Banaras, City of Light

This is the acclaimed study and interpretation of Banaras, the holy place of the Hindus. In Banaras, Diana Eck . . . has written a notable book about this greatest of Indian pilgrimage sites. . . . Her brilliant, comprehensive book seems likely to remain for a long time the definitive work on this great Indian city. (Washington Post) Eck is a master of tone here. She begins as dry scholar, allows her personal voice to emerge and then, through judicious use of lyric quotations, advances to a striking level of exaltation and triumph. . . . To take us gently off this high, Eck buttresses us-and her arguments-with a truly amazing display of addenda; glossaries, calendars and appendices. One ends filled with admiration and awe, not just for the vision given us, but for the scholarship and dedication that made it possible. (Los Angeles Times) Apart from its values to the specialist scholar, [Eck's] book will be at least equally rewarding to the student or general reader wishing to understand what Hinduism is about. . . . Admirable and lucid. (Times Literary Supplement) A major event among studies of India. (John Stratton Hawley, Asia) The most beautiful book . . . on India. (Journal of the American Academy of Religion)