@  Varanasi – April 2018

Varanasi known as Kashi has a special place for all Indians. Situated on the shore of Ganga, it is every one’s life time aim to visit kashi and take blessings of Lord  Viswanatha.

 History says,  Mughal emperor Akbar who patronised the city, built two large temples dedicated to Shiva and Vishnu. While the  many changes happened during the 18th century, by the Maratha and Brahmin kings and city has now a  different look.

Hindus believe that death in this pilgrim city will bring salvation and has many ghats, embankments made in steps of stone slabs along the river bank where pilgrims perform ritual ablutions. Important ghats to note are  Dashashwamedh Ghat, the Panchganga Ghat, the Manikarnika Ghat and the Harishchandra Ghat, the last two being where Hindus cremate their dead and the Hindu genealogy registers at Varanasi are kept here.

At recent times, Ganga Aarti has become very famous and seeing aarti from river Ganga is a a sight not to miss.

When we visited, it was summer and the whole place was quite dry. After visiting Lord Viswanatha temple in the morning, we planned Aarati darshan in the evening by boat. During the Aarti time, we suddenly had a complete black out and realized it was a major sand storm, hit all our boats and left zero visibilty. To our surprise, boats are not equipped with all the safey measures, we could not get help for 45 mins. 

Varanasi has BHU university currently IIT is hosted in the same campus. There is alsoKala Bhairava temple every is suppose to visit before entering Varanasi.