Varanasi

Main article: India

The population for 2006 is 1.21 million people.

Benares Hindu University

Varanasi has long been a centre of learning and this tradition continues at Benares Hindu University (BHU), built in 1917. It was founded nationalist Pandit Malaviya as a center for teaching Indian art, music, culture and philosophy, as well as the study of Sanskrit.

History

Main article: History of India

XI century: The beginning of the destruction of the city by Muslims

From the 11th century, Varanasi was sacked by Muslim invaders. It is believed that the Afghans destroyed Varanasi around 1300 AD. e., after the nearby Sarnath was devastated. The Mughal emperor Aurangzeb was the most destructive, plundering and destroying almost all temples.

VIII century: The revival of the city after the strengthening of the cult of Shiva Shankaracharya

Around the 8th century CE, Varanasi experienced a period of revival with the emergence of Shankaracharya, a Hindu reformer who established Shiva worship as the main sect in Hindu religion.

Today, the old city of Varanasi retains the atmosphere of antiquity, but only a few buildings are more than a couple of hundred years old.

Inclusion in the kingdom of Kosala and the Magadha Empire

The city became a major Hindu center, and the Qasi were eventually incorporated into the kingdom of Kosala, which in turn became part of the great Magadha Empire ruled from the modern city of Patna.

1000 BC: Aryan Kasi tribe settles near present-day Varanasi

Varanasi has been a center of learning and civilization for over 2000 years and claims to be one of the oldest cities in the world. American author Mark Twain apparently believed it looked appropriate when he stopped by for a lecture tour, as he said that "Benares is older than history, older than tradition, older than even legends and looks twice as old as all of them combined."

The first known historical event about Varanasi occurred between 1400 and 1000 BC. e., when the Kasi (an Aryan tribe in northern India) settled in the Ganges Valley, near modern Varanasi. Until this time, there is speculation that Varanasi may have been a place of sun worship.

Pilgrimages of believers

City of Shiva

Varanasi, the city of the god Shiva, on the banks of the river Ganges, sacred to Hindus, is considered one of the holiest places in India.

According to legend, Kashi was elected Shiva as his place of stay on earth.

When the harsh ascetic god Shiva married the beautiful Parvati - the daughter of the Himalayas, at first they settled in his heavenly shelter on Mount Kailash. However, the heavenly house is a good thing, but the gods also need to have a base on the earth. And then one day, as they viewed the earth from the height of their heavenly resting place, their gaze fell on the city in the bend of the Ganges, filled with shining palaces, high temples and gardens - and then Shiva and Parvati came down from heaven to make Kashi their home on earth.

Shiva's energy permeates every corner of this city; and even when Parvati begins to miss the Himalayas and begs her husband to go back, Shiva refuses to leave Kashi because Kashi is Avimukta; a city he will never leave.

Varanasi stands on three hills, which are considered the three points of Shiva's trident. At the same time, the entire city is built on the western bank of the Ganges - there is no structure on the eastern and there has never been a single structure; it is considered the "world" where Shiva ferries the souls of the dead.

Center for Philosophy

There was a time when this place was called Anandavana - "the forest of bliss"; once on the site where the city is now, there were forests filled with ashrams, where saints, philosophers and scientists gathered from all over India. Historians believe that it was here that the first Upanishads and the very philosophy of Advaita (Non-duality) appeared.

Many philosophers and religious reformers of India - from the Jainism prophet Mahavira and the founder of the Sikh religion Guru Nanak to Shankaracharya and Ramanuja - came here to perfect their doctrine in disputes. It is no coincidence that it was in the suburb of Varanasi - Sarnath - that the Buddha delivered his first sermon. The holy mystic poet Kabir lived here for most of his life.

Getting Rid of Sins

"Kashi, Kanchi, Maya, Ayodhya, Avantika, Mathura, Dvaravati - Here are the seven places giving liberation." Every Hindu pilgrim is familiar with this ancient verse. These seven cities of India have been considered sacred for several thousand years.

Hindus themselves call such sacred places - tirtha, which literally means "bridge"; a bridge between heaven and earth. The place where the special energy of the Earth is expressed so strongly that it enters into resonance with the consciousness of man, fills the person who came there with purity and positivity. Among Hindus, it is believed that to visit such a place, plunge into the water of a sacred river, offer prayers in the temple - leads to deliverance from the burden of sins and frees from the endless chain of births and deaths.

Legends say that in Varanasi at the bottom of the Ganges there are 5 million lingams, which makes the already sacred waters of the river completely holy.

Hindu pilgrims come to Varanasi to bathe in the waters of the Ganges, "a ritual that washes away all sins."

The Kashi Purana says that a person who wants to get to Kashi gets rid of the sins of three lives, a person who goes to Kashi - and even more, and who has come to Kashi - and there is nothing to say. Just sleeping in Kashi is tantamount to meditation, and even just being there means already being on the way to enlightenment.

The city is also considered a favourable place to die, as the passing of life here offers liberation (moksha) from the cycle of birth and death.

Ghats

The main attraction of Varanasi is a long string of ghats, stepped embankments lining the western bank of the Ganges. Most are used for bathing, but there are also several "ghats for burning" where bodies are cremated. There are about 100 ghats in Varanasi.

The city extends from Raj Ghat, near the main road and railway bridge, to Assi Ghat, near the university. Assi Ghat is one of the five special ghats where pilgrims must perform bathing in turn during a ritual route called Panchatirthi Yatra. The order of this ritual is Assi, Dashashwamedh, Adi Keshava, Panchganga and finally Manikarnika.

Most of Tulsi Ghat collapsed into the river.

Bachraj Ghat is Jain. In total, there are three Jain temples on the banks of the river.

Many of the ghats belong to the Maharajas or other prince rulers, such as the very beautiful Shiwala Ghat belonging to the Varanasi Maharaja.

Dundee Ghat is a ghat of ascetics known as Dundee Panthi and nearby is the very popular Hanuman Ghat.

Harishchandra Ghat, or Smashan Ghat, is a secondary burning site. It is one of the oldest ghats in the city. Above it is the crowded Kedar Ghat - a sanctuary popular with Bengalis and southern Indians.

Mansarovar Ghat was built by Rajah Man Singh of Amber and named after a Tibetan lake at the foot of Mount Kailash, the Himalayan house of Shiva.

Someshwar Ghat, or Lord of the Moon's Ghat, is said to be able to heal diseases.

Munshi Ghat is very picturesque and Ahalya Bai Ghat is named after a Marathi woman, ruler of Indore. The name Dashashwamedh Ghat attests that Brahma sacrificed (medh) 10 (dasha) horses (ashwa) in this place.

Man-Mandir-Ghat Raji Man Singh was built in 1600, but was poorly restored in the 19th century. There is a lovely stone balcony in the northern corner of ghat and Raja Jai Singh of Jaipur erected one of his unusual observatories on this ghat in 1710.

The world of Ghat leads to a Nepalese temple that has erotic sculptures. Jalsain Ghat, where cremations take place, is practically adjacent to Manikarnika Ghat, one of the oldest and most sacred in Varanasi.

Manikarnika is the main ghat for burning and one of the most favorable places for the cremation of a Hindu. The bodies are carried by outcasts known as doms and carried down the alleys of the old town to the sacred Ganges on bamboo stretchers wrapped in cloth. Before cremation, the corpse is poured with water from the Ganges. Piles of firewood, stacked along the top of the ghat, each full is carefully weighed on giant scales so that the cost of cremation can be calculated. Above the steps is a body of water known as Manikarnika Well; they say that Parvati dropped her earring here, and Shiva dug up a reservoir to get it, filling the depression with her sweat. Charanpaduka, a stone slab between the well and the ghat, has Vishnu footprints. Privileged VIPs are cremated in Charanpaduct. Ghat also has a temple dedicated to Ganesha.

Dattatreya Ghat bears the foot print of a holy brahmana of the same name in a small temple nearby.

Scindia Ghat was originally built in 1830, but was so huge and majestic that it collapsed into the river and had to be rebuilt.

Ram Ghat was built by the Maharaja of Jaipur.

Panchganga Ghat, as its name suggests, is where the five rivers are to meet. The ghat is dominated by the smaller Aurangzeba Mosque, also known as the Alamgir Mosque, which he built on the site of a large Vishnu temple erected by the Maratha chief Beni Madhur Rao Scindia.

There is a stone figure of a cow on Gai Ghat.

There are two towers projecting from the river on Trilochan Ghat and the water between them is considered particularly sacred.

Raj Ghat was a ferry pier until a road and railway bridge was completed here.

Temples

Maintenance of Varanasi temples has long been one of the main activities of the inhabitants of the city. Even the main industry of the city - Varanasi silk known throughout India, which were famous back in the time of the Buddha - appeared once only because the priests of temples and the image of deities needed clothes.

Viswanatha Temple

Viswanath Temple, or Golden Temple, is the most sacred Hindu temple in Varanasi and is dedicated to Vishveshwar - Shiva as the lord of the universe. Here is Adi Vishveshwara, one of the 12 Jothyirlingams - spontaneous manifestations of Shiva in the form of lingams.

In the Puranas written between the 5th century BCE and the 5th century CE, it is mentioned that there was a huge Mokshavilas temple on this site. In the 12th century, it was destroyed by Muslim armies. It was rebuilt, but in the XIII century it was again erased from the face of the earth by the army of Sultan Radzya.

During the reign of Akbar, Kashi was revived, and the temple was revived with Kashi. But soon it was again destroyed by Akbar's great-grandson by the destroyer Aurangzeb, and a mosque was built on this site.

The present temple was built in 1776 by Ahalya Bai of Indore, and the 800 kg of gold coating on the towers that gave the temple its colloquial name was provided by Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Lahore some 50 years later.

Back in the mid-2010s, the temple was lost in the narrow lanes of the old city. Until 2021, non-Hindu entry was prohibited. After the global reconstruction that connected the temple to the Ganges embankment, foreigners began to be allowed in for a fee of Rs 600.

To expand the temple by 2021, the authorities had to remove more than 300 objects located in the immediate vicinity of it. They were people's homes, shops, cafes, shops, hotels. Many Indians resented that the old town had been mercilessly demolished to please the religious site.

In the vicinity of Viswanath Temple, over the previous 1500 years, there was a series of Shiva temples, but they were regularly destroyed by Muslim invaders. Aurangzeb continued this tradition by demolishing the previous temple and building his Alamgir Mosque (also called the Great Mosque) on it. Armed guards have been guarding the mosque since the BJP party said after Ayodhya, its next targets will be mosques in Varanasi and Mathura. In 2007, photography in this area was prohibited.

Near Viswanath Temple is the Gyan Kupor (Knowledge Well) well. Believers believe that drinking his water leads to a higher spiritual level, although they are not allowed to do this either by tradition or by a strong security screen. The well was said to contain the Shiva lingam, which had been removed from the previous temple and hidden to protect it from Aurangzeb.

Durga Temple

This small temple (Durgakund Rd) is located about 2 km south of the old town. It was built in the 18th century by the Bengali Maharani and painted ochre red. The architecture of the temple is made in the North Indian Nagara style with a tiered shikhara ​​ (spire).

Durga is the "terrible" form of the wife of Shiva Parvati, therefore, at the beginning of the 21st century, goat sacrifices are often held at festivals. If you are not Hindu, you can enter the court, but not the inner sanctuary.

Tulsi Manas Temple

Just 150 metres south of Durga Temple is the modern shikhara-style Tulsi Manas marble temple (open daily from 6am to 11.30pm and 3pm to 9pm), built in 1964. Its two-tiered walls are decorated with poems and scenes from Ram Charit Manas, a Hindi version of Ramayana. Its author, the poet Tulsi Das, lived here when he wrote it. You can look at figures performing scenes from Hindu mythology on the 2nd floor.

Kabir chaura math

Kabir chaura math is a temple dedicated to Kabir by members of the Kabirpanth order (more than 1 million followers in the first quarter of the 21st century), who recognize him as an avatar.

Tourism

At the beginning of the 21st century, the most intimate rituals of life and death took place in the city publicly on the famous embankments (ghats). It is this accessibility to the practices of the ancient religious tradition that fascinates so many visitors.

The old town of Varanasi lies along the western bank of the Ganges River and extends from the coastal ghats in a labyrinth of alleys that are too narrow for traffic. Godaulia is just outside the old town and Lahurabir is to the northwest, separated from Cantonment by a railway line.

A good way to navigate is to remember the location of ghats, especially important ones like Dashashwamedh-ghat. Pay special attention to his statues and the sanctuary of Sitala, the goddess of smallpox. Usually, locals use ghats as part of their address.

There will be no problems with the observation of cremation, as on Manikarnik ghat death is common, but do not take pictures (hide the camera well) and be respectful in your behavior.

The best time to visit ghats is dawn, when the river is bathed in magical light and pilgrims come to perform puja to the rising sun.

The alleys of the old town may be confusing, but hotels are well marked with signs. Major international hotels and the Indian Tourism Office are in Cantonment north of Varanasi Junction railway station. The TV tower is the most obvious landmark in the area.

Ganga Worship Ceremony On Dashashwamedh Ghat

Dashashwamedh Aarti Ceremony (Favorable Lighting lamps/candles) in Varanasi, which is held at 7 pm (formerly winter), is dedicated to the goddess Ganga. During the 45-minute ritual, they blow into the sink to consecrate the place, and then a row priests move in unison to worship the river, using symbolic objects representing the five elements:

• tiered diya (fiery

lamp symbolizing fire),

• flower petals (earth),
• water from the Ganges,
• yak tail fan (ether, or space) and
• a fan of peacock tail (air).

Smoke is used to purify the mind, and each action is performed in all four directions. Aarti is accompanied by singing, music and ringing bells and ends with another solemn sound of the shell.