A Priest-Varanasi
This custom not well known today to Indians including those settled abroad, in an ancient custom detailed family genealogies of Hindu families for the past several generations are kept by professional Hindu Brahmin Pandits, popularly known as Pandas, at the Hindu holy city of Haridwar in hand written registers passed down to them over generations by their Pandit ancestors which are classified according to original districts and villages of ones ancestors, with special designated Pandit families being in charge of designated district registers, even for cases where ancestral districts and villages that have been left behind in Pakistan after Partition of India with Hindus having to migrate to India~~~.Wikipedia
However, ‘Pandas’ at Varanasi Ghats and all other major Hindu pilgrimage centres are an conspicuous presence. They lead you to temples, act as guides help in performing religious rituals and are known for fleecing religious tourists. Basically they survive on the religious tourists, but also accost others for their bread & butter. On the ghats of Ganga at Varanasi, dressed in saffron or white robes or ‘dhoti-kurta’, they have distinguished presence. They act as keepers of baggages of tourists who decide to take a holy dip in the river, help with rituals and even offer them mirror and comb. Of course they do these expecting some donations or compensation for it. They at times make your visit to temples and ghats miserable by their persistence and at some centres also bully unsuspecting tourists into religious rituals to fleece them. It is simple business and depends on the customer (the religious tourist). If you know about them you won’t go near them as travelers unaware of their ways, from abroad or the rural folk, bring good returns for them. But, nonetheless, they are an important part of the ‘Ganga at Varanasi’ ecosystem. Like many inherent attributes of the ‘Ganga ghats’ culture in Varanasi, they form the cluster of continued presence. Not all are in the same league. Some of them are good but like all good things, they are handful. Probably, on the whole, they remind us of the business aspect of religion.
A Priest-Varanasi
This custom not well known today to Indians including those settled abroad, in an ancient custom detailed family genealogies of Hindu families for the past several generations are kept by professional Hindu Brahmin Pandits, popularly known as Pandas, at the Hindu holy city of Haridwar in hand written registers passed down to them over generations by their Pandit ancestors which are classified according to original districts and villages of ones ancestors, with special designated Pandit families being in charge of designated district registers, even for cases where ancestral districts and villages that have been left behind in Pakistan after Partition of India with Hindus having to migrate to India~~~.Wikipedia
However, ‘Pandas’ at Varanasi Ghats and all other major Hindu pilgrimage centres are an conspicuous presence. They lead you to temples, act as guides help in performing religious rituals and are known for fleecing religious tourists. Basically they survive on the religious tourists, but also accost others for their bread & butter. On the ghats of Ganga at Varanasi, dressed in saffron or white robes or ‘dhoti-kurta’, they have distinguished presence. They act as keepers of baggages of tourists who decide to take a holy dip in the river, help with rituals and even offer them mirror and comb. Of course they do these expecting some donations or compensation for it. They at times make your visit to temples and ghats miserable by their persistence and at some centres also bully unsuspecting tourists into religious rituals to fleece them. It is simple business and depends on the customer (the religious tourist). If you know about them you won’t go near them as travelers unaware of their ways, from abroad or the rural folk, bring good returns for them. But, nonetheless, they are an important part of the ‘Ganga at Varanasi’ ecosystem. Like many inherent attributes of the ‘Ganga ghats’ culture in Varanasi, they form the cluster of continued presence. Not all are in the same league. Some of them are good but like all good things, they are handful. Probably, on the whole, they remind us of the business aspect of religion.