Benares
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Benares. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a city of India. It is situated in the eastern part of old Hindustan on the north bank of the Ganges, about 400 miles northwest from Calcutta and the sea. Seen from the Ganges, Benares occupies a vast amphitheater of hills. The city is a mass of hovels, narrow streets, palaces, mosques, minarets, and domes. The entire river frontage is faced with stone. Expensive river-stairs of freestone lead up from the water's edge to pagodas and splendid temples. Benares is the most sacred city of the Hindus. There are over a thousand temples. Wealthy Hindus from all over the Indian Empire still maintain town residences at Benares. The Mohammedan wants to see Mecca that his salvation may be secure. The Hindu desires to die at Benares that he may enter at once upon a life of happiness. A multitude of persons press down the ghats, for so the landings are called, to bathe in the sacred Ganges and to carry away the sacred water for the ablutions of the afflicted elsewhere. A horde of beggars with sores beyond description solicit alms from their more fortunate countrymen or beset the stranger with importunity. Benares is the center of a productive district. Sugar and indigo are important products. There are local manufactures of brass work, shawls, silk goods, embroidered cloth, and filagree work. The population in 1901 was 209,331. The internal streets are so winding and narrow that there is not room for a carriage to pass, and it is difficult to penetrate them even on horseback. Their level is considerably lower than the ground-floors of the houses, which have generally arched rows in front, with little shops behind them; and above these they are richly embellished with verandahs, galleries, projecting oriel windows, and very broad overhanging eaves supported by carved brackets. The houses are built of Chanar stone, and are lofty-none being less than two stories high, most of them three, and several of five or six stories. The Hindus are fond of painting the outside of their houses a deep red color, and of covering the most conspicuous parts with pictures of flowers, men, women, bulls, elephants, and gods and goddesses in all the multiform shapes known in Hindu mythology. The number of temples is very great; they are mostly small, and are placed in the angles of the streets, under the shadow of the lofty houses. Their forms are not ungraceful, and many of them are covered over with beautiful and elaborate carvings of flowers, animals, and palm branches, rivalling in richness and minuteness the finest specimens of Gothic or of Grecian architecture.-Britannica.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a town in Hindustan, capital of the Benares division, United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, British India, on the left bank of the Ganges, from which it rises like an amphitheater, presenting a splendid panorama of temples, mosques, palaces, s, and other buildings, with their domes, minarets, etc. Fine ghauts lead down to the river. It is one of the most sacred places of pilgrimage in all India, being the headquarters of the Hindu religion. The principal temple is dedicated to Siva, whose sacred symbol it contains. It is also the seat of government and other colleges, and of the missions of various societies. Benares carries on a large trade in the produce of the district and in English goods, and manufactures silks, shawls, embroidered cloth, jewelry, etc. Pop. about 220,000. The division has an area of 10,385 square miles, and a population of about 5,500,000.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's 1910 count of "over a thousand temples" and Collier's 1921 population of "about 220,000" describe a city that has since grown roughly sixfold, to about 1.2 million in the 2011 census, and been renamed: Benares became officially Varanasi in 1956. The pilgrimage described here has not faltered — Hindus still come to bathe at the ghats and to be cremated on the riverfront — but the setting has been rebuilt around them, most drastically by the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor opened in 2021, which cleared hundreds of houses and shrines to drive a broad avenue from Collier's "principal temple... dedicated to Siva" down to the river. The indigo trade Aiton lists collapsed with the rise of synthetic dyes, and the Ganges itself, whose water pilgrims carried away for "ablutions of the afflicted elsewhere," is now among the world's most polluted rivers despite state clean-up programmes running since the 1980s. Varanasi has also been the parliamentary seat of Prime Minister Narendra Modi since 2014, which is much of why the money for that rebuilding arrived.
Written for this edition, 2026.