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BY: SUN STAFF
The river frontage at Benares with the Panchganga Ghat in the centre and Aurangzeb's mosque rising above it
Nov 12, 2014 — CANADA (SUN) — A serial presentation of the extraordinary collection of Sita Ram's early 1800's watercolors depicting Indian temples and landscapes.
Today, briefly, we present another of Sita Ram's ghat series, this one a watercolour of Varanasi's Panchaganga Ghat on the Ganges river. As described by British Library staff, " Varanasi (Benares), on the river Ganges, is one of the seven sacred cities of Hindus. The waterfront of the city is lined with over 100 ghats with long flights of stone steps where residents and pilgrims come to perform their ablutions and worship in the temples."
Panchaganga Ghat was originally constructed at the site of the Bindu Madhava Temple, a Vishnu temple that was destroyed by the Muslims and replaced with the Aurangzeb Mosque. The painting depicts the bank of the Ganges bank with Panchaganga Ghat in the centre and the intruding Alamgir mosque rising above it. The Bindu Madhava Temple was erected by the Maratha ruler, Beni Madhur Rao Scindia.
Sita Ram has inscribed the painting: 'Benares - Musgid built by Aurnuzebe and the Minaret belonging to it'. This watercolour is in the folio, 'Views by Seeta Ram from Patna to Benares, Vol. II'.
Panchaganga Ghat is recognized as the meeting point of five rivers: the Ganga, the Yamuna, the Sarasvati (hidden), the Kirana and the Dhutpapa. Bindu Madhava was a huge Vishnu temple, extending all the way from Panchganga to Rama Ghat before it was destroyed by Aurangzeb. Today, the mosque's towers are considerably shorter.
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