ghat
घाट ghatA flight of stone steps descending to a river or tank; in Varanasi, the long riverfront stairs along the Ganga used for bathing, worship, and cremation.
Where this term appears
- The Twelve Jyotirlingas Temples
Bhimashankar lies in the Western Ghats, the Sahyadri, in Khed taluka of Pune district, Maharashtra ( Kotirudra Samhita 20 to 21).
- The Aghorīs Lineages
At the burning ghats of Varanasi, where the fires never go out and the ash of the dead drifts into the river, there is a figure the guidebooks warn you about.
- Who is Ganga? Deities
And every day, at Kashi and a thousand smaller ghats, ashes go into the river, because to be given to Ganga at the end is held to be the good death, the crossing made at the crossing-place.
- Why do Hindus cremate their dead? Essentials
Shiva, in one of his deepest aspects, is the lord of the shmashana , the cremation ground; he haunts the burning ghats, and the ash smeared white across his body is the ash of the funeral pyre.
- A walk down the ghats Treatise
This is that walk, from the quiet southern end to the ancient northern edge, stopping at the ghats that matter most.
- How Shiva lost his city Treatise
But the spot where Brahma poured those ten offerings is holy ever after, and it is the grandest ghat in the city to this day.
- The body of the city Treatise
We met the first version of this in passing and will meet it again on the ghats: the five great fords of the riverfront, the Panchatirthi , are read as the body of the cosmic Lord laid along the water.
- The city in the mirror Treatise
…ile the West moved, and Kashi, with its ancient rites and its crowded ghats, was made its supreme symbol.