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Benares – now also known as Varanasi – in the 1890s. This Hindu place of pilgrimage, on the banks of the River Ganges in India, was photographed in the 1890s by John Thomson. The burning wood smoke in the centre of the foreground is a reminder that it was, and still is, traditional for Hindus to cremate the dead. Even when the cremation takes place elsewhere, the relations of the dead person may travel long distances to scatter the ashes on the sacred River Ganges.

Source: http://www.geocities.com/blackinkal4/RoyalGeographicalSociety_Asia_1.html