Jayanth Karunika was twenty years old when he lit his mother's pyre at Manikarnika Ghat in Varanasi. He was the eldest son. The priests told him to walk counter-clockwise, not to look back, to let it break. He did all three. He did not understand any of it. He has spent the years since returning to Varanasi, to the ghat, to the question of what that morning was. He stood at other fires. He watched other families. He read the Puranas and the Upanishads and the histories of the city. He spoke to the Dom workers who keep the fire. He sat with the dogs. Slowly, the morning began to make sense. Not as a loss. As something he had been part of that was larger than loss. This book is that understanding. It took six years to arrive at. Jayanth holds an MSc in Finance from Queen's University Belfast and is based in Bengaluru. He documents death rituals and cremation culture at Manikarnika Ghat on Instagram at @the_undying_fire. Beauty of Death in Varanasi is his first book.