The sounds of Benares

An audio tour gives Geetanjali Krishna a whole new perspective on the holy city.

I've always been slightly sceptical of audio tours. Why on earth would anyone want to listen to dull commentary on headphones, when they could be experiencing a new place unhindered and unencumbered?

So when I first heard about the acclaimed New York-based audio tour company Soundwalk's CD on Varanasi, I wasn't expecting much more than a Westerner's take on Hindu spirituality. But I was wrong. The Varanasi Soundwalk opened up a dimension of the holy city that I, a Western educated, non-practising Hindu would probably have never otherwise seen.

This is how it came to pass. There we were in Benares, doing what all tourists do, sitting in a boat in the middle of the Ganga at dawn. I put on my headphones to listen to the opening track of the Varanasi Soundwalk, and suddenly everything changed. A cow lowed, temple bells tinkled and the sounds of everyday life in a typical Benarasi gali filled my ears.

As the rising sun cast a peachy glow to the sky, the track played the arti that is sung on Dashashvamedh Ghat every morning and evening. The line between recorded sounds and realtime sounds suddenly blurred "" for a moment, I couldn't understand whether the sounds I was hearing were coming from the ghats, or from my headphones; the audio quality was fantastic.

The soundtrack was a crazy mix of street sounds (including an extremely vocal amorous cow), temple music, chants, discourses of holy men and the musings of erudite Benarsis. The result was a sonic landscape so authentic that even now, when I listen to it, I'm transported back to the chaotic yet compelling city we call Benares.

The Varanasi Soundwalk consists of two CDs and a hardcover booklet with black and white pictures and much of the narrative of the audio tour. It was created by Soundwalk in collaboration with editors of Namurapa "" a New York-based magazine that explores the nuances of Indian spirituality. Its narrator, Dr Robert E Svaboda, is the author of many books on Hinduism.

The Soundwalk team interviewed scholars like Veerabhadra Mishra (mahant of the Sankatmochan temple, and a hydraulic engineer in his other avatar) as well as boatmen and temple priests. The resultant two CDs pair well together "" the first is the actual audio tour by Svaboda, and the second is a wordless walking tour of the ghats.

The tour, like most of Soundwalk's other productions, is like going for a walk in an interesting place with a friend who has lived there for years.

It begins with something that only an American lawyer could have written, that Soundwalk can't be held responsible if anything happens to the listener whilst he's walking around following the Soundwalk. But Svaboda adds a characteristic finishing touch: "Know that if it is your fate to die in Varanasi, you will be excellently positioned for your transition to the next world."

All very spiritual, and I must confess that he really jolted me out of my I'm-just-here-for-the-scenery mode. Here are some samples "" "There are really only two good reasons to come to Benares and one is to perform sadhana, and the other is to die..." At another point he says, "The purpose of our Soundwalk today is to bring you as close as we can to immersing you in the river, just as these ashes were immersed..."

Svaboda's sophisticated yet simple narrative makes his listeners acutely aware of the deep spiritual connection Benarsis, and indeed all practicing Hindus, have with the Ganga "" not something even some Indian visitors are likely to grasp otherwise.

However, while the Soundwalk is brilliant when it comes to wordlessly conveying the unique atmosphere of Benares, it doesn't have as much information about the ghats as I'd have liked. It has tantalising factoids on how the Vishwanath Temple and the Manikarnika Ghat have shifted from place to place as the energies of the city changed focus "" but doesn't say from where to where.

The second CD, the wordless walking tour, is a compilation of Benarasi songs, chants and sounds mixed by DJ Cheb i Sabbah. It has music with all the interruptions of everyday Benarsi life "" conversation, the sounds of the water, thunder... I even heard what suspiciously sounded like a mobile phone ringing.

What could easily become a cacophony of sounds has been skillfully mixed into a multi-layered audio experience, for which I'd recommend headphones. You get a sense of what it is like to be in a place so wonderfully alive, yet where death lurks down every corner, and indeed permeates its very essence.

Listening to the CD enriched my experience of the holy city tremendously, and made me realise that sometimes you need to see the familiar from the eyes of a foreigner.

Amazon and Barnes and Noble stock the CD with the 60-page hardcover booklet, and the MP3s are available at http://www.soundwalk.com.