View towards Bhonsale Mahal

About the baskests on long poles: they are in fact lanterns. It is believed that the lights from diya oil lamps lit in Kartik (Indian month, Oct. - Nov.) will lighten the path for the souls of dead ancestors to reach heaven. That year also for the <a href="http://www.dnaindia.com/locality/varanasi/hanging-lamps-dashashwamedh-ghat-varanasi-remind-people-about-horror-female-foeticide-73866" rel="nofollow">India's unborn daughters</a>.

"For a definite period of time in the month of kartik, every night, an earthen diya or deep is filled with oil enough to sustain the burning wick’s flame throughout the dark night. The diya is kept in a basket woven with bamboo strip. The wick of the earthen lamp is lit, it’s placed gently in the basket the handle of which is tied to one end of a long rope, and the basket is dragged through a rope to the top of a long bamboo pole." by Rajnish Mishra at <a href="https://rajnishmishravns.wordpress.com/2013/04/23/deep-daan-on-ghats/" rel="nofollow">rajnishmishravns.wordpress.com</a>

More about the ceremony - <a href="https://namitasunder.wordpress.com/2016/12/03/aakash-deep/" rel="nofollow">namitasunder.wordpress.com/2016/12/03/aakash-deep/</a>

2015-11-13