About Varanasi City

Varanasi is one of the oldest living cities in the world. It derives from the two rivers that flank the city, the Varana to the north and the Asi to the south. Varanasi's associations with Shiva extend to the beginning of time.

Legends relate how, after his marriage to Parvati, Shiva left his Himalyan abode and came to reside in Kashi with all the gods in attendance. Temporarily banished during the rule of the great king Divodasa, Shiva sent Brahma and Vishnu as his emissaries, but ultimately returned to his rightful abode protected by his loyal attendants Kalabhairav and Dandapani.

Varanasi is situated on the west bank of the holiest of all Indian rivers, the Ganga or Ganges. The relationship between the sacred river and the city is the essence of Varanasi - 'the land of sacred light'. The Ganga is believed to have flown from heaven to wash away the worldly sins of the human race.of mortal's .The life and activities in the city centre around the holy river. Life on the banks of the Ganga begins before dawn when thousands of pilgrims - men, women and children - come down to the river to wait for the rising sun when immersion in the sacred river will cleanse them of their sufferings and wash their sins away.

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Sight Seeing

Ghat:

Asi Ghat Kedara Ghat Chauki Ghat Chaumsathi Ghat Dashashwamedha Ghat Man Mandir Ghat Lalita Ghat Manikarnika Ghat Scindia Ghat Panchganga Ghat Adi Keshva Ghat Vishwanatha Khanda

Kashi Vishvanath Temple:
Dedicated to Shiva, this shrine in the old city is set back from the Ganges between the Dashashwamedh and Manikarnika ghats. The most sacred shrine in Varanasi, off-limits to non-Hindus, it is best seen from the top floor of the house opposite ( pay a small fee to the owner). You'll see men and women making offerings to the linga in the inner shine. The present temple was built by Rani Ahalyabai of Indore in 1776, near the site of the original shrine, which had been destroyed by Aurangzeb. The spire, covered in gold plate, was a gift from the Sikh maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1835..

Gyanvapi Mosque:
In the 17th-century the Mogul emperor Aurangzeb pulled down the visheswara Temple and erected the Gyanvapi Mosque on the site. The foundation and the rear of the mosque still reveal parts of the original temple. The tallest of its minarets, which dominated the skyline of the holy city, collapsed during a flood in 1948. The area, just next to Varanasi's most famous temple, Kashi Vishvanath, has been the focus of Hindu revivalist attempts to reconsecrate the temple and is now staffed with police and fenced with barbed wire, but the area is normally very sedate, and is an important starting off point for Hindu pilgrims.

Bharat Mata Temple:
It is just 3km away west of Godaulia, outside the old city, the modern temple of Bharat Mata(Mother India), inaugurated by Mahatma Gandhi, is unusual in that it has a huge relief map in marble of the whole of the Indian subcontinent and the Tibetan plateau, with mountains, rivers and the holy tirthas all clearly visible. Pilgrims circumambulate the map before viewing it in its entirety from the second floor.

Durga Temple:
Dedicated to Durga, Shiva's consort, this 18th-century shrine stands besides a large square pool of water due west of Asi Ghat. The shikhara is formed on top of five lower spires-a convergence that is a visual symbol of the belief that all five elements of the world merge with the supreme. Durga is also called the Monkey Temple; the prests are everywhere, and they'll steal anything.

Tulsi Manas Temple:
Constructed by a family of Varanasi, this modern temple is dedicated to Lord Rama. It is situated at the place where Tulsidas, the great medieval seer, lived and wrote the great epic " Shri Ramcharitmanas", which narrates the life of Lord Rama, the hero of the Ramayana. Verses from Tulsidas's epic are inscribed on the walls.

Bharat Kala Bhawan Museum (Banaras Hindu University):
No one interested in Indian art should miss this museum on the campus of banars Hindu University, just south of Varanasi's traditional boundary. The permanent collection includes textiles and excellent Hindu and Buddhist sculptures and miniature paintings from the courts of the Moguls and the Hindu princes of the Punjab Hills. One sculpture of particular power is from the immediate area of Varanasi- a 4th-century, Gupta dynasty frieze showing Krishna, an incarnation of Vishnu, holding up Mt. Govardhan to protect his pastoral comrades from the rain. Have your car or bicycle rickshaw wait, as transport can be hard to fine on the university's sprawling compus. Time:- Mon-Sat. 10:30-16:00 Hrs.

Alamgir Mosque:
North of the gyanvapi Mosque, on the river, is another of Aurangzeb's creations, the Alamgir Mosque, an odd blend of Hindu and Muslim designs. Aurangzeb destroyed the 17th-century Beni Madhav Ka Darera, which was dedicated to Vishnu, and built this mosque with an odd fusion of Hindu (lower portions and wall) and Muslim (upper portion) designs. Below it is Panchaganga Ghat, an important bathing point, particularly on Makar Sankranti, January 14, when the sun crosses the Tropic of Capricorn as the earth shifts on its axis following the winter solstice.

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Excursion

Ram Nagar Fort And Museum:
Across the Ganges from the city is the residential palace of the former maharaja of Varansasi, who still lives here and performs important ceremonial and charitable functions. Within, the Durbar Hall (public Audience Chamber) and the Royal Museum have collections of palanquins, furniture, arms, weapons, and costumes that are open to the public. The palace was built to resist the floods of the monsoon, which play havoc with the city side of the river.


Sarnath:
It is 11 km north of varanasi, is the historic center of the Buddhist world. At Deer Park, Siddhartha Gautama preached his first sermon more than 2,500 years ago. Here, he revealed his Eightfold paqth leading to the end of sorrow and the attainment of enlightenment. Tow hundred years later, in the mid-3rd century BC, Ashoka - the mauryan emperor who was the greatest convert to Buddhism, arrived. In Sarnath, he built several stupas (large mound-shaped reliquary shrines) and a pillar with a lion capital that was adopted by 20th-century India as the state emblem. By AD 4th century, sarnath reached its zenith under the Gupta dynasty. The 12th century marked its decline, when the devout queen kumaradevi built a large monastery-the final tribute before Varanasi rulers dismantled the stupas for building materials. The decay continued until 1836, when Sir Alexander Cunningham started extensive excavations. First, a stone slab was discovered with an inscription of the Buddhist creed; then numberous other relics were found. It was only then that the Western World realized that the Buddha had been an actual person and not simply a mythical figure.

Chaukhandi Stupa:
In the 16th century, the Muslim Emperor Akbar built a brick tower on top of the 5th- century Chaukhandi Stupa.

Sarnath Archaeological Museum:
The excellent houses a copy of Ashoka's lion pillar-the original is in the National Museum in New Delhi-and some beautiful sculpture.

Ashoka Pillar:
One of Ashoka's famous pillars stands in front of the main stupa where Ashoka used to sit in meditation. The Ashoka Pillar (north of museum of Ashoka Rd) is one of may inscribed monuments that Ashoka erected throughout his empire.

Dhamekh Stupa:
Built around AD 500, (northeast of Sarnath Archaeological Museum) is one of the five great remaining monuments. It is the largest survivor, with geometric ornaments on its walls, and is thought to mark the place where the Buddha set the Wheel of Law in motion, although excavations have unearthede the remains of an even earlier stupa of Mauryan bricks of the Gupta period (200 BC).

Mulgandha Kuti Vihari Temple:
Due east of the Dhameksh stupa, and joining the old foundations of seven monasteries, is a Mulagandha Kuti Vihari Temple, which was built in 1931, its walls are decorated by a Japanese artiest, Kosetsu Nosu. On the anniversary of the temple's foundation-the first full moon in November-an assembly of monks and lay devotees from all parts of Asia come together.

Deer park:

Before you leave Sarnath, walk north from Dhamekh Stupa into Deer Park and buy carrots to feed the deer. Legend has it that Buddha was once incarnated as the King of the Deer here.