Thank you for making Mahindra Kabira Festival 2021 a great success, we look forward to seeing you next year!
Varanasi, with its gentle, unhurried way of life and ancient wisdom, is the perfect place to find that elusive peace which we constantly seek in the frenzy of our routine lives. The gentle rhythm of the river provides the perfect balm for frayed nerves even as Kabir’s philosophy envelopes us in its essential inclusiveness.
For two days, the Festival becomes the focal point with transcendental music on the historic ghats. As you take in the sights, you will find ash-smeared sadhus singing in deep sonorous voices, devotees milling about to bathe in and worship the eternal river, people lost in complex yoga postures, and tea stalls selling steaming kullads of chai.
Whether you come alone or with friends, you can look forward to making connections with kindred souls from around the world. Soak in the music, walk the winding alleys, hunt the bazaars for wooden toys, exquisite weaves and crafts, and spoil your taste buds with a range of sharp, tangy and sweet ‘Banarasi’ treats on the Festival menu.
Additionally, the 2-day package enables: An invitation to the MKF Gala Opening Reception
As a Festival Delegate you get to choose from a range of our select hotels for your stay. As part of your chosen hotel package, you will additionally receive airport transfers and transport to and from your hotel and festival venues via car and boats. This is only applicable to Delegates who have booked with the Festival partner hotels.
The prices are for 3 nights & 2 Days for single/double occupancy.
Varanasi – a city of temples, serpentine alleys, steep steps, a city of classical singers, musicians, scholars, home to one of Asia's largest universities - a city of legends, parables and a fulcrum of knowledge. The Ganga meanders its gleaming, expansive, and enigmatic way around its historic contours. In the words of Mark Twain, it is a city 'older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend'. And it truly is - not just in age but also in the inexplicable ways it towers over us as an embodiment of India’s multi-cultural ethos. Varanasi's legends trace back to over 10,000 years, to the oldest of Hindu spiritual texts, including the Puranas, the Vedas and the Mahabharata. It is also Kasi, one of the 16 great Indian kingdoms mentioned by ancient Buddhist texts from the first millennium B.C., when the invention of highways and coins led to a blossoming of trade.
As India neared the end of the 13th century, it was caught by a wave of the Bhakti movement that looked beyond the rigidity of ritual. This was also a glorious age when there was an intermingling of faiths. The incomparable and wise mystic - Kabir – was an integral part of this revival of rational thought and an idealogue far beyond his time. Kabir preached Bhakti or a syncretic path of devotion as the only route to real salvation. Perhaps a bold iconoclast even today, his teachings were completely based on logic and beyond superstition.
His connection with Varanasi is famed and fascinating - it is said that he was found near the Lahartara pond in Varanasi, abandoned by a poor Brahmin widow and rescued by a Muslim weaver couple who brought him up in the city’s traditional weaver gullies.
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