Banaras Revisited: Scholarly Pilgrimages to the City of Light

In Banaras Revisited, scholars from various disciplines talk about their research in a city that has been described as a veritable microcosm of India: multifaceted, complex, vibrant, and full of contradictions. The themes range from the sensory aesthetics of everyday life to the history of the Marathas in Banaras; from Harishchandra, the "father" of modern Hindi, to the "tribals" of Nagwa; from the architecture of the ghats to the works of the Austrian writers Zweig and Winkler; from 'informative relationships' with research assistants to the mediatization of goddesses; from reflections on public education to a contemporary literary chronicler of Assi; from "colonial ghosts" in the 1950s to present-day Western travelers. In addition to its thematic diversity, the volume benefits from another strong asset: the voices of its contributors, clearly audible in reflexive passages and personal vignettes that make the essays a useful reading also for undergraduates considering fieldwork in Banaras or elsewhere.