga
• Hinduism in Practice
• Abode of the Gods
• Shiva and the Lat Bhairo
• Dissolution, Death and Regeneration
• Glimpses of History
• The Indo-Aryans
• The Ten-Horse Sacrifice
• The Kingdom of Kashi
• Center of Learning
• The Buddha and Benares
• The Rise of Hinduism
• Center of Commerce
• City of Master Weavers
• The Brahmin and the Outcaste
• The Muslim Period
• Astronomer King
• The British Period
• A New Phase
• Modern Times: The Limits of Secularism
• A New Passage to India
• Renunciates and Holy Fools
• Wisdom and Grace
• Night Thoughts
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index.

About the Author:

Richard Lannoy is the author of several books on India, including The Speaking Tree: A Study of Indian Culture and Society. He became seriously interested in India back in 1947, but began his work there, and particularly in Benares, in 1953, and on several subsequent visits until 1960, returning again in the Eighties, but completing his magnum opus on Benrares in 1999.