Temple
The Kashi Vishwanath Temple is a famous
A Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. It is located in Vishwanath Gali of Varanasi,
Uttar Pradesh in India. The temple stands on the western bank of the holy river
Ganga, and is one of the twelve
Jyotirlingas, the holiest of Shiva temples.
The main deity is known by the name Shri
Vishwanath and Vishweshwara (IAST:
Vishveshvara or Vishveshvur) literally
meaning Lord of the Universe. Varanasi
was called Kashi ("shining") in ancient
times, and hence the temple is popularly
called Kashi Vishwanath Temple
Kashi Vishwanath Temple, c. 1915
Religion
District
Vishveshwar or
Vishwanath (Shiva)
Festivals
Location
State
Uttar Pradesh
Country
Architecture
Type
Creator
1585 CE - by Man
Completed
1780
Demolished
1194 by
1669 by Aurangzeb
Website
shrikashivishwanath.org (http://www.shrikash
The temple is considered a central part of
worship in the Shaiva culture by Hindu
scriptures. It had been demolished several
times by the Muslim rulers, most recently
by Aurangzeb who constructed the
Gyanvapi Mosque on its site.[1] The current structure was built on an adjacent site by
the Maratha ruler, Ahilyabai Holkar of
Indore in the year 1780.
Since 1983, the temple has been managed
by the government of Uttar Pradesh.
Legends
The renovated temple in 2022
As per the Shiva Purana, once Brahma (the
Hindu God of creation) and Vishnu (the
Hindu God of Preservation) had an
the argument about who was supreme. To
test them, Shiva pierced the three worlds as a huge endless pillar of light, the
jyotirlinga. To determine who was mightier
Vishnu took the form of a boar and sought
out the bottom while Brahma took the
form of a swan to fly to the pillar's top.
Brahma out of arrogance lied that he had
found out the end, offering a kabuki flower
as witness. Vishnu modestly confessed to
being unable to find the bottom. Shiva then
took the form of the wrathful Bhairava, cut
off Brahma's lying fifth head, and cursed
Brahma that he would not be worshipped.
Vishnu for his honesty would be
worshipped as equal to Shiva with his own
temples for all eternity. The Jyotirlinga is an
ancient axis mundi symbol representing the supreme formless (nirguna) reality at
the core of creation, out of which the form
(saguna) of Shiva appears. The jyotirlinga
shrines, thus are places where Shiva
appeared as a fiery column of light.
There are 64 forms of Shiva, not to be
confused with Jyotirlingas. Each of the
twelve jyotirlinga sites take the name of
the presiding deity - each considered
different manifestation of Shiva. At all
these sites, the primary image is lingam
representing the beginningless and
endless Stambha pillar, symbolizing the infinite nature of Shiva.The Twelve
jyotirlinga are Somnath in Gujarat,
Mallikarjuna at Srisailam in Andhra
Pradesh, Mahakaleswar at Ujjain in
Madhya Pradesh, Omkareshwar in Madhya
Pradesh, Kedarnath in Uttarakhand,
Bhimashankar in Maharashtra, Viswanath
Triambakeshwar in Maharashtra,
Vaidyanath Jyotirlinga, Deogarh in
Deoghar, Jharkhand, Nageswar at Dwarka
in Gujarat, Rameshwar at Rameswaram in
Tamil Nadu and Grishneshwar at
The Manikarnika Ghat on the banks of the Ganges near the Kashi Vishwanath
Temple is considered a Shakti Pitha, a
revered place of worship for the Shaktism
sect. The Daksha Yaga, a Shaivite
literature is considered an important
literature which is the story about the
origin of Shakti Peethas.
Lord Vishweshara is said to be the
reigning deity of Varanasi, holding the
position of king over all the other deities, as well as all over the inhabitants residing
not only within the city itself but also
within the circuit of the Panchkosi road
(the sacred boundary of Varanasi)
Madhuri Desai notes accounts of the
history of the temple to centre around a
litany of repeated destruction and re-
construction. Pilgrims visiting the
present Kashi Vishwanath Temple is
informed about the timelessness of the
Ancient and classical period
The temple is mentioned in the Puranas
including the Kashi Khanda (section) of
Skanda Purana(4th-5th century).
Medieval period and destruction
The original Vishwanath temple, initially
known as the Adi Vishveshwara Temple,
was destroyed by the Ghurids in 1194,
when Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad ibn Sam
returned to India and defeated
Jayachandra of Kannauj near Chandawar
and afterwards razed the city of Kashi.
In a few years, Razia Mosque was
constructed in its place. In 1230,
the temple was rebuilt near the
Avimukteshwara Temple, away from the
main site by a Gujarati merchant during
the reign of Delhi's Sultan Iltutmish (1211–
1266). It was demolished again during the
rule of either Hussain Shah Sharqi (1447–
1458) or Sikandar Lodi (1489–1517).
Mughal period
Sketches by James Prinsep
The Gyanvapi Mosque
Plan of the Ancient Temple of
sketched as the Temple of Vishveshvur.
Vishveshwur, Benares.
The dotted line shows the portion of the
the temple occupied by the present Masjid.
Raja Man Singh built the temple during
Mughal emperor Akbar's rule. Raja Todar
Mal further re-built the temple in 1585, but
orthodox Brahmins chose to boycott the
temple, because his daughter was married
to Islamic rulers. During the rule of
Jahangir, Vir Singh Deo either restored or completed the construction of the earlier
Temple.In 1669, the Mughal emperor
Aurangzeb destroyed the temple and built the Gyanvapi Mosque in its place. The remains of the erstwhile temple can be
seen in the foundation, the columns and at
the rear part of the mosque.
Elevation of the present temple structure
In 1742, the Maratha ruler Malhar Rao
Holkar made a plan to demolish the
mosque and reconstruct Vishweshwar
Temple at the site. However, his plan did
not materialize, partially because of
intervention by the Nawab of Awadh, who was given control of the territory. : 2
Around 1750, the Maharaja of Jaipur
commissioned a survey of the land around
the site, with the objective of purchasing
land to rebuild the Kashi Vishwanath
temple.: 85 However, his plan to rebuild
the temple did not materialize either. In
1780, Malhar Rao's daughter-in-law
Ahilyabai Holkar rebuilt the present temple adjacent to the mosque.
In 1828, Baiza Bai, widow of the Maratha
ruler Daulat Rao Scindhia of Gwalior State,
built a low-roofed colonnade with over 40
pillars in the Gyan Vapi precinct. During
1833–1840, the boundary of Gyanvapi
Well, the ghats and other nearby temples
were constructed. Many noble families
from various ancestral kingdoms of the
Indian subcontinent and their prior
establishments make generous
contributions to the operations of the
Temple.
In 1835, Maharaja Ranjit Singh of the Sikh
Empire, on the behest of his wife,
Maharani Datar Kaur donated 1 tonne of gold for plating the temple's dome. In
1841, Raghuji Bhonsle III of Nagpur
donated silver to the temple: 200 A 7-
foot-high stone statue of Nandi, gifted by the Rana of Nepal sometime in the 1860s
lies to the east of the colonnade.
The temple was managed by a hereditary
group of pandits or mahants. After the death of Mahant Devi Dutt, a dispute arose
among his successors. In 1900, his
brother-in-law Pandit Visheshwar Dayal
Tewari filed a lawsuit, which resulted in
him being declared the head priest.
Post-Independence
The puja of the Maa Shringar Gauri
Temple, at the western side of the
disputed Gyanvapi Mosque was restricted
after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in
December 1992 due to the ensuing deadly
riots that followed the demolition of the
mosque. In August 2021, five Hindu
women petitioned a local court at Varanasi
to be allowed to pray at the Maa Shringar
Gauri Temple.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi address the inauguration of Kashi Vishwanath Dham on 13 December 2021.
In 2019, the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor
Project was launched by Narendra Modi to
ease access between the temple and the
Ganges River, creating a wider space to
prevent overcrowding. On 13 December
In 2021, Modi inaugurated the corridor with a
sacred ceremony. A press release by
the government said that around 1,400
residents and businesses within the
corridor's area was relocated elsewhere
and compensated. It also said that more
than 40 ruined, centuries-old temples were
found and rebuilt, including the
Gangeshwar Mahadev temple, the
Manokameshwar Mahadev temple, the
Jauvinayak temple, and the Shri Kumbha
Mahadev temple.
However, many temples were destroyed
and relocated from their original places.
The original Panchayatna form of the
the temple was distorted as the four temples
of Devi Bhog Annapurna, Sri Lakshmi
Narayan, Sri Avimukteshwara Mahadeva
and Devi Parvati surrounding the main
Temple was destroyed during the
construction of the Kashi Vishwanath
Corridor.
In February 2022, the sanctum sanctorum
of the temple was gold-plated after an
an anonymous donor from South India
donated 60 kg of gold to the temple.
Flowers from the temple are recycled into
incense by the biomaterials startup
Temple-Gyanwapi Mosque
Dispute
The Gyanvapi Mosque complex is a
the disputed structure that was constructed
by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb over
the ruins of the desecrated ancient Kashi
Vishwanath Temple after it was defiled
several times by Islamic rulers like Qutb al-
Din Aibak and Aurangzeb. To this day,
parts of this ancient temple are clearly
visible on the outer walls of the mosque.
The statues of the bull Nandi and Maa
Shringaar Gauri can be seen even from a
distance.
The site has been the centre of a dispute
between the Hindu and the Muslim
communities over its ownership since
1936.
Temple structure
The original holy well—Gyanvapi in between the temple and Gyanvapi Mosque
The temple complex consists of a series
of smaller shrines, located in a small lane
called the Vishwanatha Galli, near the river.
The linga of the main deity at the shrine is
60 centimetres (24 in) tall and 90
centimetres (35 in) in circumference
housed in a silver altar. The main
the temple is quadrangle and is surrounded by
shrines of other gods. There are small
temples for Kala Bhairava, Kartikeya,
Avimukteshwara, Vishnu, Ganesha, Shani,
Shiva and Parvati in the complex.
There is a small well in the temple called
the Jnana Vapi also spelt as Gyan Vapi
(the wisdom well). The Jnana Vapi well
sites to the north of the main temple and
during the invasion by the Mughals the
Jyotirlinga was hidden in the well to
protect it at the time of the invasion. It is said
that the main priest of the temple jumped
in the well with the lingam to protect the Jyotirlinga from invaders.
There is a Sabha Griha or Congregation
Hall leading to the inner Garbha Griha or
Sanctum Sanctorum. The venerable
Jyotirlinga is a dark brown coloured stone
which is enshrined in the Sanctum, placed
on a silver platform. Structure of the
Mandir is composed of three parts. The
first compromises a spire on the temple.
The second is a gold dome and the third is
the gold spire atop the sanctum bearing a
The Kashi Vishwanath temple receives
around 3,000 visitors every day. On certain
occasions, the numbers reach 1,000,000
and more. Noteworthy about the temple is
15.5-metre-high gold spire and gold Onion
dome. There are three domes each made
up of pure gold, donated by Maharaja
Ranjit Singh in 1835.
The Shri Kashi Vishwanath Dham corridor
was constructed between Kashi
Vishwanath Temple and Manikarnika Ghat
along the Ganges River, providing various
amenities for pilgrims.
Importance
Located on the banks of the holy Ganges, Varanasi is regarded among the holiest of
the Hindu cities. The Kashi Vishwanath
the temple is widely recognized as one of the
most important places of worship in the
Hindu religion. Inside the Kashi
Vishwanath Temple is the Jyotirlinga of
Shiva, Vishveshvara or Vishvanath. The
Vishveshvara Jyotirlinga has a very special
and unique significance in the spiritual
history of India.
Many leading saints, including Adi
Sankaracharya, Ramakrishna Paramhansa,
Swami Vivekananda, Bamakhyapa,
Goswami Tulsidas, Swami Dayananda
Saraswati, Sathya Sai Baba, Yogiji Maharaj, Pramukh Swami Maharaj, Mahant Swami
Maharaj and Gurunanak have visited the site. [34] A visit to the temple and a bath in
the river Ganges is one of many methods
believed to lead one on a path to Moksha
(liberation). Thus, Hindus from all over the world try to visit the place at least once in
their lifetime. There is also a tradition that
one should give up at least one desire
after a pilgrimage to the temple, and the
the pilgrimage would also include a visit to the
Temple at Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu in Southern India, where people take water
samples of the Ganges to perform prayer
at the temple and bring back sand from
near that temple. Because of the immense
popularity and holiness of Kashi
Vishwanath temple, hundreds of temples
across India have been built in the same architectural style. Many legends record
that the true devotee achieves freedom
from death and saṃsāra by the worship of Shiva, Shiva's devotees on death being
directly taken to his abode on Mount
Kailash by his messengers and not to
Yama. The superiority of Shiva and his
victory over his nature—Shiva is
himself identified with death—is also
stated. There is a popular belief that Shiva
himself blows the mantra of salvation into
the ears of people who die naturally at the
Vishwanath temple.
It is one of the shrines of the Vaippu
Sthalams has sung by Tamil Saivite Nayanar
Pitru tharpanam or Pinda
Dhaan
At Dr Rajendra prasad ghat, if one crosses
over to the other side of the river,
numerous priests offer pind than services.
Accommodation
From kasi railway station, the temple is
around 4kms, one can find all sorts of
transport to reach the temple. There are
various dharmshalas, nattukottai chatrooms,
paying guests rooms and other hotels and
lodges available for a wide variety of
prices. The temple's official website does
redirect to accommodation.
The campus of Kashi Vishwanath Temple
Phalgun Shukla Ekadashi is celebrated as
Rangabhari Ekadashi, that is colours.
According to tradition, before Holi, Baba
Vishwanath comes back to Kashi after
having a cow in the form of a mother
Bhagwati. The temple complex is echoed
by the echo of dozens of Damroos. This
tradition has been performed for over 200
years. On Basant Panchami Baba's Tilak is
performed, Shivaratri marriage and
Rangbhari Ekadashi marks Parvati's leaving
with shiva. These traditions are carried
out by the erstwhile Mahant family of the
temple for over a century.
These rituals of Baba's marriage ceremony
are performed at the residence of Kulpati
Tiwari, the erstwhile Mahant of Shri Kashi
Vishwanath Temple in Redzone. The
seven rituals of Saptarishi Aarti were
performed by Baba Vishwanath. According
to the Puranas, Kashi is loved by the
Saptarishi to the priest, so according to
the tradition, the devotees of the
Saptarishi Aarti performs the rituals of
marriage. The seven archaks under the
the leadership of Pradhan Archak Pandit
Shashi Bhushan Tripathi (Guddu Maharaj)
completed the marriage in Vedic rituals.
Mangala Aarti is performed at 3:30 am,
Bhog Aarti at noon, Saptarishi Aaarti at
7:30 pm and Shringar Aarti at 11:00 pm.
Yadav community of Kashi associated
with Chandravanshi Gop Seva Samiti and
Shree Krishna Yadav Mahasabhahase has been
performing Jal Abhishek on shivling
traditionally since 90 years, first started in
1932.
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