Varanasi cremation ghat.

Birth and death in the city of birth and death! A man collects human ashes and dumps them to a side, even as a corpse burns on the pyre, at the edge of the Ganges river in the ancient city of Benaras, known equally for sarees, filth, squalor, re-birth, religion and more... A family stands by as their loved ones' corpse burns to ashes, along India's Ganga river. Pigeons fly around, cows amble by, as piles of wood stand nearby, for use in cremation ceremonies along the famous Burning Ghats of Varanasi's river-side, in this ancient city of India.

Yet others wash their clothes in the river, while an old man performs his ablutions (bathes!) in the relatively slow-flowing waters...

Life goes on and by... Another huge stash of wood appears. That many more cremations to take place. Birth and death... All one and the same.

Pandits and pujaris do good business. Indians and foreigners alike (even A-list Hollywood stars, strangely enough) flock to this city's strange magnetism. The filth and squalor of the town, the pollution and waste, the untreated sewage and drain waters, all mingle in the once pristine waters of the Ganga, now sullied with waste. But nothing deters...

Harish Chandra Ghat is one of the oldest Ghats of Varanasi. Harish Chandra Ghat is name after a mythological King Harish Chandra, who once worked at the cremation ground here for the perseverance of truth and charity. It is believed that the Gods rewarded him for his resolve, charity and truthfulness and restored his lost throne and his dead son to him. Harish Chandra Ghat is one of the two cremation Ghats (the other being Manikarnika Ghat) and is some times referred as Adi Manikarnika (the original creation ground). Hindus from distant places bring the dead bodies of their near and dear ones to the Harish Chandra Ghat for cremation. In Hindu mythology it is believed that if a person is cremated at the Harish Chandra Ghat, that person gets salvation or "moksha".

This footage is part of the professionally-shot stock footage archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd., the largest collection of imagery from South Asia. The Wilderness Films India collection comprises of thousands of hours of high quality broadcast imagery, mostly shot on HDCAM 1080i High Definition, HDV and Digital Betacam. Write to us for licensing this footage on a broadcast format, for use in your production! We pride ourselves in bringing the best of India and South Asia to the world... wfi @ vsnl.com and [email protected].