Kashi Vishwanath Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva. It is located in Vishwanath Gali, in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India. The temple is a Hindu pilgrimage site and is one of the twelve Jyotirlinga shrines. The presiding deity is known by the names Vishwanath and Vishweshwara, literally meaning Lord of the Universe.
Sankat Mochan Hanuman Temple is a Hindu temple in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India and is dedicated to the Hindu God Hanuman. The temple was established by famous Hindu preacher and poet saint Sri Goswami Tulsidas in the early 16th century and is situated on the banks of the Assi river. The deity was named "Sankat Mochan" meaning the "reliever from troubles".
Ganga is the personification of the river Ganges, who is worshipped by Hindus as the goddess of purification and forgiveness. Known by many names, Ganga is often depicted as a fair, beautiful woman, riding a divine crocodile-like creature called the makara.
In Hinduism, the yatra (pilgrimage) to the tirthas has special significance for earning the punya needed to attain the moksha (salvation) by performing the darśana, the parikrama (circumambulation), the yajna, the Dhyana, the puja (worship), the prarthana, the dakshina, the seva, the bhandara, etc. These sacred places are usually located on the banks of sacred waters, such as sacred rivers or their tributaries, the kundas, the ghats, or the stepwells, or the temple tanks.
Daraganj is a prominent suburb and a landmark in the city of Prayagraj. It is the oldest suburb of Prayag at the bank of celestial river Ganges and not far from Triveni Sangam - the confluence of three sacred rivers: the Ganges and Yamuna, and the third invisible river Saraswati. Thus, Daraganj is essentially a theoretical and philosophical reference point of city now called Prayagraj.
The Ramnagar Fort is a fortification in Ramnagar, Varanasi, India. It is located near the Ganges on its eastern bank, opposite to the Tulsi Ghat. The sandstone structure was built in the Mughal style in 1750 by Kashi Naresh Maharaja Balwant Singh. The current king and the resident of the fort is Anant Narayan Singh, who is also known as the Maharaja of Benares even though this royal title has been abolished since 1971.
Har Ki Pauri, meaning the feet of Lord Vishnu (Hari), is a ghat on the banks of the river Ganga and landmark of the Hindu holy city of Haridwar in the Indian state of Uttarakhand.
Daksheswar Mahadev or Daksha Mahadev temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, located in the town of Kankhal, about 4 km from Haridwar, Uttarakhand, India. It is named after King Daksha Prajapati, the father of Sati. Daksha is one of the fourteen Prajapatis, creator deities, who preside over procreation and are the protector of life in Hindu mythology.
The Sapta Puri are a group of seven Hindu tirtha, or holy pilgrimage sites, located in India. Pilgrimage to these sites is said to bless the pilgrim with moksha.
The 2010 Varanasi bombing was a blast that occurred on 7 December 2010, in one of the holiest Hindu cities, Varanasi. The explosion occurred at Sheetla Ghat, adjacent to the main Dashashwamedh Ghat, where the sunset aarti, the evening prayer ritual to the holy river, Ganges had commenced, on these stone steps leading to it, where thousands of worshipers and tourists had gathered. It killed a two-year-old girl, sitting on her mother's lap, the mother was one of three critically injured, more than 38 other people were injured. In the ensuing panic after the blast, a railing broke causing a stampede leading to an increase in the number of injuries. The bomb was hidden inside a milk container on the Sheetla Ghat. The blast occurred a day after the anniversary of the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition, in which a mosque was demolished at Ayodhya leading to nationwide religious riots killing over 2,000 people. Subsequently, the Islamist militant group, Indian Mujahideen, claimed responsibility of the blast, via email to Indian media. This is also the second terrorism-related incident in the city which was rocked by the serial blasts of 2006, in which 28 people were killed, it included an explosion at the Sankatmochan Temple, some two kilometres away.
Ghats in Varanasi are riverfront steps leading to the banks of the Ganges river. The city has 84 ghats. Most of the ghats are bathing and puja ceremonial ghats, while two ghats, Manikarnika and Harishchandra, are used exclusively as cremation sites.
Manikarnika Ghat is one of the holiest cremation grounds among the sacred riverfronts (ghats), located on the banks of River Ganga, in the city of Varanasi in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. In Hinduism, death is considered a gateway to another life marked by the result of one's karma. It is believed that a human's soul attains moksha, and hence breaks the cycle of rebirth when cremated here.
Assi Ghat is the southernmost ghat in Varanasi. To most visitors to Varanasi, it is known for being a place where long-term foreign students, researchers, and tourists live. With hosting Subah-e-Banaras in the morning, assi ghat provides a spectacular notion of river Ganga.
Tulsi Ghat is one of the ghats in Varanasi. It is named after poet Tulsidas who lived there while he wrote the Ramcharitmanas and Hanuman Chalisa. Earlier, Tulsi Ghat was known as Lolark Ghat. It was in the year 1941 that Tulsi Ghat was made pucca (cemented) by industrialist, Baldeo Das Birla.
Money Sharma is a photographer, photojournalist and journalist from Mumbai, India and his images have appeared in National Geographic, The Scotsman, Daily News, Mail Online, The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, Hindustan Times and several other national and international publications.
The Dev Deepavali is the festival of Kartik Poornima celebrated in the city of Varanasi in Bhojpuri region of Uttar Pradesh, India. It falls on the full moon of the Hindu month of Kartika and takes place fifteen days after Diwali. The steps of all the ghats on the riverfront of the Ganges River, from Ravidas Ghat at the southern end to Rajghat, are lit with more than a million earthen lamps (diyas) in honour of Ganga, the Ganges, and its presiding goddess. Mythologically, the gods are believed to descend to Earth to bathe in the Ganges on this day. The festival is also observed as Tripura Purnima Snan. The tradition of lighting the lamps on the Dev Deepawali festival day was first started at the Dashashwamedh Ghat by Pandit Kishori Raman Dubey in 1991.
Varanasi is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. The city has a syncretic tradition of Muslim artisanship that underpins its religious tourism. Located in the middle-Ganges valley in the southeastern part of the state of Uttar Pradesh, Varanasi lies on the left bank of the river. It is 692 kilometres (430 mi) to the southeast of India's capital New Delhi and 320 kilometres (200 mi) to the southeast of the state capital, Lucknow. It lies 121 kilometres (75 mi) downstream of Prayagraj, where the confluence with the Yamuna river is another major Hindu pilgrimage site.
Varanasi, also known as Kashi, is considered as the religious capital of Hinduism. In the Hindu faith, it is the holiest of all of its cities; the four dhams in the four cardinal directions of the country – Badrinath in the north, Puri in the east, Dwarka in the west and Rameshwaram in the south – are all represented in the city in "archetypal forms" as the presiding deities at Badrinath Ghat, Assi's Jagannath Temple area, Shankudhara Pokhra, and Mir Ghat respectively. Other Hindu holy places, such as the Kedarnath at Kedar Ghat, Mathura at Bakaruia Kund or Nakhi Ghat, Prayagraj (Allahadbad) at Dashahvamedha Ghat, Kamakhya (Assam) at Kamachha, Kurukshetra at Kurkukshetra Kund near Asi, and Lake Manasarovar at Mansarovar near Shyameshvara are a part of the city's religious and cultural heritage.
Gandhi Ghat is one of the main ghats on the Ganges River in Patna. It is named after the leader of the Indian independence movement Mahatma Gandhi. The ghat is famous for its Evening Ganga Aarti. It is also associated with the immersion of ashes of Mahatma Gandhi in the river Ganges.
Ganga Dussehra, also known as Gangavataran, is a Hindu festival celebrating the avatarana (descent) of the Ganges. It is believed by Hindus that the holy river Ganges descended from heaven to earth on this day. Ganga Dussehra takes place on Dashami of the waxing moon of the Hindu calendar month Jyeshtha. The festival celebration lasts ten days, including the nine days preceding this holy day.
