Dawn on the river at Varanasi

The Ganges at Varanasi, before the mist lifts.

People do not come only to look. They come to meet the water.

A wall of steps

Varanasi sits on the Ganges. In India the river is called the Ganga, and for many Hindus it is sacred. The city does not stand back from it. It comes down on long stone stairs, the ghats. At dawn the water is still dark and the far bank has not appeared. A line of small clay lamps is already burning, on the stone and out on the current. The city is in the middle of its morning.

Bath, lamp, boat, ashes

People bathe in the river. For many, that wash is a prayer. They set a small lamp on the water and let the current take it. They hire a wooden boat so the whole line of ghats can be seen at once. And families travel here with the ashes of a parent. Bringing those ashes to this river is, for many Hindus, the last act of care. Manikarnika is the ghat where that happens. From the boat it is the one with smoke. Leave it out of the photograph.

Who made the journey

The person on the next step may have taken an overnight train from Bengal, Bihar, or Maharashtra, because a parent asked for this water. Someone else may have flown in, often by way of Delhi, and landed at Lal Bahadur Shastri airport, because a picture of lamps on a dark river was the India they wanted to stand inside. You do not have to share the belief to see what the morning is for. You do have to come down to the stone.

Where the road ends

Taxis stop on the road above the ghats. So do autos, the small three-wheeled taxis. The morning starts on the way down. Dashashwamedh is the crowded stair, the one most pictures mean. Farther along, toward Assi, there are fewer boats and quieter stone. If a boatman offers the dawn ride, agree the price on the steps, before you get in, and ask to stay on the open water.

On the ghats

• Walk down to the stone. The road is the wrong height for this hour.
• If you take a boat, settle the price before anyone unties a rope.
• Ask before you photograph people. Leave a cremation out of the frame.
• Keep the picture wide: river, mist, lamps.
• Leave before the sun takes the mist.

By mid-morning the river is bright and full of boats. The lamps belong to the dark you came for.