Benares, with its carved and golden temples, its myriad minarets, and its hallowed waters of the Ganges, is the Holy City of India, the Eternal Rome of the Brahmans, and the Mecca of the Hindus. To bathe in the Ganges is to wash away one's sins, as in the River Jordan, and to die on its bank is to attain heaven. Thousands of pilgrims travel from every part of India to be blessed in the Golden Temple of Benares and to be sprinkled with the consecrated water of its Well of Knowledge. It is easy, therefore, to understand how important a part Benares has played throughout all periods of India's history.