Banaras: City of Light.

New York:: Alfred A Knopf, 1982.. First Edition, so stated.. Hardbound . BINDING/CONDITION: light olive binding with gilt borders; beige cloth at the spine; the top edge tint is a dark color; there is a remainder mark along the top edge, but due to the tope edge tint, is not glaringly obvious; otherwise a Near Fine book, publisher's price on the jacket flap is intact.. 8vo (9.75 inches tall) . Appendices, glossary, notes, bibliography, index. Description: Several black and white illustrations. ''The sacr4d city of Banaras on the River Ganges is one of the oldest living cites in the world -- as old as Jerusalem, Athens, and Peking. It is the place where Shiva, the Lord of All, is said to have made his permanent home since the dawn of creation. There are few cities in India as traditionally Hindu and as symbolic of the whole of Hindu culture as Banaras. In this eloquent, finely observed study, Diana Eck shows how the city over the centuries has become a lens through which the Hindu vision of the world is precisely focused. She reveals the spiritual and historical resonance of this holy place where great sages such as the Buddha and Shankara taught, where ashrams, palaces, and universities were built, where God has been imagined and imaged in a thousand ways. She describes the rites of its temples, the busy life of its riverfront, and the exuberance of its festivals.''