VARANASI:, March 8 -- The issue of celebrating Masan Holi with ashes from funeral pyres at Manikarnika Ghat is kicking up dust in Kashi with one side opposing the practice and the other supporting it.

Kashi Vidwat Parishad, an organisation of intellectuals and Vedic scholars of Kashi, has strongly objected to the practice and called it against the tradition of Kashi.

On the other hand, Gulshan Kapoor, the manager of Baba Mahashmashan Nath Seva Samiti, which organises the celebration, has claimed the tradition is centuries-old but the Samiti president Chandrika Prasad Gupta has said ashes are not necessary, preferring the offering of 'abir-gulal' to the deity instead.

For his part, Kashi Vidwat Parishad's general secretary Prof Ramnaray...