Devalok
Temple legend · 1 telling · North India

Shiva's own city

Who is in it

Places: Kashi (Varanasi), Manikarnika Ghat · Texts: Skanda Purana

The story, beat by beat

  1. Kashi is held to stand on the point of Shiva's trident, apart from the earth.
  2. Shiva is said never to leave it, and so it is Avimukta, the never-forsaken.
  3. Whoever dies within its bounds is freed: Shiva himself whispers the crossing mantra into the ear of the dying.
  4. Vishwanath, the lord of all, is king of every other god in the city's five-kosha circuit.
  5. The temple was destroyed in 1194 and again in 1669, when the priest is said to have jumped into the well with the linga to save it.
  6. Ahilyabai Holkar rebuilt it in 1780 and Ranjit Singh gilded the dome in 1835.

liberation city death whisper

How it is told, place by place

Base telling · Temple tradition

Kashi Vishwanath temple tradition (Skanda Purana, Kashi Khanda)

North India · Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh Shaiva

Every other city sits on the earth; Kashi, the tradition says, is held up on the prongs of Shiva's trident and does not belong to it, so that when the worlds dissolve the city stays. Shiva made it his home and never leaves, which is the sense of its old name Avimukta. Because he is always there, dying there is different: at the moment of death he himself bends to the ear and speaks the name that carries the soul across, and no one who dies inside the city's circuit is born again. The god of the city is Vishwanath, lord of all, and within the five-kosha boundary he is king over every other deity. His temple has been pulled down twice, by the Ghurids in 1194 and by Aurangzeb in 1669, when, the priests tell, the chief priest leapt into the well with the linga in his arms to keep it from the soldiers. Ahilyabai Holkar built the present shrine in 1780 and Ranjit Singh gave the gold for its domes.

Kashi Vishwanath Temple — Wikipedia; Banaras: City of Light

Sources: Kashi Vishwanath Temple — Wikipedia; Banaras: City of Light

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