A panoramic view from the riverfront offered an impression that was suitably exotic while keeping sufficient distant from the din of reality.
visual history
How the ghats of Banaras became a defining image of the ancient city
A panoramic view from the riverfront offered an impression that was suitably exotic while keeping sufficient distant from the din of reality.
Details from CJ Robinson’s “Manikarnika Ghat, Varanasi”, and Babu Jageshwar Prasad’s “Dasaswamedh Ghat (Varanasi)”. | Courtesy DAG.
Between the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries not only was the idea of Banaras as a continuous, holy city consolidated, but its representation in art also gained a particular perspective. The view from the riverfront became the overriding impression of the city, fixing it in a shimmering impression of the exotic, which was yet distant enough to create a vast panoramic view. “Even in the late eighteenth century when William Hodges and William Daniell sketched the riverfront of Banaras, it was a long spectacular bluff crowned with trees and a few prominent temples.”
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Perhaps a comparable view in photography would be Panorama of Bombay (1870) by Samuel Bourne, which captures a sweeping view of the oceanfront.
“Since early on in the Western encounter with India, European travellers have been particularly impressed by the city of Benaras. The unique riverfront from a boat or the opposite bank has been a favourite vista. Considering that many travellers came up from Calcutta by ship and thus encountered the city in this manner, this is perhaps not surprising . . . the frontal view of these vedutas was a peculiar Western form of representation. Soon this perspective and the accompanying techniques were adopted locally and incorporated into the traditional modes of representation (for example maps) and new kinds of images emerged. Thus, the colonial situation had a deep impact on the ways the city was perceived, not only by outsiders but also by the inhabitants themselves.”
