When speaking of India in 19th-century European literature, few authors embody the union of imagination, wonder, and aesthetic sensitivity as deeply as Pierre Loti. A naval officer, melancholic traveler, and master stylist, Loti turned writing into a contemplative act — one that captures not just the sensory details of the places he visits, but also the subtle inner tremors of the soul. His encounter with Benares (now Varanasi), the sacred city on the banks of the Ganges, stands as one of the most profound literary and spiritual moments of his journey.
Pierre Loti and India: A Long-Nurtured Dream
For years, India had haunted Pierre Loti’s imagination. Through readings, drawings, and dreams, he had constructed an almost mythical vision of a land filled with mysticism, poetry, and timeless rituals. When he finally set foot in India at the end of the 19th century, his gaze was already steeped in anticipation. It was not the analytical eye of an ethnographer, nor the possessive stare of a colonizer, but the awestruck gaze of a man discovering a world both outside and within himself.
Loti’s India is at once real and dreamlike. In his writings about Benares, the city is described with sacred delicacy: the temples, the immersed bodies in the Ganges, the flames of cremation — all are rendered through a poetic lens, with profound reverence. Confronted by such intensity, Loti chooses inner silence, opting to contemplate rather than judge.
Towards Benares: Loti’s Gaze Translated to Film
This suspended, lyrical, and deeply emotional gaze finds a modern echo in the poetic documentary Towards Benares, a film directly inspired by Pierre Loti’s Indian journey. The film is not a conventional documentary but rather a visual meditation, inviting the viewer to experience India as Loti did: not as a destination, but as a revelation.
As described on the official website benaresfilm.com, Towards Benares “represents Loti’s gaze upon India, filled with the wonder of someone arriving for the first time in a land long imagined.” With its slow rhythm and attentive eye, the film offers a visual counterpart to Loti’s literary sensitivity, allowing images to breathe, linger, and speak with silence.
Writing as Contemplation
In both Towards Benares and Loti’s works, writing becomes an act of listening. Each sentence is a pause, each word a gesture of gentleness. Loti does not seek to explain India — he knows that explanation often kills mystery. Instead, he prefers suggestion, astonishment, and slowness, as ways to approach a reality too vast for rational understanding.
This contemplative stance makes him a precursor to many modern forms of travel writing, which no longer aim to master or categorize, but rather to be transformed by encounter. The film Towards Benares follows this same path: it does not document — it listens.
A Living Memory
More than a century after his visit, Pierre Loti remains an essential figure in the literary encounter between Europe and India. His journey to Benares was not merely geographical, but a spiritual and aesthetic pilgrimage. Through his words, and now through Towards Benares, we are still invited to approach the city with reverence, emotion, and humility.
In an era saturated with rapid images, superficial narratives, and mass tourism, Loti’s contemplative gaze reminds us that to travel — and to write about travel — is a sacred act. It is a way of inhabiting the world differently, of seeing with the heart, and of turning each step into a silent prayer.