Early modern · Hindu · India

Kashi Vishwanath Temple

काशी विश्वनाथ मन्दिर

Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh · 25.3108°, 83.0106°

Shiva (Vishwanath / Vishweshwara)Maratha (Holkar)NagaraJyotirlinga

Sacred since

1500 BCE

Kashi is among the oldest living pilgrimage cities on earth; temple razed and rebuilt repeatedly (1194–1669)

Standing structure

current temple 1780; corridor 2021

patron: Ahilyabai Holkar; gold domes by Ranjit Singh (1835)

History & significance

The Jyotirlinga of Kashi — the luminous crossing-place where death itself grants liberation, Shiva whispering the taraka mantra to the dying. Destroyed and rebuilt across centuries of conquest, the present shrine was raised by Ahilyabai Holkar in 1780; the 2021 Vishwanath Dham corridor opened the temple to the Ganga ghats for the first time in centuries.

Sthala katha — the legend

Kashi stands on Shiva's trident, untouched by the floods of dissolution; here the original jyoti-column of light pierced the three worlds. To die in Kashi, the saying goes, is to be done with dying.