Kashi me khele,Ghat me khele,Holi khele masaane mein.This isn’t just a song line echoing across India, it is an emotion that Banaras lives and breathes each year. In most parts of the country, Holi arrives in a riot of colour, gulal in the air, water guns primed, laughter echoing through narrow lanes. But on the ancient ghats of Kashi, Holi does not explode in pinks and yellows. Instead, it unfolds in muted greys, where devotees gather not with pichkaris and gulal, but with sacred ashes lifted from the cremation pyres that symbolise life’s final truth.Here, colour yields to cinder. Laughter melts into resonant chants of Har Har Mahadev. Celebration sheds its carnival skin and turns contemplative, less revelry, more reckoning.This is Masaan Holi also known as Bhasma Holi or Smashan Holi is the Holi of the cremation ground, where faith dances in the shadow of fire and mortality.
Varanasi (PTI Photo)
Where fire never sleeps
Masaan Holi unfolds primarily at Manikarnika Ghat and Harishchandra Ghat, the two sacred grounds where funeral pyres burn almost continuously.The term “Masaan” comes from the Sanskrit “shmashaan”, meaning cremation ground. In this city of liberation, where life and death coexist without apology and where the funeral pyres burn eternally, the ashes of the departed become the medium of celebration.Masaan ki Holi involves the use of ashes from cremation pyres. Rooted in Shaivite traditions, Masaan Holi draws Aghori sadhus, ascetics, and devoted followers of Shiva-the seekers who choose to confront mortality rather than turn away from it. Devotees gently smear bhasm, or vibhuti (sacred ash) on one another, symbolising the unbroken cycle of birth and death.
But why is Masaan Holi celebrated?
To understand Masaan Holi, one must first step into mythology.The festivities begin a day after Rangbhari Ekadashi at Kashi Vishwanath Temple. This day is believed to mark Goddess Parvati’s “gauna” following her wedding to Shiva on Mahashivratri. While the divine wedding was celebrated in grandeur, legend says certain celestial beings, yakshas, gandharvas, kinnars were not part of the elite guest list.
So what did Shiva do?
According to lore, the ascetic god, dancer, mystic, and the original rule-breaker draped in leopard skin with a live serpent as ornament chose to celebrate with his underworld friends, his companions of the cremation grounds. At the Mahashmashana, he played Holi with ashes from burning pyres, dancing amid fire and smoke, chanting “Har Har Mahadev.”And thus began the tradition.
Entering the grey zone
As someone in her mid-20s, raised on stories of India’s layered spiritual traditions, I had long been curious about this praxis, this raw, unsanitised ritual. Social media has turned Masaan Holi into a viral sensation. Aesthetic reels of ash-smeared faces, slow-motion chants, cinematic smoke spirals. But what lies beyond the filtered frames?Determined to find out, I arrived in Banaras a day after Rangbhari Ekadashi. With only two days in hand the modest luxury of a journalist’s week off, I wrapped myself in full clothes, bracing for what most would call “colour play,” except here the colour was absent itself!Walking towards the ghats, the mood shifted. The closer I came to Manikarnika, the denser the throng. A swelling sea of humanity moved in waves, devotees, children perched on shoulders, saffron-clad ascetics, Aghori sadhus with ash-lined foreheads. The air thickened with chants and anticipation.And then the quirky chaos began.
(PTI Photo)
The human whirlpool
What looked from afar like spiritual fervour turned, up close, into a human traffic jam. I could not see the headcount hurricane but gosh it existed!A shoulder-to-shoulder brigade surging toward the same sacred point. Neither could I exit nor could I move!The crowd grew unruly. Elbows nudged, slippers slipped, and personal space evaporated into the smoky air. I found myself caught in a swirling whirlpool of bodies, a buzzing bunch where neither retreat nor advance seemed possible.Were they all devotees? Seekers of the divine? Some, surely. But others seemed to be thrill-chasers, intoxicated more by the spectacle than the sanctity. Pushes became shoves. Chants grew louder. For a moment, I felt less like a pilgrim and more like driftwood in a restless tide.There came a point when I had two choices, hold on to my breath or let go of my slippers.The slippers lost.To this day, they rest somewhere on the ghats of Manikarnika, an unintended offering to ghats in Kashi.In that crush, I remembered news reports of stampedes, of families separated, of chaos turning catastrophic. The thin line between devotion and disorder felt terrifyingly real.Yet, as abruptly as chaos peaked, calm appeared.Breaking free from the human huddle, I finally reached the ghat. The Ganga flowed with her usual indifference to human frenzy. I dipped my feet into the cold water, letting its quiet rhythm steady my racing thoughts.Nearby, the ritual began at the Mahashmashan Nath Temple where aarti flames flickered against the smoky backdrop. Devotees smeared ash on their foreheads and “Har Har Mahadev” rose in unison but not as noise, but as invocation.Ashes gathered from the pyres were handled with quiet reverence. The steady rhythm of drums filled the air, bhajans echoed across the ghats. The procession moved through the narrow pathways of the cremation ground, less a parade and more a pilgrimage.The symbolism is stark yet profound, everything turns to ash. Ego, beauty, status, ambition!In playing Holi with vibhuti, devotees symbolically surrender vanity and embrace impermanence. It is purification not through colour, but through confrontation.Death is not denied here. It is acknowledged, even celebrated as a transition.
Devotees celebrate ‘Masan Holi’ at the Manikarnika ghat, in Varanasi. (PTI Photo)
A festival, transformed?
Locals spoke candidly about change.“Ever since social media made it famous, the essence has shifted,” one elderly resident told me. “There are fewer sadhus now, more artists or performers who dress up for the event.”He wasn’t entirely dismissive, just reflective.Artists now danced around sacred fire, their movements framed by a constant flicker of camera flashes. What was once an intimate, inward ritual now unfolds before an eager audience, its silence occasionally interrupted by the click of lenses and the hum of recording phones.Was he right? Maybe yes. Maybe not. Traditions evolve, after all. But the tension between sacred and spectacle was palpable.This year, for the first time, celebrations were restricted to within the Mahashmashan Nath Temple premises. Authorities did not allow the public to play with pyre ash directly on the ghats. Overcrowding, objections from members of the Kashi Vidwat Parishad and sections of the Dom Raja family, along with ongoing development work, made the situation difficult to manage.The concerns were about following scriptural norms and ensuring safety. With funeral processions moving alongside the celebrations, managing the space became challenging. While standing there with ash floating through the air like ghostly confetti, I realised something. Social media captures moments but there’s a big difference between watching something online and actually experiencing it.Masaan Holi demands immersion” means the festival cannot be understood through a quick video. It has to be felt !A one-minute reel may aestheticise the smoke. But it cannot convey the weight of mortality that lingers in the air. It cannot replicate the discomfort of being crushed in a crowd or the serenity of the Ganga’s touch moments later.Masaan Holi is not entertainment. It is an existential encounter.You arrive curious. You leave contemplative.
(Photo credit: Instagram)
Why I’d go back
Despite the chaos, despite the lost slippers and the human horde, if someone asks whether I would return? The answer is Yes!Because beyond the huge crowd and the performative enthusiasm, there was beauty. Raw, unsettling beauty.If myths are to be believed, Shiva himself dances here each year, carefree, ash-smeared, unbothered by worldly decorum. And in fleeting moments, amid chants and smoke, you almost feel that presence.Banaras has a way of dissolving certainty. It reminds you that life is fragile, ego is temporary, and death is not an end but a passage.Masaan Holi is Kashi’s paradox! Chaotic yet calm, macabre yet magnificent. It is where colourless ash becomes the brightest metaphor of all.And somewhere between the fire that never sleeps and the river that never stops flowing, you understand why this city plays Holi differently.Not with colours. But with impermanence.
