Colors of India.

Red.

Red stands for purity and therefore is the preferred color for a bride’s wedding garment. Red is also the color associated with one of the most revered goddesses in Hindu mythology – Durga. Her scarey image is enhanced by her red tongue and almost red eyes (othing for a good-night-story…).  In the southern half of India, red is the color of violence and disruption.

Women sitting on the Ghats in Varanasi, India.

White.

White is the acceptable color at funerals and ceremonies that mark death in the family (which I think is much better than black…). It’s also the only color widows are allowed to wear. White is also widely (not only in India) accepted as the color of peace and purity.

Portrait of a man with white cloths in Varanasi, India.

Orange.

Orange is the most dominat color in all of India. The orange (dark saffron) in the Indian flag stands for courage & sacrifice.The Hindus belief, orange represents the “sacral chakra”. Chakra is a concept originating in Hindu texts, featured in tantric traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism.

Orange dressed men on the way home from the Ganges in Varanasi, India.

Blue.

Blue is the color of the sky and ocean; It’s perceived as a constant in our lives. In India the color blue is associated with Lord Krishna, one of the most favored Gods in India. If you think of the color blue & India, the city Jodhpur (known as the “Blue City” or “Sun City”) might also come to your mind. A sea of aqua blue houses are beautifully arranged side by side. The city is based right in the Thar desert, which makes it even more impressive…

Blue fabric at a market in Gangtok, India.

Green.

Green symbolizes a new beginning, harvest and happiness. It also symbolizes nature and therefore is a manifestation of God himself. Green is also the revered color of Islam; a large religious presence (about 30 %) in India.

Woman with a green Sari in Varanasi, India.

Yellow.

Yellow symbolizes sanctity and is an essential herbal ingredient applied on the body and face by women in India. When I think of yellow & India my firsth though is a yummy curry ;)

Yellow curry powder at a market in Kolkata, India.

Black.

In India, black is referred to with desirability, evil, negativity, and inertia. It represents anger and darkness and is associated with the absence of energy, barrenness, and death. It’s used as a representation of evil and to ward off evil.

Black crows in front of a slaughter house in New Delhi, India.

Dead Bodies Floating In The Ganges River.

No place along its banks is more longed for at the moment of death by Hindus than Varanasi. It is the holiest place in Hinduism and often referred to as “the holy city of India“. Those who are lucky enough to die in Varanasi, are cremated on the banks of the Ganges & granted instant salvation. There are exceptions; pregnant women, children, holy people and people who died from a snake bite are not cremated but are lowered into the river. Sooner or later they will show up at the surface again … Everything might be holy in Varanasi but nobody bothers if a dead body floats by … and they float by quite often. This is something we have never seen before but it’s nothing special in India. We would say: “dawn of the dead reality show daily from your hotel terrace” … To some of you, these photos of corpses might be too much but this is the brutal reality.

Pollution Of The Ganges River.

Unfortunately this also means that there’s a lot of pollution: the Ganges river suffers from extreme pollution levels. Sewage from many cities along the river’s course, industrial waste and religious offerings wrapped in non-degradable plastics add large amounts of pollutants to the river as it flows through densely populated areas. The problem is that many poor people rely on the river on a daily basis for bathing, washing, and cooking.

The people in Varanasi don’t seem to care about the pollution of the Ganges – or at least often they don’t have a choice. As I said before, for many the Ganges river is the only opportunity to take a shower. Additionally Varanasi (already a city of millions) is visited by many thousands of pilgrims each year who want to take a holy dip in the Ganges. Only this city releases around 200 million litres of untreated human sewage into the river each day…

The swiftly moving Ganges in Varanasi, especially in its upper reaches, where a bather has to grasp an anchored chain in order to not be carried away, is considered especially purifying.

The Ghats in Varanasi are always full with people, bathing, washing or praying. What the Ganges removes, however, is not necessarily physical dirt, but symbolic dirt; it wipes away the sins of the bather, not just of the present, but of a lifetime.

A snake charmer playing with an Indian Cobra in Varanasi. Snake charming is the practice of pretending to hypnotise a snake by playing an instrument called “pungi”. Although snakes are able to sense sound, they lack the outer ear that would enable them to hear the music. They follow the pungi that the snake charmer holds with their heads. The snake considers the person and pungi a threat and responds to it as if it were a predator.

Family fun in the Ganges river. Hindus consider the waters of the Ganges to be both pure and purifying. Nothing reclaims order from disorder more than the waters of the Ganges.

Man shaving his hair on the Ghats before taking a “holy dip” in the Ganges. Shaving the head before visiting the Ganges is thought to bring spiritual purification.

A man washing his buffaloes in the Ganges in Varanasi, India.

The old city of Varanasi extends about two kilometres back from the river and is a maze of alleyways and streets. The view from a boat floating along the Ganges river is breathtaking.

A dead body floating in the Ganges river in Varanasi. No place along the banks of the Ganges river is more longed for at the moment of death by Hindus than Varanasi, the Great Cremation Ground. Those who are lucky enough to die in Varanasi, are cremated on the banks of the Ganges, and are granted instant salvation. If the death has occurred elsewhere, salvation can be achieved by immersing the ashes in the Ganges.

If the ashes have been immersed in another body of water, a relative can still gain salvation for the deceased by journeying to the Ganges, if possible during the lunar “fortnight of the ancestors” in the Hindu calendar month of Ashwin (September or October).

In Hinduism, the river Ganges is considered sacred and is personified as a goddess known as Ganga. It is worshipped by Hindus who believe that bathing in the river causes the remission of sins and liberation from the cycle of life and death. Pilgrims travel long distances to immerse the ashes of their kin in the precious water of the Ganges.