Kashi Vishwanath Temple

Kashi Vishwanath Temple is one of the most famous Hindu temples dedicated to Lord Shiva. It is located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India. The 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 Vishvanatha or Vishveshvara meaning Ruler of The Universe. Varanasi city is also called Kashi, and hence the temple is popularly called Kashi Vishwanath Temple. The temple has been referred to in Hindu scriptures for a very long time as a central part of worship in the Shaiva philosophy. It has been destroyed and re-constructed a number of times in history. The last structure was demolished by Aurangzeb, the sixth Mughal emperor who constructed the Gyanvapi Mosque on its site. The current structure was built on an adjacent site by the Maratha ruler, Ahilya Bai Holkar of Indore in 1780.

Kashi Vishwanath Temple in 2022

Quotes

• Aurangzeb cared nothing for art, destroyed its "heathen" monuments with coarse bigotry, and fought, through a reign of half a century, to eradicate from India almost all religions but his own. He issued orders to the provincial governors, and to his other subordinates, to raze to the ground all the temples of either Hindus or Christians, to smash every idol, and to close every Hindu school. In one year ( 1679-80) sixty-six temples were broken to pieces in Amber alone, sixty-three at Chitor, one hundred and twenty-three at Udaipur; and over the site of a Benares temple especially sacred to the Hindus he built, in deliberate insult, a Mohammedan mosque.
  • Will Durant, Our Oriental Heritage, ch. XVI

• The Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi is very certainly located on the exact site of the Vishvanath temple, and visibly includes remains of the old temple walls.
  • Ayodhya: the case against the temple, by Koenraad Elst (2002)

• The Lord Cherisher of the Faith learnt that in the provinces of Tatta, Multan, and especially at Benares, the Brahman misbelievers used to teach their false books in their established schools, and that admirers and students both Hindu and Muslim, used to come from great distances to these misguided men in order to acquire this vile learning. His Majesty, eager to establish Islam, issued orders to the governors of all the provinces to demolish the schools and temples of the infidels and with the utmost urgency put down the teaching and the public practice of the religion of these misbelievers.'...'It was reported that, according to the Emperor's command, his officers had demolished the temple of Viswanath at Kashi.'..
  • Maasir-i-Alamgiri, translated into English by Sir Jadu-Nath Sarkar, Calcutta, 1947, pp. 51-60

• It is a small mosque wholly devoid of magnificence, erected, according to Mussulman practice, upon the ruins of a Hindoo temple. The limited site on which it was built may not have admitted of the usual display of beauty or splendour, or the imperial founder may have considered it more as a monument of triumph than of grandeur — have desired rather that it should express contempt than command admiration, Benares was indeed taken and plundered, and given up to every excess, by Mahomed Gauri in the year 1194; but the mosque in question was constructed by Aurungzebe, who has left behind him many similar proofs of his persecution of the Hindoos. A humane king would have lamented the past injuries of his subjects, a great one would have repaired them, but Aurungzebe, in a more enlightened age, and without the palliation of his predecessor, a barbarian and a conqueror, deliberately augmented the desolation of the city, the object of veneration of a whole people, and treated with derision and dishonour the religious feelings of its most peaceful inhabitants. It struck me as one of the most remarkable instances of the passive character of the Hindoos that they should have suffered the lofty minarets of this mosque to tower over their temples so long, and to be the first objects that meet the eye of the pilgrim on his approach to the far-sought sanctuary of his religion.
  • Travels in India a hundred years ago, with a visit to the United States; by Thomas Twining. (About Aurangzeb's mosque in Benares). Quoted in Jain, Meenakshi (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts.

• Your visit at the demise of the Muslim rule, O ruler of men! proves to be as soothing as a shade to a sun-stricken man. Your darsana (appearance) here is like ointment to the wound sustained by our heart on our seeing the mosque near the Visvanatha temple.
  • Bharatendu Harishchandra while welcoming the Prince of Wales in 1875. Quoted from Narain, Harsh (1993). The Ayodhya temple-mosque dispute: Focus on Muslim sources. Delhi: Penman Publishers. p. 2. [1]

• “When I go to the Vishwanath Mandir in Benares and listen to the most powerful, magical aarti I hear from the priests that the knowledge of it will probably die because the temple is now controlled by secular bureaucrats”.
  • Tavleen Singh, quoted in [2] [This article is a major extract from the article "Sita Ram Goel, memories and ideas" by S. Talageri, written for the Sita Ram Goel Commemoration Volume, entitled "India's Only Communalist", edited by Koenraad Elst, published in 2005.

• At the back of the mosque and in continuation of it are some broken remains of what was probably the old Bishwanath Temple. It must have been a right noble building ; there is nothing finer, in the way of architecture in the whole city, than this scrap. A few pillars inside the mosque appear to be very old also.
  • — Edwin Greaves, Kashi the city illustrious, or Benares, 1909[14] Edwin Greaves (1909). Kashi the city illustrious, or Benares. Allahabad: Indian Press. pp. 80–82.

• The great Vishvanath temple was destroyed no less than three times during the centuries. It is said that in AD 1994, when first attacked by Aibak, and on each subsequent occasion, Brahmins hid the jyotirlinga... The temple was subsequently rebuilt at another location, where too it was ravaged...
  • Jain, M. (2013). Rama and Ayodhya., p 107

• if owing to the power of foreign rulers, there is no linga at all in that place, even so, the dharma of thee place itself should be observed, with rites of circumambulation, salutation, etc...
  • Narayana Bhatta (16th cent.), Tristhalisetu. in Jain, M. (2013). Rama and Ayodhya., p 107

• In some cities, Varanasi or Lucknow, for example, mosques dominate the landscape. In Varanasi, of course, deemed by many the Hindu city par excellence, small temples literally dot the ghats and city, although most of them date no earlier than the late eighteenth century It is particularly interesting that Rani Ahilya Bai Holkar’s newly constructed Vishvanath temple, the focal tirtha in all Varanasi, is notably smaller than the adjacent mosque constructed during Aurangzeb’s reign from the spoils of an earlier Vishvanath temple.” Yet the Rani was a woman of considerable resources, and the temple was built in 1777 when Hindu political power dominated in Varanasi.” Had she wished to build a larger temple, rather than one almost lost in the interior gullies of Dasashvamedh Ghat, she could have done so.
  • DAVID GILMARTIN, BRUCE B. LAWRENCE - Beyond Turk and Hindu_ Rethinking Religious Identities in Islamicate South Asia 125ff. (also in Jain, M. (2010). Parallel pathways: Essays on Hindu-Muslim relations, 1707-1857.)

• The object of the Marathas in all these undertakings was religious as well as political. They particularly intended to get the holy places of Prayag and Kashi back into Hindu possession. On 18th .June 1751 a Maratha agent writes, “ Malharrao has pitched his monsoon camp in the Doab. He intended to pull down the grand Mas j id built by Aurangzeb at Benares and restore the original temple of Kashi-Vishveshwar. The Brahmans of Kashi feel extremely terrified at such a move, for they realize the Muslim strength in these places. What the holy Ganges and the Protector Vishveshwar can ordain will come true. The Brahmans are going to send a strong appeal to the Peshwa against any such attempt by his Sardars.”
  • In 1751. quoted in "New History Of The Marathas Vol.2" Sardesai., also in Jain, M. (2010). Parallel pathways: Essays on Hindu-Muslim relations, 1707-1857.

• Even if the linga of Vishveshvara here is taken off somewhere and another is brought in and established by human hands, on account of the difficulty of the times, whatever is established in that place should be worshipped.… And if, owing to the power of foreign rulers, there is no linga at all in that place, even so, the dharma of the place itself should be observed, with rites of circumambulation, salutation, etc., and in this way the daily pilgrimage [nityayātrā] shall be performed.
  • Nārāyana Bhatta, who compiled a digest of Purānic verses on Kāshī, Gayā, and Prayāga in his Tristhalīsetu, in Eck, Diana L - Banaras_ city of light. also in Jain, M. (2010). Parallel pathways: Essays on Hindu-Muslim relations, 1707-1857.

• The great Vishwanath temple was destroyed at least thrice from the twelfth century onwards. It was first attacked by Aibak in 1194 ce. Queen Raziya (r. 1236-1240), during her short chaotic reign, appropriated the site and had a mosque constructed there. The further history of Visveshvara has been described as “one of stubbornness and bigotry”. The temple became a prime symbol of Hindu resistance; they repeatedly rebuilt, as Muslims continually destroyed.
  • Jain, M. (2019). Flight of deities and rebirth of temples: Espisodes from Indian history. 93-4

• though here the linga of Visvesvara is removed and another is brought in its place by human beings, owing to the times, the pilgrims must worship whatever linga is in this place.
  • Narayana Bhatta in (O’Hanlon 2011: 196-197). quoted in Jain, M. (2019). Flight of deities and rebirth of temples: Espisodes from Indian history.

• ... the pagoda of Benares, which, after that of Jagannath, is the most famous in all India, with which it is even, as it were, on a par, being also built on the margin of the Ganges, and in the town of which it bears the name .
  • (Tavernier Vol. II 1889: 230). in Jain, M. (2019). Flight of deities and rebirth of temples: Espisodes from Indian history.

• The name of this temple (which is the most venerated in Benares) is Bisseshwar or Visseshwar. Crossing the little court, which was very splashy from the quantity of libations poured out, we ascended a very narrow staircase, up which no stout person could go, to what might be called the leads of the temple. Here were three quadrilateral domes close together, which are being gilded from money left by Ranjit Sing. Immense sums were sent with a portion of his ashes to various temples, and amongst others to this one. The temple is very small in comparison to European places of worship. On descending, we were led along a curious passage full of images and altars like the first (the whole having much the appearance of the entry to a museum of antiquities), - to a well in which, when the former temple was desecrated by the Muhammadans under Aurangzeb, the god took refuge. It is surrounded by a railing, and offerings of flowers, water, and rice are continually thrown down to propitiate the helpless divinity. The odour of sanctity of Hindu Mythology is not more agreeable to the olfactory nerves than that of the Romish begging fraternities – so we quickly left the spot. The Brahmans seem in no way different in dress from their countrymen, except that all of those in the temple had their heads and beards partially shaved. Most of them wore red mantles. The remains of the former temple were very fine. On its ruins Aurangzeb built a mosque, which we proceeded to visit, and coming from the idol temple, I felt a relief, and even an emotion of sympathy with the simple building we entered, where, at least, there was nothing outward and visible to dishonour the Most High. The only thing which it contained was a raised place for the mullah to preach from.
  • Mrs. Colin Mackenzie, Mackenzie, Mrs. Colin, Life In The Mission, The Camp, And The Zenana Or Six Years In India, 3 vols., Richard Bentley, 1853. quoted from Jain, M. (editor) (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts. New Delhi: Ocean Books. Volume IV Chapter12

• “In August, 1669, the temple of Vishvanath at Banaras was demolished. The presiding priest of the temple was just in time to remove the idols and throw them into a neighbouring well which thus became a centre of interest ever after. The temple of Gopi Nath in Banaras was also destroyed about the same time. He (Aurangzeb) is alleged to have tried to demolish the Shiva temple of Jangamwadi in Banaras”, but could not succeed because of opposition.
  • Maasir-i-Alamgiri, p. 88., R. Sharma, quoted from Lal, K. S. (1992). The legacy of Muslim rule in India. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan. Chapter 6

• Thousands of pilgrims who visit Mathura or walk past the site of Vishvanath temple and Gyanvapi Masjid in Varanasi everyday, are reminded of Mughal vandalism and disregard for Hindu sensitivities by Muslim rulers.
  • Lal, K. S. (1992). The legacy of Muslim rule in India. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan. Chapter 3 (also in K.S. Lal, Historical Essays)

• Mosques of Alamgir (Aurangzeb). It is said that the mosque of Benares was built by Alamgir on the site of the Bisheshwar Temple. That temple was very tall and (held as) holy among the Hindus. On this very site and with those very stones he constructed a lofty mosque, and its ancient stones were rearranged after being embedded in the walls of the mosque. It is one of the renowed mosques of Hindustan. The second mosque at Benares (is the one) which was built by Alamgir on the bank of the Ganga with chiselled stones. This also is a renowned mosque of Hindustan. It has 28 towers, each of which is 238 feet tall. This is on the bank of the Ganga and its foundations extend to the depth of the waters. Alamgir built a mosque at Mathura. It is said that this mosque was built on the site of the Gobind Dev Temple which was very strong and beautiful as well as exquisite…”
  • Maulana Hakim Sayid Abdul Hai: Hindustan Islami Ahad Mein (Hindustan under Islamic Rule, Urdu translation) Majlis Tehqiqat wa Nashriat Islam, Nadwatul-Ulama, Lucknow. With a foreword by Maulana Abul-Hasan Ali Nadwi. Quoted in Arun Shourie: Hideaway Communalism (Indian Express, February 5, 1989) and in Shourie, A., & Goel, S. R. (1990). Hindu temples: What happened to them.

• Om! Glory be to Ganapati. In Ayodhya lived formerly Sadhesadhu, the speaker of truth, beloved of good men, whose delight consisted in the welfare of all beings. His son was the famous Sadhunidhi, whose son Padmasadhu, of steadfast virtue, on the north side of the entrance to the Visvesvara temple at Kasi built a solid and lofty temple of god Padmesvara, on Wednesday, the twelfth day of the waning moon of the month of Jyaishtha, in the year of Plava: Samvat 1353, on which day this eulogy was written.
  • The Padmesvara inscription of 1353 CE recording the construction of the Padmesvara (Vishnu) temple on the north-side entrance of the Visveshvara temple at Kashi by Padma Sadhu. (Fuhrer 1889: 51). quoted in Jain, M. (2019). Flight of deities and rebirth of temples: Espisodes from Indian history. 90ff

• That another Vishweshwara shrine had come up in Varanasi by or before 1296 ce is attested by the fact that an inscription dated Wednesday, 15 May 1296, in another newly constructed grand Vishnu shrine, called Padmeswhar, states, Om! Glory to Ganapati. In Ayodhya, lived formerly Sadhesadhu, the speaker of truth, beloved of good men, whose delight consisted in the welfare of all beings. His son was the famous Sadhunidhi, whose son Padmasadhu, of steadfast virtue, on the north side of the entrance to the Visvesvara temple at Kashi built a solid and lofty temple of God Padmesvara, on Wednesday, the twelfth day of the waning moon of the Jyaistha, in the year of Plava: Samvat 1353 [i.e., 1296 ce], on which day this eulogy was written.
  • Anton Führer, The Sharqi Architecture of Jaunpur (London: Trübner & Co., 1889), p. 51. Vikram Sampath - Waiting for Shiva_ Unearthing the Truth of Kashi's Gyan Vapi-BluOne Ink (2024)

• Even if the linga of Viśveśvara here is taken off somewhere and another is brought in and established by human hands, on account of the difficulty of the times, whatever is established in that place should be worshipped, or the spot where it was should itself be worshipped … these acts of worship have to be performed with regard to the different liṅga that has come to occupy that spot even though the primary Viśveśvara Jyotirliṅga is not present there…and if, owing to the power of the wicked foreign rulers (Mlecchaadi Dushta Raja), there is no linga at all in that place, even so, the dharma of the place itself should be observed, with rites of circumambulation, salutation etc. and in this way the daily pilgrimage (nitya yatra) shall be performed …. Such performances are to be construed as similar even in situations of replacement of liṅga or the replacement of the pratimā (image).
  • Ganesha Shastri, Ed. Tristhali Setu of Narayana Bhatta (Poona: Anandashram, 1915), p. 208. Vikram Sampath - Waiting for Shiva_ Unearthing the Truth of Kashi's Gyan Vapi-BluOne Ink (2024)

• A later court judgment of the British era in 1937 speaks about this episode and why it might have been downplayed by Muslim court chroniclers: If this story [of draught and rain] is true, then it established the efficacy of Hindu worship and of mantras, and therefore, it is possible that the Muslim historians may not have narrated this fact. The indifference of the Hindus to write history in those and previous day[s] is proverbial. However, it is a historical fact that Akbar permitted the construction and re-construction of temples, generally so even if no permission was given by him, then too it is not improbable that this temple might have been reconstructed during his times, and the Hindus of that and subsequent times might have concocted the story that the temple was reconstructed with the permission of Akbar so that the Muslim in subsequent times may not demolish it.
  • No. 42. No. 35-7-A-Judgment, Civil Suit No. 62 of 1936.Vikram Sampath - Waiting for Shiva_ Unearthing the Truth of Kashi's Gyan Vapi-BluOne Ink (2024)

• I come to the pagoda of Benares, which, after that of Jagannath, is the most famous in all India and of equal sanctity, being built on the margin of the Ganges, and in the town which it bears the name. The most remarkable thing about it is that from the door of the pagoda to the river there is a descent by stone steps, where there are at intervals platforms and small, rather, dark chambers, some of which serve as dwellings for the Brahmans, and others as kitchens where they prepare their food.
  • Jean-Baptiste Tavernier., V. Ball and William Crooke, ed. Travels in India by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier. Vol. 2, 2nd Ed. (London: Oxford University Press, 1925), p. 179.Vikram Sampath - Waiting for Shiva_ Unearthing the Truth of Kashi's Gyan Vapi-BluOne Ink (2024)

• In his note dated 3 September 1632, Peter Mundy writes, Of all the cities and towns that I have seen in India, none resembles so much those of Europe as this Banaroz doth a distance off, by reason of the many great and high spires that are in it, which belong to Pagodes or Hindoo Churches. Also when we came into it, we found it wondrous populous, good buildings, paved streets, but narrow and crooked.
  • Richard Carnac Temple, The Travels of Peter Mundy in Europe and Asia 1608–1667, Vol. 2 (London: Hakluyt Society, 1914), p. 122. Vikram Sampath - Waiting for Shiva_ Unearthing the Truth of Kashi's Gyan Vapi-BluOne Ink (2024)

• This place is generally peopled with Hindoos of 3 sorts, viz., Khattrees [Khatris], Brahmanes [Brahmins], and Banians [Banias] and resorted unto from far, drawn hither by their superstitious reverence to the river Ganges (which runs by it), As also to divers [sic] Pagodes, Dewraes [duera, temple] or churches. The chiefest is called Cassibessuua [Bisheshar] being of Mahadeu [Mahadev, Shiva]; I went into it, where in the middle, on a place elevated, is a stone in form like a Hatters block plain and unwrought … on which they that resort pour water of the river, flowers, rice, butter, which here (by reason of the heat) is most commonly liquid, whilst the Bramane reads or says something which the vulgar understands not. Over it hangs a canopy of silk and about it several lamps lighted. The meaning of that plain blunt form, as I was told by a plain blunt fellow, was that it represented the head of Mahadeus virile member. If so, some mystery may be conceived why little children are by their mothers brought to this saint to be cured. Perhaps conservation as well as generation is thereby implied. Other Dewraes they have with images which they much reverence, as of Gunesh with an elephant’s trunk instead of a nose, of Chutterbudge [Chaturbhuj] with 6 faces, 6 arms and hands. Also in most of their Dewraes, in the most private and chiefest place of all, is the image of a woman sitting cross-legged, adorned with jewels. This much reverenced from Agra Westward, but Mahadew for the most part here away. Also most commonly before the going in of their Dewraes, they have the image of a calf or young bullock [Nandi, the bull vehicle of Shiva]. Here in their great Pagodes were many like rooms apart, with their several images, of which there were many that lay up and down in sundry places, of a reasonable form, and the best cut that I have yet seen in India. Others that I have therefore met with all were for the most part misshapen.
  • Richard Carnac Temple, The Travels of Peter Mundy in Europe and Asia 1608–1667, Vol. 2 (London: Hakluyt Society, 1914), p. 122-4. Vikram Sampath - Waiting for Shiva_ Unearthing the Truth of Kashi's Gyan Vapi-BluOne Ink (2024)

• ‘The city is small, but very ancient, and venerated by Hindus by reason of a temple there possessing a very ancient idol. Some years after my visit, Aurangzeb sent orders for its destruction, when he undertook the knocking down of all temples.’
  • Niccolao Manucci in William Irvine. Trans. Pepys of Mogul India 1653–1708 (London: John Murray, 1913), p. 114. Vikram Sampath - Waiting for Shiva_ Unearthing the Truth of Kashi's Gyan Vapi-BluOne Ink (2024)

• The engineers of Aurangzeb could have utilized the whole of the temple area for their new mosque, if they had decided to convert the western wall of the temple into the Mihrab wall of their mosque. But this could not have rendered possible the conversion of the sanctuary of Vishvanatha into the central hall of the mosque, which was Aurangzeb’s chief desideratum. They, therefore, decided merely to pull down the western hall of the temple and its adjoining subsidiary shrines. They removed useful building material, levelled up the debris, and allowed it to remain in that uncouth condition, as the area was behind their mosque. It is still in that condition today. The debris is on a level with the level of the mosque courtyard and its height from the pradakshina path to the west varies from four to six feet. A portion of the superstructure of this Western Mandap can still be seen in the ruins today. It enables us to conclude that its dome was not covered by the principle of arch, which was usually followed by the Muslims, but by successive protrusions of the courses of stones, and by cutting off all the angles laterally, so as to change the square into a polygon and thence gradually into a circle.
  • A.S. Altekar, History of Banares: From the Earliest Times Down to 1937 (Varanasi: Banaras Hindu University, 1937), pp. 55–56. Vikram Sampath - Waiting for Shiva_ Unearthing the Truth of Kashi's Gyan Vapi-BluOne Ink (2024)

• The Lingum of the original temple of Vishveshvur [sic] was looked upon as the genuine type of Mahadeo or Shiva, which fell from heaven upon this spot, and was converted into stone. When the Moosulmans [sic] set about their work of destruction, it is asserted, the indignant image leaped on its own accord into the Gyan Bapee (well of knowledge) hard by, where it still remains. The well has since been considered to be centre of the Untrigrihee Jatra [Antargriha Yatra: more on this later] or Holy Circuit, although a modern Shiwala, erected near the spot, pretends to have reinstated the genuine Lingum, and fashion is rapidly acquiescing in the arrangement.
  • James Prinsep, Benares Illustrated in a Series of Drawings (New Delhi: Gyan Publishing House, 2023), pp. 42–43. Vikram Sampath - Waiting for Shiva_ Unearthing the Truth of Kashi's Gyan Vapi-BluOne Ink (2024)

• On 22 September 1755, seized by bigotry, a local qazi (judge of Muslim canonical law) and a muhtasib (censor of morals) rallied together a band of fanatical Muslims and destroyed the Vishwanath shrine. A rare manuscript, Delhi Chronicle, documents this unfortunate event: ‘They [the qazi and muhtasib] overthrew the golden pitcher which had been fixed on the top … they plundered some men who were going to worship it, they cut down a pipal tree and threw it into well.’
  • Jadunath Sarkar (trans.), Delhi Chronicle: 1738-98 (Sitamau: n.p., 1940), p. 69. Vikram Sampath - Waiting for Shiva_ Unearthing the Truth of Kashi's Gyan Vapi-BluOne Ink (2024)

• Oh mind! Do undertake a pilgrimage to Kashi to have the vision of lord Vishweshwara.
  If you pray to him with love, he, the compassionate one, will surely cut asunder the cycle of birth and death for you.
  The river Ganga flows through the city like pure milk. On the banks of the river, a host of sages reside.
  The lord smears his form with holy ash, holds a trident in his hands. A serpent adorns his neck. He shares his form with Girija, the daughter of mountains. All the people of the three worlds are at his feet.
  Oh mind! Do worship the lotus-eyed Lord Padmanabha and the three-eyed Maheswara and become immortal.
  • Swathi Thirunal, bhajan, in Vikram Sampath - Waiting for Shiva_ Unearthing the Truth of Kashi's Gyan Vapi-BluOne Ink (2024)

• The temple of Bisheshwar [sic] is situated in the midst of a quadrangle, covered in with a roof, above which the tower of the temple is seen. At each corner is a dome, and at the south-east corner, a temple sacred to Shiva. When observed in the distance, from the elevation of the roof, the building presents three distinct divisions. The first is the spire of a temple of Mahadeva, whose base is in the quadrangle below; the second is a large gilded dome; and the third is the gilded tower of the temple of Bisheshwar [sic] itself. These three objects are all in a row, in the centre of the quadrangle, filling up most of the space from one side to the other. The carving upon them is not particularly striking; but the dome and tower glittering in the sun look like vast masses of burnished gold … the expense of gilding them was borne by the late Maharaja Runjeet Sinh [sic] of Lahore. The tower, dome and spire terminate, severally, in a sharp point. Attached to the first is a high pole bearing a small flag and tipped with a trident. The temple of Bisheshwar, including the tower is fifty-one feet in height … outside the enclosure, to the north is a large collection of deities, raised upon a platform, called by the natives ‘the court of Mahadeva’ … these are evidently not of modern manufacture … the probability is, that they were taken from the ruins of the old temple of Bishshwar, which stood to the north-west of the present structure, and was demolished by the Emperor Aurangzeb … extensive remains of this ancient temple are still visible. They form a large portion of the western wall of the Mohammedan Mosque, which was built up in its site by this bigoted oppressor of the Hindus. Judging from the proportions of these ruins, it is manifest that the former temple of Bisheshwar must have been both loftier and more capacious than the existing structure; and the courtyard is four or five times more spacious than the entire area occupied by the modern temple … the mosque though not small, is by no means an imposing object. It is plain and uninteresting, and displays scarcely any carving or ornament. Within and without, its walls are besmeared with a dirty whitewash with a little colouring matter.
  • Matthew Atmore Sherring, The Sacred City of the Hindus: An Account of Benares in Ancient and Modern Times (London: Trübner & Co., 1868), pp. 50–52. Vikram Sampath - Waiting for Shiva_ Unearthing the Truth of Kashi's Gyan Vapi-BluOne Ink (2024)

• Visiting in 1868, Sherring documented this Adi Vishweshwara temple and the adjacent Raziya mosque as well. This was in a north-westerly direction from the Gyan Vapi mosque. He writes: Looking beyond in a north-westerly direction, the eye falls on a temple about sixty feet in height, situated one hundred and fifty yards distant from the mosque. This is Ad-Bisheshwar [sic: Adi Vishweshwara], that is the temple of the ‘Primeval Lord of All.’ The natives in the neighbourhood all regard this shrine as of an epoch anterior to that of the old Bisheshwar [sic], the ruins of which, as already stated, form a constituent portion of Aurunguzeb’s [sic] mosque. Hence the name attached to it. This temple is surmounted by a large dome, the decaying condition of which is visible in the gaps on its outer surface … there is really nothing in this temple of an ancient character; but, on the eastern side of the enclosure, the ground becomes considerably elevated, and upon it stands a mosque [Raziya?] built of very old materials, the pillars of which date as far back as the Gupta period, and possibly earlier. May not these old stones and pillars be remains of the original Bisheshwar?
  • Vikram Sampath - Waiting for Shiva_ Unearthing the Truth of Kashi's Gyan Vapi-BluOne Ink (2024)

• The Kashi Khanda has Shiva himself declaring: There is no linga equal to that of Vishwanatha. There is no tirtha other than Manikarnika. There is no splendid penance grove anywhere else on a par with my Anandavana. The whole of Varanasi is full of tirthas. Its very name is Tirtha of all Tirthas. There itself is the highly sacred Manikarnika, the very ground of my happiness. From the site which is my royal palace [the main temple], the city extends in between the north and the east, to the left is 300 hands (up to Harischandreshwara) and to the right it is 200 hands (up to Ganga Keshava). In Ganga, Manikarnika extends to five hundred hands north to south. It is the very essence of the three worlds. It is the basic support of the great soul. Those who resort to it lie in my heart.
  • Vikram Sampath - Waiting for Shiva_ Unearthing the Truth of Kashi's Gyan Vapi-BluOne Ink (2024)

• The reputed sanctity of the spot in the eyes of the Hindus would not be lost by its exclusive appropriation to Musalman devotion, while the everlasting rancour of the Hindus would be kept alive by a sense of profanation to which their holy place was exposed, and a regret at being denied access to it. With the Musalmans, on the contrary, no particular sanctity [is] attached to the spot. An Eedgah in any other situation would be equally an object of resort, and it is only held by the Musalmans in peculiar estimation here as it marks the former ascendancy of one religion over the other [emphasis mine]. When all collision of the two sects is obviated at the Bisheshwar mosque and Kapalmochan by the seclusion of the Musalmans at the one and their exclusion from the other, I anticipate no ground of dispute from the Musalmans retaining entire possession of the minaret mosque called by the Hindus, Beynee Madhoo [Beni Madhav] and of that at Sheikh Katun Allees (or the Hindu Kurrut Baseysur [Krittivaseshawar]). The Hindus have long since appropriated another temple to the idol to which the former place was originally dedicated, and the foundation at the latter which the Hindus esteem sacred is an object of devotion to them only one day in the year.
  • Magistrate Watson, quoted in Phil Robinson, p. 105. Robinson, Phil, ‘The Benares Riots of 1809–1811,’ Calcutta Review (July 1877), pp. 92–119 Phil Robinson, pp. 98–99. in Vikram Sampath - Waiting for Shiva_ Unearthing the Truth of Kashi's Gyan Vapi-BluOne Ink (2024)

• It so happens that sometime the ling of Vishweshwar is removed and is again brought back according to the existences of the situation. It often happens that on account of the action of the intolerant Muslim government there may be no ling there at all. Even the circumambulation etc. should be made round the place on account of its sanctity. That is quite sufficient for the pilgrimage. As for a ceremonial bathing of the God with Mantras etc. that would not be possible.
  • Tristhali Setu , quoted in Annexure A-17; Evidence of Dr. A.S. Altekar, Civil Suit No. 62 of 1936. quoted from Vikram Sampath - Waiting for Shiva_ Unearthing the Truth of Kashi's Gyan Vapi-BluOne Ink (2024)

• The most interesting of the ruined buildings of ancient Benares now existing are those which have been appropriated by the Muhammadans. At the back of the mosque of Aurangzib, near the Golden Temple [Vishwanath], is a fragment of what must have been a very imposing Brahminical or Jain temple. The south wall of the mosque is built into it. Tradition points to this as being part of the original temple of Vishweshwar destroyed by Aurangzib. From the style it would appear to belong to the time of Akbar, or about the beginning of the sixteenth century. The raised terrace in front of the mosque is built upon some very much older structure, which Sherring suggests might have been a Buddhist vihara or temple monastery. This, however, is mere conjecture … it is quite possible that the whole quadrangle in which the mosque stands, originally contained a number of Brahminical, or perhaps Jain temples and monasteries of many different periods, such are as often found grouped together in places considered especially sacred by any sect of Hindus.
  • E.B. Havell, Benares the Sacred City: Sketches of Hindu Life and Religion 2nd Edn. (Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co., 1905), pp. 201–202. Vikram Sampath - Waiting for Shiva_ Unearthing the Truth of Kashi's Gyan Vapi-BluOne Ink (2024)

• ‘It would be doing violence to the soul of Aurangzeb to use this land for any purpose other than that intended by him, that is to keep it intact either for the humiliation of Hindus or to show the previous history of the property.’
  • No. 42, No. 35-7-A- Judgment, Civil Suit No. 62 of 1936. ** Vikram Sampath - Waiting for Shiva_ Unearthing the Truth of Kashi's Gyan Vapi-BluOne Ink (2024)

• I visited the Viswanath temple last evening and as I was walking through those lanes, these were the thoughts that touched me. If a stranger dropped from above on to this great temple and he had to consider what we as Hindus were, would he not be justified in condemning us? Is not this great temple a reflection of our character? I speak feelingly as a Hindu. Is it right that the lanes of our sacred temple should be as dirty as they are? The houses round about are built anyhow. The lanes are tortuous and narrow. If even our temples are not models of roominess and cleanliness, what can our self-government be? Shall our temples be abodes of holiness, cleanliness and peace as soon as the English have retired from India, either of their own pleasure or by compulsion, bag and baggage?
  • Mahatma Gandhi, ** Vikram Sampath - Waiting for Shiva_ Unearthing the Truth of Kashi's Gyan Vapi-BluOne Ink (2024)

• Though here the linga of Visvesvara is removed and another is brought in its place by human beings, owing to the times, the pilgrims must worship whatever linga is in this place. Sometimes, owing to the action of tyrannical Mleccha rulers, there may be no linga in that place. In that case circumambulation, namaskara and other forms of salutation must be made to the spot only. By that action the fruit of the pilgrimage is attained. The abhiseka, etc., which can only be done (to the linga) can of course not be done.
  • Narayana Bhatta, quoted in Jain, M. (2024). Vishwanath rises and rises : the story of eternal Kashi. 107 [3]

• From Prayag the Marathas moved along the southern bank of the Ganga to the town of Mirzapur and camped there on 1 June 1743. The proximity to the holy city of Kashi, and the desire to rebuild the temple of Kashi Vishwanath at its original site, moved Malharji Holkar to make preparations to take over the city. A letter dated 27 June 1743 gives a summary of the events:
  It is Malharji’s wish to demolish the mosque at Jnanvapi and build a temple. However, the panch-dravidi? Brahmins worry that the mosque is well-known. The patil will make the temple without an order from the Emperor. Once the Emperor comes to evil ways, the Brahmins will die. He will take their lives. In this province, the yavanas are in strength. They will not all accept this. It is better to build it at another place. The Brahmins are worried. They will be in a bad state. The Ganga is omnipotent! In Kashi, the Brahmins are worried. However, to do what will not endanger the Brahmins, will be pious. Even so, what the Vishveshwar thinks proper, he will do. What is the point of worrying? If they begin to demolish the temple, the Brahmins will come and send a letter of request to the Shrimant — that is the thought now.
  • Uday S Kulkarni - The Extraordinary Epoch of Nanasaheb Peshwa, quoted in Jain, M. (2024). Vishwanath rises and rises : the story of eternal Kashi.

21th century

ASI Survey Report, 2023

ASI Survey Report, 2023 [4]

• Comparison of the inscription found in the lower room inside the existing structure, with a copy which was made by the ASI in 1965-66, establishes that attempt was made to erase last two lines of the inscription mentioning about the construction and expansion of the mosque.
  • [5]

• During the scientific investigations/ survey of existing structure a number of Sanskrit and Dravidian inscriptions were noticed on the pre-existing structure and existing structure. Most of these inscriptions which сап be dated from 12th to 17th century have been reused in the structure, suggesting that the earlier structures were destroyed and their parts were reused in construction / repair later.
  • [6]

• During the survey, a number of inscriptions were noticed on the existing and pre-existing structures. A total of 34 inscriptions were recorded during the present survey and 32 estampages were taken. These are, in fact, inscriptions on the stones of the pre-existing Hindu temples, which have bееп re-used during the construction! repair of the existing structure, They include inscriptions in Devanagari, Grantha, Telugu and Kannada scripts. Reuse of earlier inscriptions in the structure, suggest that the earlier structures were destroyed and their parts were reused in construction repair of the existing structure.
  • [7]

• Based on scientific studies/survey carried out, study of architectural remains, exposed features and artefacts, inscriptions, art and sculptures, it can be said that there existed a Hindu temple prior to the construction of the existing structure. (137)