NEW DELHI: In the third episode of TOI Dialogues, a panel of historians, authors and journalist discussed how the city of Varanasi has been at the perfect intersection of history and modern politics.
“Vanarasi is the original cosmopolitan town of the world. People call me Marathi, but I am a fake Marathi because my mother tongue is Bhojpuri. Like me, you will find several Marathi, Bengali, Tamilian, Andhra citizens who have been living in this city for several generations,” Deshmukh said.
“Over the years, people from several parts of India have come and settled here, impacting the politics of this place,” he said adding that Varanasi is the only Lok Sabha constituency of Lok Sabha which has chosen MPs from every ideology (from extreme left to the right wing) in the last 75 years.
Adding to this, author and historian Vikram Sampath talked about how the temples in the ancient city were attacked several times in the 12th and the 13th century by Mughal emperors. Before Aurangzeb, the Kashi Vishwanath temple was already razed five times by the Mughal kings, Sampath said.
“The pandits eventually migrated to the South between these attacks,” Sampath said. “It was then that four Brahmin families of north Karnataka and Maharashtra — Sesha, Mouni, Bhatta and Dharmadhikari — decided to go and live in Kasi to restore the temple,” he said.
The writer said that every time the Kashi Vishwanath temple fell, the whole of India contributed to restore it.
“Varanasi is the oldest inhabited city in the world. The textile industry of the town has also evolved along with the city over the years. Our ancient literatures have also mentioned the ‘hiranyavatra’, the ‘zari’ work on clothes.
Historian Abhijit Chavda said we need to actually know about the history of Varanasi. “We say Kashi is the oldest city but we need to establish it … Because Wiki says Damascus is the oldest city,” he said. Chavda also mentioned that the ASI needs research and prove to the world that Varanasi is actually the oldest living city.
“Vanarasi is the original cosmopolitan town of the world. People call me Marathi, but I am a fake Marathi because my mother tongue is Bhojpuri. Like me, you will find several Marathi, Bengali, Tamilian, Andhra citizens who have been living in this city for several generations,” Deshmukh said.
“Over the years, people from several parts of India have come and settled here, impacting the politics of this place,” he said adding that Varanasi is the only Lok Sabha constituency of Lok Sabha which has chosen MPs from every ideology (from extreme left to the right wing) in the last 75 years.
Adding to this, author and historian Vikram Sampath talked about how the temples in the ancient city were attacked several times in the 12th and the 13th century by Mughal emperors. Before Aurangzeb, the Kashi Vishwanath temple was already razed five times by the Mughal kings, Sampath said.
“The pandits eventually migrated to the South between these attacks,” Sampath said. “It was then that four Brahmin families of north Karnataka and Maharashtra — Sesha, Mouni, Bhatta and Dharmadhikari — decided to go and live in Kasi to restore the temple,” he said.
The writer said that every time the Kashi Vishwanath temple fell, the whole of India contributed to restore it.
“Varanasi is the oldest inhabited city in the world. The textile industry of the town has also evolved along with the city over the years. Our ancient literatures have also mentioned the ‘hiranyavatra’, the ‘zari’ work on clothes.
Historian Abhijit Chavda said we need to actually know about the history of Varanasi. “We say Kashi is the oldest city but we need to establish it … Because Wiki says Damascus is the oldest city,” he said. Chavda also mentioned that the ASI needs research and prove to the world that Varanasi is actually the oldest living city.
Talking about the history, author Anuj Dhar said that unfortunately please do not remember history. “In a way it’s good that people do not remember the bad things, but people should not for the lessons it taught us,” he said.
TOI Dialogues Varanasi | Unveiling the growth story of Varanasi | Times of India | Uttar Pradesh