They call Bithoor a mini-Varanasi, because it is also located on the river Ganges and has ghats, making access to the sacred river convenient for pilgrims and priests. It is mentioned in the Ramayana, one of the two ancient epics of India, which consists of over 20000 verses created in this place. According to the legends here lived the talented poet Valmiki, who wrote it down, as well as his main female character Sita, who was married to Lord Rama. The epic narrates Lord Rama’s life and deeds. He was a prince about to sit on the royal throne, when he was unjustly exiled to the forest for 14 years, which he served without remorse and never disputed his father’s orders. His loving brother Lakshmana and his faithful wife also accompanied him of their own will. During this time Sita was deceitfully abducted by the demon Ravana. He was a ruthless tyrant whom the gods could not challenge, because he had pleased Brahma with his austerity and devotion and who had granted him the boon, no demon or god could kill him. This was the reason why Rama was born, a reincarnation of God Vishnu, and with the help of his brother and the assistance of Hanuman, the monkey god, he was successful in killing Ravana, saving his wife, and freeing all the oppressed subjects. After this he returned to his kingdom and became the ideal king. Poets and bards told and re-told for centuries this epic poem about the victory of good over evil, modified and expanded it, decorated and perfected it. One of the most inspired and gifted ones, Valmiki, wrote it down in the beautiful ornate classical Sanskrit language sometime between the fifth and first century BC. Compared to the Mahabharata, the Ramayana is relatively more concise and organized, which possibly indicates its later origin and development. It depicts the heroes with their impeccable values, such as responsibility, loyalty toward family, respect for the elderly, spouse faithfulness and devotion to Brahma. Nowadays the story of the Ramayana is read on a daily basis in the temples, it is performed by traveling actors, it is told through movies, TV series, animated films, computer games and comic books. Every region has its own version. The themes, the heroes, the story lines have been an inspiration until today for artists, writers, playwrights, film producers, etc. This is a fundamental philosophical-religious text in the cultural paradigm of contemporary Hindu Indian society. After the 8th century AD, the Ramayana became very popular in Southeast Asia, through the expansion of several kingdoms from the subcontinent into Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Laos, where it underwent some adaptation according to the specifics of the local socio-cultural environment.
I couldn’t stop thinking about the rich heritage that originated somewhere around Bithoor. I had come to the bank of the Ganges to the most sacred spot from where God Brahma had started the creation of the universe. It was marked by a dark cylindrical metal piece as big as a thumb coming out from the ground that no one could ever remove. A miniature altar was built over it, decorated with flower garlands and perfumed by burning incense. The priest or pujari, who was in charge of this shrine told me one of the hundreds of cosmogonic stories:
“Vishnu was sleeping when he brought into existence Brahma, who in turn created all the living beings and the universe. All this exists for one day for Brahma, called Kalpa, but it is a little more than four billion years long in human years. Brahma then goes to sleep during one Kalpa and the universe dissolves in flames. Then he wakes up again and restores it. This is the endless cycle of creation, destruction and re-creation. And all this is a part of Vishnu’s dream. This is why we say that our world is not real. It is based on maya.”39
I touched the cold metal and left some white flowers by the altar. Interestingly, Brahma worship is not very popular nor are there many Brahma temples throughout India. They are only a few which you can count on the fingers of one hand, a small number compared to the thousands devoted to Vishnu, Shiva, Rama, Durga and the other deities. Also, Brahma’s image or statue is conspicuously absent from domestic altars and shrines.
I remember visiting the most famous Brahma temple in Pushkar, in Rajasthan. It was built on the banks of a sacred lake, where Hindus believe that Brahma was born from a lotus. The local pujari explained to me that Lord Brahma is considered the Creator of the universe and so in a way he has accomplished his goal and for this reason he is not widely worshipped. However, he also added that according to a few stories from the Puranas and the Mahabharata, he was cursed by the gods not to be evoked during sacrifice because he was inclined to grant wishes to living beings who pleased him with their penance and devotion to him without first considering carefully the possible consequences. And on several occasions, demons took advantage of his generosity and threatened the Order of the Cosmos by gaining indestructible powers.
In the Balakanda of the Mahabharata, for example, Taaraka was a demon, who practiced great austerities for thousands of years. He was given a boon by Brahma to be invulnerable to gods, semi-gods, demons, men, serpents and birds (84.8-9). In the meantime Uma, Shiva’s wife, had cursed the gods to never procreate, because they had ordered her husband to hold his seeds, as they feared full destruction by Shiva’s offspring. But Agni was not present during this scene and by chance Shiva’s seed dropped on Agni and grew great. Agni was the gods’ only hope and indeed, later he had a son, Scanda, from the seed of Shiva, born by Agni in the fertilizing Waters (the Ganges). Scanda successfully killed the powerful demon because he was this being of entirely new order, different from any existing being to circumvent Brahma’s boon awarded to the demon. In addition, Vishnu had to undertake several reincarnations in order to protect the world and obliterate evil.Brahma created another similar episode, also referred to in the Mahabharata (3.27.55-63). The asura Hiranyakashipu was also rewarded by Brahma with a boon of indestructibility. So Vishnu had to turn into a man-lion that had never existed before to free the universe from this evil.
In addition, on one occasion Brahma infuriated Shiva. To demonstrate his supremacy, Shiva appeared in the form of a cosmic linga in front of Brahma and Vishnu. They looked for its beginning in the sky and its end in the ground but couldn’t find either. However, Brahma did not accept Shiva’s superiority and lied by saying that he had found the top of the linga. Shiva punished him with a curse that he was not to be worshipped. Once, according to the Skanda Purana, he also angered the greatest of all wise men, the rishi Bhrigu. He visited Brahma in his celestial abode, but Brahma did not pay appropriate respects to his guest, who cursed him in return. In another story, Brahma created Savitri, but was so infatuated with her unparalleled beauty that four faces appeared on his head, so that he could follow her with his sight everywhere. He wanted to marry her and in spite of the opposition from the gods, he did it, and angered by his disobedience they punished him by limiting his popularity among worshippers. Savitri herself cursed him in another legend. Once, while he was traveling on the earth, he decided to perform a sacrifice on the banks of the lake in Pushkar at an exceptionally auspicious moment. The ritual required the presence of his wife, who was not around and he asked Indra to send him another wife. When Savitri learned about this event she cursed him to be worshipped only once a year in the temple in Pushkar only.
But let me come back to the ghat in Bithoor.
“This is the center of the Universe.” said the pandit leaning over the shrine and pointing to the metal piece and continued. “Everything evolved from this very point. The victory of Order over Chaos, of Light over Darkness, of Good over Evil.”
He invited me to enter the water of the sacred river to perform a ritual for me to bless me and my family. Varanasi was far away from here. It reminded me about the dichotomies of pure and impure, life and death, body and soul. I had come here where the cosmos started its existence, where the meaning of beginning was formed, where the ultimate creation took place. I rolled my pants and entered the murky water. I was worried about fish touching my feet, a feeling I didn’t like, remembering the lake in Pushkar, where Brahma appeared from a lotus flower and where fishing was prohibited, so the water looked as if it was boiling with hundreds of fish flipping and twirling around you. On the other side the river was tranquil and still, the bottom sandy and soft.
The pandit placed a red mark with his thumb on my forehead. He started chanting ancient sacral formulae in Sanskrit. He would stop from time to time and ask me the names of my kids, my husband, my parents-in-law, my mom, and soon it was time for me to dip in the river. I was hesitant to do that so he took some water with in his cupped hands and poured it over my head. The mantras were about the ephemeral nature of our physical existence, about the incessant battle between good and evil, about the immortality of the soul and its power, about the transient nature of the physical body where the soul is located during its voyage on the earth, and its journey until it unites with the transcendent reality. The way the air blown into the hot glass purifies and expands it, similarly I felt that my chest was filling up with the love for my family and for everyone who was dear to my heart, with the thought about the path we had undertaken attempting to overcome egoism and materialism, to achieve balance and inner peace, to think about the process not the result. I was really thrilled as I felt the energy of the place and comprehended the wisdom of the mantras. I was absorbing thousands of year-old philosophy rendered through the mouth of a person who was able to see and understand both the mundane and the divine. I was stimulated and inspired spiritually and intellectually.
“That’s it. Now you have to pay.” He tapped me on the shoulder.
I was still quite engrossed in my thoughts as I handed him the money we had agreed on.
“What? Are you not happy with the ritual? Listen, this is the minimum. Give me some more. You are so rich over there and we are so poor, look around…”
I placed some more money in the hand extended in front of me. The scorching heat was making me feel dizzy. I approached the nearest stand, bought a bottle of cold water and poured it over my head.
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39 See for more Doniger O’Flaherty, Wendy, ed. trans. Textual Sources for the Study of Hinduism. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 1990. 65-73 and Sheldon Pollock, “Introduction.” In The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki: An Epic of Ancient India, Vol III: Aranyakāṇḍa., edited by Robert P. Goldman and Sheldon I. Pollock, 3–84. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991.