Kashi Vishwanath Jyotirlinga, Varanasi

Deity

Vishwanath (Jyotirlinga) with Annapurna and Kala Bhairav

Where

Uttar Pradesh · 25.31N 83.01E

Usual hours

3 am Mangala Aarti – 11 pm — hours change with festivals and the season; check before travelling. Were these right when you went?

Grahas

Guru Ketu

Visited for

The city of light and of release, where the Ganga turns north. Maha Sivaratri, Dev Deepawali and every Monday of Sravan are its days; tarpanam at Manikarnika and the Pisach Mochan tank for pitru dosham.

The sthala purana holds that Kashi is not ordinary ground. It is said to stand on Sivan’s trident rather than on the earth, and to have been untouched when the rest was dissolved.

Sivan is said to have chosen never to leave it, and tradition has it that he whispers the taraka mantra into the ear of whoever dies within the city. That belief, more than the Jyotirlinga, is why the ghats and the burning grounds are what they are.

Vishwanath is one of the twelve Jyotirlingas. The temple has been destroyed and rebuilt several times over the centuries; the building standing today was put up in 1780 by Ahilyabai Holkar of Indore, and the gold on its spires was given by Ranjit Singh.

The Gyanvapi mosque stands immediately beside the temple, on ground that has been in dispute for a very long time. What stood there before, and what should stand there now, is the subject of continuing litigation, and a visitor will see the security arrangements that go with that.

A broad corridor between the temple and the Ganga ghats was cut through the surrounding lanes and opened in 2021, which changed the approach completely; older descriptions of squeezing through alleys no longer apply.

The sanctum is small and the linga may be touched, which is the reason for the pace of the queue. The spires above are gold-plated.

The corridor runs down to the Ganga at Lalita Ghat, so the temple and the river are now one walk rather than two.

The Annapurna temple stands beside the complex. Kala Bhairav, whose permission is traditionally taken before a stay in the city, is a short distance away, and Manikarnika and Harishchandra ghats are along the river.

Maha Shivaratri and the Mondays of Shravan are the largest days, and the queues on a Shravan Monday run for hours.

Dev Deepawali on Kartik Purnima, when the ghats are lit end to end with lamps, is the sight the city is known for. Rangbhari Ekadashi is kept as the day Sivan brought Parvathi to Kashi.

Also called

Vishwanath Mandir, Varanasi, Kashi, Banaras

Period

Rebuilt in 1780 by Ahilyabai Holkar, with the surrounding corridor opened in 2021

Reaching it

The temple is in the old city of Varanasi, a short walk from Dashashwamedh Ghat. Varanasi Junction is about 4 km away; the last stretch is on foot or by cycle rickshaw.

• Vishalakshi Temple, Mir Ghat, Varanasi 0 km · Sakta (Amman)
• Kaal Bhairav Temple, Varanasi 1.5 km · Saiva
• Sankat Mochan Hanuman Temple, Varanasi 3.9 km · Vaishnava
• Vindhyavasini Devi Temple 54.3 km · Sakta (Amman)
• Mundeshwari Devi Temple 66.4 km · Sakta (Amman)
• Triveni Sangam, Prayagraj 113.2 km · Other

Been to this temple? The things that change — whether the hours on this page were right, whether the sannidhi was open, how long the queue was on a Saturday — are exactly what no printed source keeps current, and what the next person travelling here needs.

• Were the hours right when you went?
• Is anything on this page wrong or out of date?
• A photograph of the gopuram, the tank, or the notice board

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