The holiest temple in
Kashi or Varanasi, is the Kashi Vishwanath temple, in the heart of the old
city, set back from the Ganga between the Dasashwamedh and Manikarnika ghats.
The temple is open from four in the morning till eleven at night, and twenty
liters (over five gallons) of milk are used daily to bathe the linga, which is
set in solid silver. It is not known who was the first founder of this deity,
but it is said that Shivahimself
established the linga. Neither is it known how the original temple looked. The
temple has been embellished and renovated since very ancient times, even at the
time of Gautama Buddha, who gave his first sermon in nearby Sarnath. In 1669,
Aurangzeb the Mughal demolished the temple f the time, which had been built by
Narayana Bhatta during Akbar's reign. Aurangazeb built on its site a mosque
with the materials of the destroyed temple. The current temple structure dates
only from 1776, built by Rani Ahalyabai of Indore adjacent to the the original
site.
There are five principal
aratis performed to the linga each day. Added to which the surrounding courtyards are
full of shrines, many of which are believed to have special sanctity. The
Vishwanath Temple is closed to non-Hindus, but an open area around the
"Well of Wisdom" (Gyan Vapi), which lies between the back of the
walled temple compound and the Gyan Vapi Mosque, gives some view of it. The
temple has a domed roof and two spires (shikhara). One of these rises over the
linga and was plated with gold in 1839 by Ranjit Singh, the "Lion of the
Punjab" - hence the Vishwanath is commonly known among tourists as the
Golden Temple.
Vishwanath, means the
Lord of the Universe, while Kashi means the Luminous or the City of Light. It
is at this temple, or rather at the original, according to the Shiv Puran, that Shiva turned into
a linga of light that split the cosmos during the argument between Brahma and Vishnu.
The linga is also known by an ancient name Avimukteshwara, which means the lord
who will never forsake (Avimukta). It is said that Lord Shiva will never leave
the city of Kashi, even at the end of time.
The Golden Temple is the
sacred center of Kashi. As such, it is protected by seven concentric circles,
each composed of eight Ganesha images, which spread out
through the holy city. These Ganesha murtis, one for each of the points of the
compass, combine to form the "56 Vinayakas" (Vinayaka, "the
Great Leader," being one of Ganesha's titles), and the pilgrim may
endeavor to visit them all in turn. The number and location of the 56 Vinayakas
can be represented in a spatio-cosmological model showing the eight directions,
seven layers, three realms/segments and the associated routes of pilgrimage
journeys. This clearly symbolises the concept of a universe within the
universe. The pilgrimage is performed on, the fourth day of dark-fortnight
(waning of the moon) of each month, and if Tuesday falls on that day it becomes
more merit giving.
Varanasi is one of the
celestial-archetypal cities where the-material environment expresses the
parallelism between macro-, meso-, and microcosmos, regrouping them to form a
sacred spatial system. It contains five sacred territories, symbolising
wholeness: Five is Shiva’s number. Shiva, one among the trinity of Hindu
pantheon is the controller of time and the destroyer of the universe; He is
Varanasi’s patron deity. The five sacred routes delimit their own territory and
reflect the various myths; however the pilgrimage journey always starts and
ends at Vishweshwara temple – the pillar at the center of the world, or axis
mundi. The five sacred routes/zones are also associated with the symbols of the
divine body, transcendental power and sheaths. These are analogous with the
five broad elements of the organism according to Hindu mythology. There are
five main pilgrimages routes in Kashi, three of which have their center or foci
at the Kashi Vishwanath temple. The two outermost ones, the Chaurasikroshi and
Panchakroshi are centered around Madhyamaheshwar temple instead, indicating
that this too was once an important temple. The smaller tree, the Nagar
Pradakshina, the Avimukta yatra and the Antargriha yatra, center and revolve
around the Kashi Vishwanath temple.
Courtesy-www.allaboutbharat.org
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