Amchi Banaras

For generations, about 900 Maharashtrian families have made the ghats of Varanasi their home. And they have a message for Raj Thackeray

SITTING on the ground floor of his 150-year-old, three-storied ancestral home in Varanasi’s Ghasi Tola, Upendra Vinayak Sahastrabudhe says his best memories of Mumbai are of the times he spent hanging out at Banarasi paan shops in the city. “Khar Road, Andheri, Versova, Shivaji Park, Sayan and Luxmi Bai Chowk—all of them had Banarasi paan. I would happily chew paan all day and let my family do the rounds of our Maharashtrian relatives,” says Sahastrabudhe, an astrologer and Sanskrit scholar.

At 50, Sahastrabudhe has other memories too—like of the time, 20 years ago, when he met Bal Thackeray at a Jagatik Marathi Parishad meeting organised by the Shiv Sena. “I told Balasaheb that it’s Maharashtrians outside the state who preserve its cultural character.” Sahastrabudhe, who regularly contributes articles to the Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamna, started the Sarvajanik Ganesh Utsavs—on the lines of the Mumbai Ganesh Utsavs—in Varanasi nine years ago. He also got women priests for the Ganesh Utsavs. Through all this, Sahastrabudhe remained a true Banarasi—he loved his paan and made sure he didn’t miss it even while in Mumbai. “I represent the ninth generation of the Sahastrabudhe family in Varanasi. We come from Vai district in Maharashtra. Though my mother tongue is Marathi, I take pride in being a Banarasi.”

Given a chance, Sahastrabudhe would like to tell the Sainiks that. As the Sena (in this case, Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena) plays the Mumbaikar vs outsider card again, Sahastrabudhe wants them to know that just as he is a “khanti (quintessential) Banarasi” who happens to speak Marathi, Mumbai’s ‘outsiders’ are probably more Mumbaikars than Mumbaikars themselves.

Story continues below this ad

The Sahastrabudhe family is one of 900 Marathi families who have made Varanasi their home for generations. The Maharashtrian homes lie across a 7 km stretch that starts from Gaai Ghat and covers Durga Ghat, Brahma Ghat, Panchganga Ghat and Dashwashamedh Ghat before ending at Assi Ghat.

“From what our forefathers told us, Maharashtrians have been travelling to Kashi since the Gupta period either to do business or to study the Vedas, Karmakanda and even tantras. The association grew stronger during the reign of the Peshwas as well as during the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny when Tantya Tope’s army built the Tarak Mutt on Ganesh Dikshit Lane,” says Gajadhar Krishna Dev, general secretary of the Varanasi branch of the Akhil Bharatiya Maharashtra Teerth Purohit Mahasangh. The association organises religious visits of Maharashtrians to the temple city.

Besides the Maharashtrians, Gujaratis, Kannadigas, Andhraites and Tamils—called the Panch Dravids—have made Varanasi their home for centuries. “While preserving their distinct identity in these galis, these families were also proud of their Banarasi culture,” says Dev.

“At least 25 out of the 80-odd ghats that dot the Ganga in Varanasi have been built by Marathi rulers—Peshwas, Scindias, Bhonsales and the Holkars,” says Dev, who is also the caretaker of the Kashi Maharashtra Bhawan and Nana Phadnis Wada, two guest houses for Maharashtrians in Varanasi. “Even the Kashi Vishwanath temple was built in the 18th century by Marathi ruler Ahilyabai Holkar. There are many Maharashtrians who have made Varanasi proud—wrestlers Kon Bhatt and Atale, archaeologist Neelu P. Joshi and musician Reoti Sakalkar.” Just when you think you are listening to that now familiar ‘Marathi pride’ spiel, he stops to take a breath and says proudly, “We are no longer Maharashtrians but pure Banarasis.”

Story continues below this ad

Anirudh Pusalkar, a young chartered accountant, says he can’t think of home outside Varanasi. Pusalkar, whose family has been here since 1934, says that since the attacks on North Indians in Mumbai, their relatives from Gujarat and Maharashtra have been calling them up to know if they were safe. “But honestly, we have never given that a thought. After all, we are Banarasis more and Marathis less,” he says.

“Marathi delicacies like puran poli, anarsa, chakli and srikhand are made only during festive seasons like Ganesh Utsav. But our favourites are Varanasi’s famous kachauris and jalebis and, of course, Banarasi paan,” says Arpita Kasture, a student of the Banaras Hindu University.

While everyone agrees that the attack on North Indians must stop, Dev has another take. “The Sena must remember that it was Naga Bhatt, a Brahmin from Varanasi, who performed the coronation ceremony of Chatrapati Shivaji after Brahmins in Maharashtra refused to accept the great warrior as a Kshatriya. Do these politicians who swear by Shivaji need to be told that?”