Golden Temple Varanasi (aka Vishwanath Temple)

joneall

My wife and I saw (from the outside) the temple last year. But it was a mess. Security control is incredible. Just to enter the street where the temple is, I had to leave my camera and all metal items outside. (My wife and I finally went separately so the other could hold all the stuff.) I couldn't even take in a memory card!

Various guidebooks, such as LP, claim you can see the top of the temple from "the 2nd floor of a shop across the street." We were unable to find such a shop, tho many claimed the distinction. Could someone tell me which shop and which street? You'll have to describe the street, since names are useless even if you read Devanagari. We found the simplest way to approach the temple was from Nepali Ghat. You reach a cross street where the temple is in the street straight ahead, which is blocked by the police security check. Where from here is the store?

Or is it around the other side, west of the temple?

Thanks in advance.

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John

mridula

Joneall most of the temples do that, you can't take anything in!

Sorry about the street though, no idea.

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Mridula

Travel Tales from India

joneall

Thanks for you sympathy, mridula. That has not always been my experience tho. You can take stuff in most Indian temples, except shoes, leather and other "impure" objects. In many, photography is forbidden, but that doesn't mean you can't take a camera in with you as long as you don't use it. Since the 2006 attack on the Sankat Mochan Temple in Varanasi, you can't take much in there either. So restrictions seems to be based on temple importance and on history.

Hope somebody will be able to explain how to see the domes at least.

Say, you don't happen to know where the Razia Mosque is, do you?

Thanks again.

mridula

I have been to Varanasi long long back, I vaguely remember the Vishwanath Temple. But maybe I need to revisit Varanasi but then when there are so many places that are not so crowded and then Varanasi gets pushed back!

Did you try searching for the same here?

delhiwala

The Kashi Vishwanath temple we see today is the fourth one dedicated to Vishwanath.

The original one was destroyed by Qutub-ud-din Aibak and later Razia Sultan built the Razia Mosque on this site.

The Vishwanath Temple was then built in the nearby compound of the Avimukteshwara Temple, this was destroyed by the Sharqis of Jaunpur. The third destruction by Sikander Lodi led to the building of a new temple by Todarmal of Akbar's court. This temple too was demolished by the order of Aurangzeb in 1669.

The present temple was built by Ahilya Bai Holkar of Indore.

The Nandi bull still faces the Jnana Vapi Mosque, the site of the original sanctum. Nearby is the Jnana Vapi Kupa or the Well of Wisdom, said to be the source of the primordial water offered to Avimukteshwara, the most ancient form of Shiva. The mosque bears the Sanskrit name due to this well only.

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Travel only with thy equals or thy betters; if there are none, travel alone. - The Dhammapada

joneall

So the Razia Mosque is also (now) known as the Jnana Vapi Mosque?

I'm looking for it because of its description in Diana Eck's book about Varanasi. According to her, it's on Varanasi's highest point and so has a nice view out over the city. A French photographer who now lives in Varanasi has told me though that you cannot take a camera to the mosque, as it is in the "quarantine domain" of the Vishvanath Temple. Is that so?

Thanks for your detailed history of the mosque. Doesn't help me find what I am looking for, but it is fascinating.

delhiwala

No !

You wanted to know where is Razia Masjid, isn't it ? Or was it something else ?

joneall

Of course, don't know where I left my head today. Thanks!

It is just that, as a non-Hindu, I won't see much of it.

Do you know if the only entrance to the Vishvanath Temple is from the direction of the ghats or is there an entrance from the west too?