The modern city of Lucknow is one of the largest in India. Standing on the Gumti, a tributary of the Ganges, it is a place of great trade, and its large native quarter is packed with bazaars devoted to commerce. This part of the city was once famous for the excellence of its steel weapons and the beauty of its jewellers' work. But the native Princes and noblemen who purchased arms and ornaments are no longer to be found, and these arts have decayed.
Lucknow is the chief town in the province of Oudh, and when there were Kings of Oudh, Lucknow was their capital. The palaces of the Kings still stand in the court suburb, but there is nothing here to compare with the magnificence of Delhi or Agra. The European quarter is of great importance. Broad, smooth roads run through it, shaded by trees and bordered by turf. On either side of these pleasant roads stand the large, handsome bungalows of merchants, of officials, and of the officers in command of the strong force of troops always stationed in the place. There are beautiful gardens and parks, and the business streets are lined with handsome shops and offices.
Returning to the Ganges, and descending the course of that great stream, the next place of importance is Allahabad, standing at the point where the mighty Jumna joins its flood to the parent river. Allahabad is a town of Akbar's founding, and the Great Mogul built the fine red stone fort which is the chief object in the place. The fort looks across the broad waters of the Jumna, here about three-quarters of a mile wide. "The appearance of the Jumna, even in the dry season, strikes one as very imposing, with its enormous span from shore to shore, shut in by high, shelving, sandy banks, its then placid waters a clear bright blue. What must be the effect in the freshes, when its surging waters rush resistlessly past, and its banks are hidden by a suddenly formed expanse of water more resembling sea than river?"
The spot where the Jumna pours its bright flood into the muddy stream of the Ganges is a sacred one in the eyes of all Hindoos. Great numbers of pilgrims resort to it, above all at the time of the melas, or religious fairs, held every year at the full moon in January and February. They gather upon the sandy shores and recite their prayers and bathe in the holy river.
But there is one spot on the Ganges still more sacred to Hindoo worshippers, and that is Benares, the holy city. It lies below Allahabad, and in the fort of the latter city the mouth of a small subterranean passage is pointed out. The priests say, and the natives believe, that this passage runs to Benares.
CHAPTER XI
THE SACRED CITY OF THE HINDOOS
There is one city of India to which pilgrims are for ever going or returning. Its temples are always crowded with worshippers; its broad stone ghats running down to the sacred Ganges are packed day after day with adoring and reverent throngs. This is Benares, the most sacred city in the world in Hindoo eyes.
Its sacred character arises from the fact that here stands the temple of Buddha, the great Hindoo teacher, who was born six centuries before Christ, and whose followers are to be counted in myriads in India. From all parts of that great country they come on pilgrimage to see the place where their master taught, and to bathe their bodies in the sacred stream.
It is a wonderful sight to see the row of riverside palaces, temples, and ghats which here fringe the broad river. It is still more wonderful to see the vast crowd of worshippers who throng the wide stone stairs as they stream up and down to the river to make their ablutions and to repeat their prayers.