Some have supposed that the city has received its name from lying between these two rivulets Burna, Assi, making the word Burunassi, Benares; but this derivation is more than doubtful. Others maintain the word comes from a famous rajah called Bunar; but this, too, is a mere conjecture. Let me take my readers with me on a trip down the river.
It means a mountain-pass, a ferry, a place on the riverside where people meet, and, as is the case at Benares, the steps which lead down to the river. Two small streams enter the Ganges at Benares on the southern side the Assi, on the northern side the Burna.