Kashi Vishwanath Jyotirlinga

Viśveśvara, “Lord of all”, better known as Viśvanātha, is worshipped in the old city of Varanasi (Kāśī, Banaras) in Uttar Pradesh, a little way up from the ghāṭs on the western bank of the Gaṅgā. Kāśī is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and the first of the seven sacred cities of Hindu tradition.

The Śiva Purāṇa's account here is less a single adventure than a description of what Kāśī is. It tells that Śiva brought forth this city, five krośas across, as his own ground; that Viṣṇu performed long austerities here; and that the place where his jewelled ear-ring fell became Maṇikarṇikā. When the worlds dissolve, the text says, Śiva holds Kāśī up on the tip of his trident, and so it is called Avimukta, “never forsaken”. Śiva himself established the Avimukta liṅga there and dwells in the city as Viśveśvara. The Purāṇa goes on to praise Kāśī as the place that gives liberation, and it is the widely held belief of devotees that Śiva himself whispers the saving mantra to those who die there.

The temple has been destroyed and rebuilt more than once. The earlier temple was demolished in 1669 on the orders of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, and the Gyanvapi mosque stands on the adjoining site. The present temple was built in 1780 by Ahilyabai Holkar, the queen of Indore, and its spires were later covered with gold given by Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab. A wide corridor linking the temple directly to the river was opened in 2021.

For many Hindus a visit to Kāśī, a bath in the Gaṅgā and darśana of Viśvanātha is the pilgrimage of a lifetime. The shrine of Annapūrṇā, the goddess who feeds the city, is next to it, and tradition counts Viśālākṣī in Kāśī among the Śakti Pīṭhas.