History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c74.t2.85

v5.c74.t2.85

There is hardly any city in the world that can claim greater antiquity, greater continuity and greater popular veneration than Banaras. Banaras has been a holy city for at least thirty centuries. No city in India arouses the religious emotions of Hindus as much as Kāśī does. To the Hindu mind it represents great and unbroken traditions of religious sanctity and learning. It is a miniature of Hindu life through the ages in all its great complexities and contradictions. Not only Hinduism with its numerous sects has flourished here for numberless centuries, but the principles of Buddhism, one of the great religions of the world, were first proclaimed here by Śākyamuni after he received Enlightenment at Bodh-Gayā under the Bodhi tree. Thousands of verses are found in the epics and purāṇas about Banaras. Several volumes have been written about Banares during the last hundred years.¹⁴⁰⁵ It would be impossible to do justice here to this vast mass of literature on Banaras I shall briefly deal with the important topics relating to Banaras. In olden times the name was spelt as Benares, but recently as Banaras, which will be retained here (except in quotations).