I was a charlatan in India

On the day of the full moon festival, Arti welcomed her first teacher.

As it was Surya's arrangement, the teacher in charge of Brahmanical knowledge unsurprisingly came from Sharma.

This is an old man in his sixties or seventies, who looks serious and clean.

Because the Sharma family's education is focused on Anshu and Yandi, their teaching staff is not crowded.

Although teaching a little girl might seem a bit absurd, and even violate some rules of etiquette...

But Surya gave so much that he could bypass etiquette and tradition and sincerely teach Arti what he needed.

Shenhe's consciousness lingered around Arti, wanting to see how his blessing was working.

Or, to put it another way, whether the protection provided to this child will achieve the desired results.

Since Artie has been following Shenhe lately, enjoying good food and clothing, and being well-groomed, she looks very cute now.

Such a cute little girl is in great danger in India.

Especially since her skin isn't fair enough.

If she is clearly a young lady from a Brahmin family, some people in the lower classes might be somewhat wary of her. But if she is dark-skinned and doesn't look noble enough, then it's only natural that she would be met with thoughts of disrespect.

Whenever they have bad thoughts about Arti, their brains involuntarily stop working.

Whether it's kidnapping, robbery, or...

Once such a thought arises, one will involuntarily experience temporary amnesia, forgetting what one wanted to do, or even forgetting that Arti ever appeared.

Shenhe was able to sense these things because many of these bad people had become his followers.

"Teacher, there seem to be more people from other places this year than in previous years."

Arti looked around while talking to the teacher.

She grew up in Varanasi, so she had naturally witnessed the previous full moon festivals.

Of course, it wasn't like today, where you can freely travel anywhere.

This is a privilege of Brahmins.

On this day, even young Master Surrey is not allowed to enter certain places.

Actually, the number of tourists has not increased this year. It's just that the lower-level workers are generally stuck in factories repairing their factories, while the middle-level workers dare not run their own businesses, so the proportion of tourists appears to be large.

The old man had never taught a student like Arti from a humble background; he had always taught the Brahmins of the Sharma family.

Well... although there are many spoiled rich kids, they do have some basic knowledge and understand the relationship between law and ecology to some extent.

Even a twelve or thirteen-year-old Brahmin child could roughly understand why it had been quiet lately, so naturally he wouldn't ask such a question.

However, he still patiently explained it to Arti.

On the one hand, it's because of the money.

On the other hand, whenever he felt a bit annoyed or impatient with Arti, he would fall into a brief daze.

Immediately afterwards, these negative emotions vanished.

This is naturally due to the blessing bestowed by the Shenhe River.

As long as you are still a mortal, you cannot harbor any ill will towards Arti, not even blame.

This means you've locked in the lowest possible favorability level.

Ok……

This is not good.

I have a feeling that Arte will be spoiled.

Shenhe was somewhat uneasy.

However, something even stranger is happening now.

Visitors this year generally felt that something was off about the full moon festival.

No, it's not just the Full Moon Festival, the whole of Varanasi is wrong!

Due to the limitations of transportation, during the reign of Ashoka, most of those who participated in the Full Moon Festival were pilgrims, traveling merchants, or travelers from nearby city-states.

They are no strangers to Varanasi; in fact, many of them have moved out of the city.

When I returned this year, I found that the entire city had changed!

In the past year, I haven't heard of any major construction projects in Varanasi!

Moreover, the ceremony's procedures were quite strange.

Normally, during the reign of Ashoka, the full moon festival involved a sacred bath, almsgiving, worship of deities or ancestors, followed by trade and entertainment.

What are purification rituals, processions, and lighting of the sacred fire?

and……

Why is Shiva the only deity worshipped this year?

They found the word Shiva unfamiliar and vague!

In fact, there was indeed a concept of the Triad during the time of Ashoka, and the name Shiva did appear, but it was far less popular than in later times.

During this period, Shiva devotees near Varanasi generally worshipped his predecessor.

Storm God, Rudra.

The truly overwhelming national cult began several centuries later with the Gupta dynasty.

In other words, the ecology of this city, the current state of Shiva City, is itself an anomaly.

This anomaly did not occur last year!

The Shen River, which had been meandering around the Arte, naturally caught these puzzled expressions.

Of course, none of these tourists were his followers, and he could not read their minds; he could only guess that something was wrong with this full moon festival.

As a result, Shenhe became even more nervous around Arti, fearing that something unexpected might happen.

Fortunately, Arti's blessing worked for them.

Everyone was very friendly to Artie, and after only a short while, she received many gifts, truly the darling of the crowd.

But Shenhe was concerned about other things.

The way those passersby communicated with Arti was completely different from what the teacher taught.

Arti was confused and pretended not to understand, but Shenhe would not think that way.

He quickly realized something was wrong.

According to the teacher, Shiva had many predecessors, which evolved over hundreds of years before being consolidated into the unified name Shiva in recent years.

The Great Deity they worship is actually the product of the fusion of multiple religious groups.

Or rather, the original storm god, beast lord, and fierce god... were all predecessors of Shiva.

Even the concept of Linga was considered a deity in the early days!

He taught so naturally, clearly because he genuinely agreed with this statement.

However, the surrounding people clearly did not see it that way.

Many people are even unfamiliar with the title Shiva, and their understanding of him is clearly based on what that teacher described as his appearance hundreds of years ago!

They come to Varanasi not for any Shiva deity, and their purposes of worship are quite varied.

For example, Soma, the god of the moon and drinking.

Normally, this should be the deity who opens the Full Moon Festival, mainly to pray for vitality and wisdom.

Next is Petri, the ancestral god, who is usually worshipped together with one's own ancestors.

People would hold a tapana ceremony, offering water and sesame seeds to their ancestors and praying for their blessings.

Next is...

Surya, the sun god.

The sun god, who corresponds to the moon goddess, is naturally one of the important parts of this festival, especially in areas that value agriculture, where the number of worshippers even exceeds that of the festival's chief priest.

Can……

...What is Surya, the sun god?

Shenhe's knowledge of Indian mythology is very limited, basically limited to different versions of the Trinity and those interesting little stories about beating up the God of God.

So when he first heard the name Surya, he didn't pay much attention to it.

Now, hearing numerous questions from tourists, I realize something is seriously wrong.

Could this guy be some kind of sun god, or is it just a coincidence of names, or...?

Moreover, the tourists' confusion went far beyond the names of the deities; they whispered among themselves and pointed at each other.

"This is strange; I've never seen this kind of temple before..."

"What is this statue? It's so unrestrained. Is this the Linga? Perhaps I can take it back with me..."

"Has Varanasi developed to this extent in just one year?"

"Unbelievable, when exactly did this happen...?"

The tourists were naturally amazed.

Aside from their dissatisfaction with the full moon festival's procedures, everything else felt incredibly new and exciting to them.

But when it reached Shenhe's ears, it meant something completely different.

These reactions undoubtedly demonstrate that Varanasi as a whole is out of touch with the times around it!

"Bless me, and tell me the reason!"