This time we decided to visit Varanasi, one of our long pending destinations, and Sarnath.  The purpose was also to get blessed with the holy darshan of Kashi Vishwanath, one of the 12 Jyotirlingas.  Varanasi, erstwhile known as Banaras or Kashi is situated amidst the Ganges Valley in Uttar Pradesh.  The city Varanasi got its name from the name of two rivers Varna + Assi.  It is one of the oldest holiest city in the history and it is believed that one will get ‘Moksha’ if one dies here.  Sarnath is about 10 kms from Varanasi and is the place where Buddha chose to deliver his first sermon.

We started our journey by Indian Airline flight on 14.4.15 at 11.30 am and reached Varanasi at 1.15 pm.  In Varanasi, we stayed at Banaras Hindu University (BHU).  BHU is a Central university, located in Varanasi, which is also the largest residential university in Asia, with over 12,000 students living on its campus. BHU was founded in 1916 by Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya. The campus spread over 1350 acre campus, was built on land donated by the then Kashi Naresh.  My old friend Shri Manoj Pandey was there to help and guide us.  On this day, he advised us to visit New Vishwanath Temple, Sankat Mochan Hanuman Temple, Kashi Vishwanath Temple, Boating and Ganga Aarti.  We visited all the places but couldn’t witness the Ganga Aarti as we had to leave the place due to sudden thunder storm and bad weather.

A new Vishwanath Temple (Golden Temple), also popularly known as the Golden Temple, is situated in the campus of Banaras Hindu University (BHU). The temple is built by the Birla family and hence it is also known as Birla temple.

Sankat Mochan Hanuman Temple is one of the sacred temples of Hindu God Hanuman in the city. The word Sankat Mochan means deliverer from troubles.

Kashi Vishwanath Temple stands on the western bank of the holy river Ganges, and is one of the twelve Jyotirlingas, the holiest of Shiva temples. The main deity is known by the name Vishwanatha or Vishweshwara meaning the Ruler of the universe. The temple town that claims to be the oldest living city in the world, with 3500 years of documented history is also called Kashi and hence the temple is popularly called as Kashi Vishwanath Temple. Due to its 15.5m high golden spire, the temple is sometimes called as the Golden Temple, similar to the Golden temple, a Sikh Gurudwara at Amritsar.

There is a small well in the temple called the Jnana Vapi (the wisdom well) and it is believed that the Jytorlinga was hidden in the well to protect it at the time of invasion. It is said that the main priest of the temple had jumped in the well with the Shiv Ling in order to protect the (Jyoti-r) Ling from the invaders.

Boat Ride of Ganges – In the evening we took a boat ride in the holy waters of Ganges.  We sailed through various ghats like Darbhanga Ghat, Dashaswamedh Ghat, Hanuman Ghat, Harischandra Ghat. On some ghats, buffaloes and other animals were dipping in, on some people were bathing in and on some cremation of bodies as per hindu rituals was being performed.  This was an unforgettable experience and we enjoyed the evening.  The weather on this day was very pleasant.

15.5.2015

On this day, we started early at 5.15 am to visit Assi Ghat and to have a view of the sun-rise.  The ghat got its name ‘Assi’ on the reason that at this place Assi river confluences with the Ganges contrary to the common belief that this is the eightieth number of ghat (Assi in devnagri lipi).   Now-a-days daily morning Aarti is performed here by a group of dedicated girls and boys.  We saw the Aarti, spent some time there and came back to guest house. 

After breakfast, at around 9.30, we started for Sarnath.  In Sarnath we visited Chaukhandi Stupa, Dhamek Stupa, Sarnath Museum, Buddhist Temples.

CHAUKHANDI STUPA is the first monument one encounters as one enters Sarnath. It is a lofty mound of brick –work whose square edifice is surrounded by an octagonal tower

The temples of different schools of Buddhism from Japan, China, Thailand, Burma are located here. The Indian Buddhist society called Mahabodhi Society maintains a park around the Buddha temple. The Mahabodhi Temple within the park has a tooth relic of the Buddha

Sarnath Museum yielded a rich collection of sculptures comprising numerous Buddha and Bodhisattva images.  The Ashoka pillar of Sarnath, the National emblem of India is also installed here.

From here we went to Ramnagar Fort and Ramnagar Museum.

Ramnagar Fort, constructed by Maharaja Balwant Singh in 17th century, is located on the banks of the river Ganges. This was the royal residence of Raja of Banares, also known as Maharaja of Kashi. Still this fort continues as the residential palace of the royal family members.

Ramnagar Museum, a scholarly museum renowned as the Banaras Vidya Mandir Museum, is located interior to Ramnagar Fort. The museum is a home of many medieval period artifacts, collection of many items belonging to the Royal family of Banaras and also many handicraft items.  The museum also displays arms and armors used during the royal period, elephant saddles, decorated art pieces, ornate palanquins, textiles of various kinds, ancient manuscripts, gold-plated howdahs, furniture and many other artifacts.

After visiting the fort, we went to Guest house via old city and crossed the Malviya Bridge.  It is the rare spectacular sight.  It is a double-decker bridge on the river Ganga.  On the lower track train was running and on the upper track vehicles were moving.  One should not miss this.  While we were crossing the Malviya Bridge, a person jumped in the Ganga, more than 50 meters below.  We were told subsequently that it is very common there because of the belief that anyone dying in Kashi is liberated (get moksha) instantly.

We reached Guest House at 2.30 pm and planned to go for Ganga Aarti in the evening.  It was raining heavily in the afternoon.  Still we went for Ganga Aarti in the evening but returned back without watching it due to rain.

16.5.2015

This was a comparatively less hectic day.  We had a morning walk for almost an hour.  We clicked many beautiful birds during the walk.  After breakfast we had to see the museum ‘Bharat Kala Bhawan’ located inside the BHU campus.  It took us two hours to see the museum.  Thereafter we rushed for early lunch and then started for the airport to catch our flight for Delhi.

Bharat Kala Bhawan - The museum houses a rare collection of precious artifacts, a number of Mughal miniatures, paintings, Buddhist and Hindu sculptures, pictures, manuscripts, etc.  One had seen many a museum in life but till 16.4.15, there was no person to explain the nuances of the artefacts.  On this day however, we had the luxury of two experts explaining us how to see a museum.  This has rekindled our interest to visit the National Museum at Janpath in New Delhi again.