Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World. Part 6

In Short

A seasoned American humorist travels through late nineteenth-century British India, examining its complex religious geography, colonial history, and stunning natural landscapes. Moving from the holy city of Benares to the Himalayan foothills of Darjeeling and the historic siege sites of the 1857 Mutiny, the narrative blends sharp satire with sincere historical reflection. The book has endured because it pairs unflinching observation of foreign customs with a fierce critique of Western prejudice, using ironical wit to dismantle colonial assumptions while celebrating the genuine wonder of the Asian subcontinent.

The Story

The journey advances through India’s most iconic landscapes and holy places, beginning with a detailed examination of Benares. The narrator observes the intricate, commercially organized apparatus of Hindu pilgrimage, detailing the specific steps required for spiritual purification, protection against hunger, and the securing of material prosperity along the Ganges. At the cremation ghats, he watches the solemn rituals of death, noting the absence of public weeping as dead women wrapped in red and men in white are consigned to funeral pyres lit by their sons.

Moving beyond the riverbanks, he seeks out living holy men, contrasting the westerner’s second-hand awe of monuments like the Taj Mahal with the profound, genuine reverence directed toward living deities like Sri 108 Swami Bhaskarananda Saraswati. He extends this respect to high-minded scholars like Mina Bahadur Rana, who abandoned a prominent political career in Nepal to live in a humble hut studying sacred texts.

The narrative then pivots toward British imperial history and infrastructure. The author reflects on the lost historical sites of Calcutta, specifically the vanished Black Hole that sparked the rise of the British Indian Empire. Traveling inland, he boards a train across flat, infinite plains dotted with thousands of thatched matting villages where brown-bodied men plow fields. The ascent to the mountain station of Darjeeling reveals dramatic, winding mountain roads, spectacular cloudscapes, and the formidable strength of Gurkha women carrying massive burdens up steep peaks. Along the way, he marvels at nature’s visual tricks, from flame-colored tree blossoms to massive banyan structures.

The narrative frequently pauses for statistical and historical analysis. The author breaks down official government records of wild animal casualties, comparing the human body count of leopards, bears, tigers, and deadly cobras against the immense slaughter of livestock and the massive government retaliation against wildlife. He delves deeply into the tragic history of the 1857 Indian Mutiny, recounting in harrowing detail the siege and massacre at Cawnpore, the horrific discoveries made by relief soldiers in the ladies' house, and the extraordinary, silent midnight evacuation of the Residency at Lucknow under Sir Colin Campbell.

Finally, the journey explores the artistic and social texture of daily Indian life. The author analyzes why prose descriptions of the Taj Mahal mislead readers through exaggeration, comparing the monument to the blinding visual spectacle of a New England ice-storm. He paints intimate pictures of peaceful inn compounds staffed by barefoot servants, where sad monkeys, quiet cows, and resting camels coexist under palm trees. The account concludes amid the vibrant, hurricane-like explosions of color during public religious processions, where decorated elephants, camels, and costumed crowds fill every balcony and street terrace.

How It Unfolds

The sacred itinerary The author tours the theological hive of Benares, mapping out the precise daily rituals of bathing in the Ganges, kissing sacred cow tails to prevent hunger, and pouring river water over stone lingams to secure rain. He notes the irony of local religious laws alongside the persistent efforts of Christian missionary societies targeting young children.

Encounters with the holy Observing the public burning of the dead at the river ghats, the writer witnesses a ten-year-old boy quietly light his father’s funeral pyre. He then visits the famous living god Sri 108 Swami Bhaskarananda Saraswati and defends the intellectual choice of the scholar Mina Bahadur Rana to abandon worldly power for a life of quiet religious study.

Ascent to the clouds Leaving the vast, village-covered plains, the journey climbs six thousand feet up to Darjeeling. The traveler takes in the soaring bamboo groves, mountain chasms, and extraordinary Gurkha women effortlessly carrying unbelievable weights, including entire pianos, up the forty-mile mountain road.

Calculations of danger The narrative examines official imperial records to compare the lethality of India's wildlife, revealing that while tigers and leopards kill hundreds, cobras alone claim seventeen thousand human lives every single year with absolute mathematical regularity.

Tragedies of the Empire The chronicle turns to the dark history of the 1857 Mutiny, detailing the betrayal at Cawnpore, the devastating bloodstains and lost children's items left behind in the ladies' quarters, and the brilliant, stealthy midnight retreat of British forces from the Lucknow Residency.

Illusions of beauty Comparing the Taj Mahal to a sunlit ice-storm, the author breaks down how poetic travel writers deceive their readers through cumulative exaggeration. He ends by detailing the dizzying speed of a devoted servant named Satan and the brilliant, colorful street pageantry of idol processions.

The People

• The Author / Narrator: An inquisitive, ironical American traveler who approaches foreign cultures with a mix of sharp skepticism and deep respect. He wants to see the authentic world behind popular travel myths, hates second-hand sentimentality, and ends up defending non-Western religious devotion against Western prejudice.
• Sri 108 Swami Bhaskarananda Saraswati: A revered sixty-year-old living god in Benares. He attracts deep, sincere worship from millions of followers, sitting in a garden posture that requires extraordinary flexibility, embodying a form of direct, living divinity that utterly fascinates the narrator.
• Mina Bahadur Rana: A scholar meditating under Swami Bhaskarananda. Formerly a distinguished, educated diplomat serving the Nepal Government at the Viceroy's Court, he gave up wealth, high position, and worldly comfort to live in a hut studying sacred scriptures, earning the author's highest respect.
• The Ten-Year-Old Son: A grave, self-possessed Hindoo boy dressed in flowing white. Fulfilling his filial duty at the cremation ghat, he walks seven times around his deceased father's pyre while a holy man shouts a sermon, before calmly applying the torch to light the flames.
• Satan: A hyper-efficient, highly attentive native hotel servant. Named after a mispronounced alias, he moves like a whirlwind to pack trunks and execute orders instantly, remaining entirely unbothered when chided for cramming trash into literature satchels, responding only with a pleasant salute and "Wair good."

In Its Own Voice

"Yes, the city of Benares is in effect just a big church, a religious hive, whose every cell is a temple, a shrine or a mosque..." — On the dense, all-encompassing spiritual economy of the holy city along the Ganges.

"But the reverence which is difficult, and which has personal merit in it, is the respect which you pay, without compulsion, to the political or religious attitude of a man whose beliefs are not yours" — Reflecting on the intellectual hypocrisy of Westerners who mock eastern asceticism while praising Christian sacrifice.

"In India the snakes kill 17,000 people a year; they hardly ever fall short of it; they as seldom exceed it." — Observing the terrifying, mathematical regularity of cobra fatalities across the subcontinent.

What It's Really About

The text is fundamentally an interrogation of cultural perception and the nature of reverence. It argues that true open-mindedness requires respecting the sacred beliefs of others, rather than merely cherishing one's own familiar traditions. The author repeatedly contrasts direct experience with "second-hand" emotions inherited from romantic travel books, showing how writers inflate readers' expectations of famous places like the Taj Mahal. Beneath the travelogue lies a sharp critique of colonial arrogance and religious chauvinism. By comparing the sacrifices of Hindu scholars to Christian saints, and detailing both the horrors of the 1857 Mutiny and the sheer scale of Indian life, the book questions Western assumptions of moral and cultural superiority.

Why Read It Today

Readers who appreciate travel literature infused with sardonic wit, historical curiosity, and incisive social commentary will find this account deeply rewarding. It offers the distinct pleasure of traveling alongside an observer who refuses to adopt the canned enthusiasms of standard guidebooks, choosing instead to measure the world with humor and personal integrity. The prose feels exceptionally modern in its skepticism toward romanticized tourist traps and its insistence on seeing people as they are.

The reader must navigate certain period difficulties, including late nineteenth-century colonial terminology, casual references to racial categories, and detailed, unsparing accounts of historical violence and animal mortality statistics. The narrative also moves discursively, jumping freely from lighthearted anecdotes about hotel monkeys and whirlwind servants to somber histories of military sieges. Yet what remains is the voice of a masterful prose stylist—generous in its empathy, ruthless toward hypocrisy, and forever enchanted by the vibrant, colorful chaos of human life.