Before my family and I journeyed from Kashi to Gaya to perform Gaya Shraadham, we made sure we did not miss visiting and offering worship at as many of the famous and ancient temples and shrines in Varanasi as possible, given the limited time available at our disposal. It was a whistlestop quick pilgrimage-tour we undertook through the long, winding, littered and maze-like gulleys and alleys of Kashi to some of those temples presided over by Saivite, Sakthi, Bhairava and Vaishnava Deities. Many of them have origins older than 500-to-1000 years.
The list of these temples are usually read as follows:
“Thundi Ganapathi, Annapurni, Vishwanath, visalakshi, kal Bairav, Dhandapani, Athmaveereswarar, Bindhu Madhava Dharshan Kamakoteeswar, Kedhareeshwar, Thilapandeshwar, chinthamani vinayakar Dharshan Sankat Mochan Hanuman, Vana durga, Thulsi manasa devi, Gowdi Madha, vyasakasi Dharshan”.
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The first time visitor to Kashi, if he or she is brave enough to wander by himself (or herself) without the aid of a guide, can easily lose the way in the city. The topography of the streets in Kashi can be very disorienting since every one to the unfamiliar eye can look and feel the same as the other — narrow, cobbled, congested, dank and squeezed in on both sides by a never-ending array of homes, shops and other street-side dwellings. Thankfully, our guide, Sri.Naganathan, a veteran-guide of 35 pilgrim tours in the past led us through Kashi like the legendary Pied Piper of Hamelin with we, as a family, following him single-file like obedient rats!
The most famous of all the Kashi temples of course are the great Kashi Vishwanath temple and the adjoining Maatha Annapoorneshwari and Maatha Visaalaakshi temple. About these temples, more will be told below but first I must retrace our own pilgrim trail.
The very important shrines situated in and around the holy city of Kashi are listed below in the exact chronological order in which, during our pilgrimage, my family and I visited them and offered worship:
(1) December 11, 2023 evening: “Kaala Bhairava” temple; “Dhandapaani” Temple; “Bindu Maadhava Perumal Kovil“
The Kaala Bhairava deity is worshipped as the “kovil kaappaan“, the Divine Gatekeeper of Kashi. It was apt that we first went and sought his permission and blessings before entering the city of Varanasi. For some strange reason, my mind immediately recalled Sri Andal’s line in the 16th verse of Tiruppaavai: “naayakaanay ninra nandagopanudaya kovil kaapaane…. “
Out next stop was the Dhandapaani Temple after which we stopped to worship the Lord Ganesha at the Chintamani Ganapathi temple. Much information about these temples are available if searched on the internet and therefore I shall skip detailed descriptions about them here, except to post below a few photos and video-clips that were taken during the tour.
Our next important stop was at the famous Bindu Madhava Perumal temple to which all those who perform Gaya and Kashi “pitru-shraadham” are mandated by the sastras to duly offer worship. As already explained, worship at all the 3 Madhava Perumal sannidhis — i.e. Sethumadhava, Bindu Madhava and Veni Madhava at Rameshwaram, Kashi and Prayag respectively — are believed to complete and consummate the “shraadham” to one’s manes.
The Bindhu Madhava temple is situated on a hillock and overlooks the Ganga and it is adjacent to an old mosque too that still stands hovering over the shrine. It is one of the oldest temples in Kashi — perhaps as old as the Kashi Vishwanath temple itself. I came across a very interesting and informative website on this temple at this URL: https://www.tirthayatra.org/bindu-madhav-temple/ which contains the history, the mythology and legends surrounding this beautiful temple situated high atop the Pancha Ganga Ghat. See video-clip below. After reading the article on the URL I came to understand also how the Muslim mosque here got erected around the time in history when Aurangazeb was the Moghul emperor of India and how it came to be situated next to the Bindu Madhava temple.
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My family and I next trooped across to the famous Kashi Gauri and Kedareswaran temple which is located atop the Kedar Ghat. This temple is believed to be older than the Kashi Vishwanath temple and Saivites regard it to be as important as the Kedarnath Deity in Uttarakhand.
Our next stop was the Koudi Maatha (Amman) temple which too has a very interesting and ancient mythological past which can be gleaned from this URL : https://www.tirthayatra.org/kaudi-mata-temple-varanasi/
Along the way we also quickly had darshan at the “sankatamochana Hanuman” temple, “Maa Adi Shakthi Durga Devi Mandir” and “Thulasi Maanasa Mandir“:
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Next stop was Mani Mandir:
Inside this temple on the walls are engraved on stone slabs the entire Ramayana of Sant Tulsidas.
Outside the temple is a large sprawling “gau-shaala” where dozens of cows are sheltered and looked after thanks to “go-daanam” given by pilgrims every day.
A visit to Varanasi cannot be complete without a quick tour of the campus of the famous Banaras Hindu University (BHU) founded by the eminent son of Kashi, Sri Madan Mohan Malaviya. We took an autorickshaw ride to the campus and drove through and past its vast, sylvan landscaped gardens and boulevards to the BHU Birla Mandir, a vast, imposing monolothic structure built in true Indic architectural style.
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From Kashi, our next stop was Vyasa-Kaashi, which is situated across the southern and farther bank of the River Ganga. We took a rental car which ferried us across the great Lal Bahadur Sastri Bridge of about 3.5 kms length right across the Ganga to the town of Ramnagara where a very ancient shrine of Vyasa Maharishi built in 1750 CE by King Balwant of Awadh stands. The King’s Palace and a fort (Ram Nagar Fort which is now a museum) also stands on the banks of the Ganga in a very picturesque area. If interested to know more about Vyaasa Kashi, please go to this URL https://holyvoyages.com/varanasi/about-sage-vyasa-temple-at-ramnagar-varanasi-india.aspx
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Having competed our pilgrimage-tour of all the above temples in and outside Kashi, my family and I were now very keen to consummate the “kashi yaathra” with the climactic visit to the main Deities of the Holy City, Sri Kashi Vishwanath, Maatha Annapoorneshwari and Maatha Visaalaakshi.
As luck would have it, our visit to Kashi coincided with the festival season of not only Deepavali but also with the ensuing three days of the annual “Annakoota Mahotsava“, that specially marks the tumultuous, joyous celebration of Annapoorneshwari whose idol gets all bedecked in gold vasthra and eye-dazzling gold ornaments and when tens of thousands of pilgrims from all over the country flock to have her darshan and offer all varieties of food, traditional sweetmeat and confectionery — laddoo, peda, barfi etc…. tons and tons of them which after offering to the deities are distributed to the masses day in and day out … on all the three days! The whole of the city of Kashi is chock-a-block with pilgrims and tourists all soaking in with great merriment the festive atmosphere!
On Deepavali evening, we tried to have darshan of all the 3 main Deities of Kashi. When we neared the temple pushing our way through the thick, thronging, milling crowds we realized that there was a nearly mile-long winding, seemingly endless queue waiting for darshan that day!
We were utterly disheartened to learn that it could take as much as 4-5 hours for the line to move and for us to enter the temple sanctum. Utterly crestfallen, my family and I returned to our camp-base that night. It had been our ardent wish to have darshan of Maatha Annapoorneshwari during the Annakoota Mahotsava when we could behold her in all her resplendent glory, but alas, that was not to be!
The second day too passed by in Kashi when we were discouraged to go anywhere near the temple on account of the milling crowds of thousands who were pouring into the city to get a glimpse of the deities….
On the third and last day of ours at Kashi, and just on the eve of our departure to Gaya, we lost all hope of ever being able to have darshan of Vishwanath-ji and Maatha Annapoorneshwari and Visaalaakshi… We were all sitting glum and morose in our lodging rooms that evening… faced with the disappointing, looming prospect of having to depart from Kashi without a darshan of the main shrines in the holy city….
I withdrew into one of the corners of the rooms and decided to mentally plead with Maatha Annapoorneshwari to show us compassion and not to turn us away from Kashi without her darshan. I began to quietly chant the Rg Veda prashnam, a passage, from the “Anna Sooktham”. Then I also recited the beautiful Sanskrit hymn of Adi Sankara Bhagavathapada sung in praise of Annapoorneshwari … “Annapoorna Stotram”. The second stanza therein — ending with the repeating refrain of “bhikshaam dehi kripavalambanakari maatha annapoorneshwari ….” — seemed to emote and resonate for me and the entire family, especially in the rather anxious situation we found ourselves in …
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Minutes after I had completed the silent mental prayer to Annapoorneshwari, our kind host, the “ghanapaadigaL“, told us that they had arranged for a guide, Sri Deepak Tiwari, a young Saama-vedin himself, to accompany us all to the temple and to try and see if at least a fleeting darshan of all the 3 deities could be managed despite the crowds and long line of queues. We immediately set out trailing after the Saama-vedin guide with a hopeful spring in our steps! The trip to the Kashi Vishwanath temple from our camp at Hanuman Ghat took us almost 30 minutes, travelling partly by rikshaw and partly on foot.
After another short 5-minute walk, our guide led us right into the sanctum of the Maatha Visaalaakshi temple where to out utter amazement we saw there were hardly any crowds thronging and we could enjoy thus darshan at leisure to our heart’s content! We were overjoyed as we took the blessings of the goddess…
Then Sri Tiwari, the guide, quickly led us through a winding, narrow alley for a another 5 minute walk at the end of which we reached what was a side-entrance to the Annapoorneshwari shrine. There Sri Tiwari met up with someone he knew well and who then took us past the temple gate-guards right inside the temple in a jiffy! And lo and behold! within five minutes we were inside the temple concourse, and found ourselves standing bang right in front of the sanctum of Maatha Annapoorneshwari! It seemed to us that the Goddess herself had appeared suddenly before us out of her infinite compassion!
Unfortunately, no cameras were allowed inside the temple but for which prohibition I would have very much wished to capture the miraculous moment!
What a darshan we had! What an utterly unexpected divine blessing!
Below are stock photos of the Goddess but it is exactly the sight we witnessed and experienced that evening in the radiant presence of Maatha !
Soon thereafter, our “saama vedin” guide whisked us quickly to join a long line that was winding its way into the sanctum of the Kashi Vishwanath temple, alongside the sacred Gyaanvaapi well that unfortunately has been embroiled in recent legal wrangles and political disputes… (the less said about it the better!). We inched ahead along with the long line as it moved forward at snail’s pace but then for no more than about 15-20 minutes…. And there we were then in the presence of the Lord of Kashi, Sri Kashi Vishwanatha-ji!
The darshan we enjoyed as we circumambulated the small but very sacred Lingamurthy was fulsome and fulfilling…. Our Yaathra to Kashi, at last, and what at moments seemed against all odds and greatly uncertain, was consummated!
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Early the next morning, we packed our bags and prepared to leave Kashi after a most successful and delightful “teertha yaathra” — where “snaanam”, “daanam” and “darsanam” were all duly completed…..
I was now ready for the journey to Gaya where I was looking forward eagerly to perform “shraadham” for my “pitrus” on the banks of the River Phalguni, at “Akshayavatta” and “Vishnu-paadam“! That leg of my “yaathra” will be described in the next instalment.
Sudarshan Madabushi