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116-549: The Gyanvapi Mosque is located in Varanasi , Uttar Pradesh , India . It was constructed c. 1678, a decade after Aurangzeb's demolition of a Shiva temple that stood at the site. The site originally had a Vishweshwar temple devoted to the Hindu deity Shiva . It was built by Todar Mal , a premier courtier and minister of Akbar, in conjunction with Narayana Bhatta, a pre-eminent Brahmin scholar of Banaras from Maharashtra, during

232-557: A Sub-Divisional Magistrate . The DM is Kaushal Raj Sharma. Varanasi district comes under the Varanasi Police Zone and Varanasi Police Range, Varanasi Zone is headed by an Additional Director General ranked IPS officer, and the Varanasi Range is headed Inspector General ranked IPS officer. The ADG, Varanasi Zone is Biswajit Mahapatra, and IG, Varanasi Range is Vijay Singh Meena. The district police up to

348-548: A humid subtropical climate ( Köppen climate classification Cwa ) with large variations between summer and winter temperatures. The dry summer starts in April and lasts until June, followed by the monsoon season from July to October. The temperature ranges between 22 and 46 °C (72 and 115 °F) in the summers. Winters in Varanasi see very large diurnal variations, with warm days and downright cold nights. Cold waves from

464-885: A "Christian Country" Has Become the World’s Most Religiously Diverse Nation was published. It deals with religious diversity in the United States since 1965. In 2009, she delivered the Gifford Lectures on The Age of Pluralism at the University of Edinburgh . Eck is married to the Reverend Dorothy Austin. The two were married on July 4, 2004, after 28 years of partnership. Eck's interest in other religions combined with her own 'Christian pluralist' faith led her to develop her concept of pluralism. Pluralism, for Eck,

580-662: A Gujarati merchant during the reign of Iltutmish (1211–1266 CE) at today's site — in what used to be Avimukteshwara's precincts — only to be demolished by Hussain Shah Sharqi (1447–1458) of the Jaunpur Sultanate or Sikandar Lodi (1489–1517) of the Delhi Sultanate. The earliest manuscripts of Skanda Purana (c. 810 CE) describe Banaras to be the kshetra of Avimukteshwar; there is no mention of Vishweshwar. The slightly-later Matsya Purana , too, attests

696-403: A Kashi princess Valandhara and their union resulted in the birth of Sarvaga, who later ruled Kashi. Dhritarasthra's eldest son Duryodhana also married a Kashi princess Bhanumati, who later bore him a son Lakshmana Kumara and a daughter Lakṣmaṇā. The Cakkavatti Sīhanāda Sutta text of Buddhism puts forth an idea stating that Varanasi will one day become the fabled kingdom of Ketumati in

812-510: A Rudrabhishek ceremony at the mosque pavilion on the occasion of Maha Shivaratri . Two of their workers were subsequently sentenced to six months of imprisonment for violating law and order. This spurred fellow Mahasabha-ites to mount routine agitations at the mosque pavilion across the next few months, demanding the restoration of the temple; by July, two hundred and ninety one "satyagrahis" spread across twenty three batches had courted arrest and served imprisonments of varying duration. In November,

928-461: A SCI judgement from 2018 which had held judicial stays to have a lifetime of six months unless explicitly extended; accordingly, the petitioners requested for an ASI survey to discover evidence in their favor. AIM petitioned against the very recommencement of trial before the High Court, who granted a fresh stay and reserved judgement on the merits of whether holding such a trial would be barred by

1044-460: A carved stone exterior. What might have existed at the site prior to this temple is debated by scholars. Such history has also been extensively contested by the local Hindu as well as the Muslim population. Desai notes these multiple histories of the original temple and tensions arising out of the location of Gyanvapi to have fundamentally shaped the sacred topography of the city. Recent accounts of

1160-526: A centre of activity for intellectuals and theologians during the Middle Ages, which further contributed to its reputation as a cultural centre of religion and education. Several major figures of the Bhakti movement were born in Varanasi, including Kabir who was born here in 1389, and Ravidas , a 15th-century socio-religious reformer, mystic, poet, traveller, and spiritual figure, who was born and lived in

1276-520: A dialogical relationship with popular practice as well as patronage. The Vishweshwar lingam received prominence only between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries with the Kashikhand being the first text to attempt establishing Vishweshwar as the guardian deity of the city. In contrast, Hans T. Bakker largely agrees with the popular narrative; for him, the pre-history of the site is one of "[Muslim] bigotry and [Hindu] stubbornness". Bakker reconciles

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1392-458: A mosque constructed atop the hill-top forcing the Hindus to reclaim the vacant Gyanvapi site for a temple of Vishweshwar. This new temple of Vishweshwar would be destroyed by the Jaunpur Sultanate to supply building materials for mosques at their new capital. Diana L. Eck proposes such a reading, too; however, scholars have critiqued Eck's non-contextual usage of medieval sources. Beginning around

1508-499: A mosque was constructed in place, perhaps by Aurangzeb himself, c. 1678. The façade was modeled partially on the Taj Mahal 's entrance; the plinth of the temple was left largely untouched to serve as the courtyard of the mosque, and the southern wall — along with its cusped arches, exterior moldings and toranas — was turned into the qibla wall . Other buildings in the precinct were spared. Oral accounts indicate that notwithstanding

1624-512: A multitude of interventions — the Nawabs who were their political rivals, local Brahmins who feared the wrath of the Mughal court, and British authorities who feared an outbreak of communal tensions. In the late eighteenth century, as East India Company gained direct control of Banaras ousting the Nawabs, Malhar Rao's successor Ahilyabai Holkar constructed the present Kashi Vishwanath Temple to

1740-582: A pavilion around the well — reducing it in size —, and erected a colonnade to support a roof, pursuant to a proposal raised by member of a Peshwa family. The colonnade was based on the Gyan Mandapa, mentioned in Kashikhand but the architectural style was borrowed from contemporary Mughal Baradaris . To its east, was installed a statue of Nandi, which had been gifted by the Rana of Nepal. To further east,

1856-469: A proof of the existence of a desecrated temple of unknown antiquity, before Todar Mal's construction. However, for centuries, the Vishweshwar would remain one among the many sacred sites in the town; it would become the principal shrine of the city only after sustained patronage of Mughals, beginning from the late sixteenth century. In September 1669, Aurangzeb ordered the demolition of the temple;

1972-423: A sign of Aurangzeb's "orthodox inclinations", local politics played an influencing role and his policies towards Hindus and their places of worship were "varied and contradictory, rather than consistently agnostic." Writing in 1993, Mary Searle Chatterjee found most local Muslims rejecting the idea that Aurangzeb had the temple demolished out of religious zealotry. Theories included: More fringe claims include from

2088-445: A site of perennial contestation between local Hindus and Muslims spawning numerous legal suits and even, riots. A new generation of aristocrats and well-to-do traders took over the role exclusively played by petty rulers in late-Mughal India in controlling the ritual life of the city, most often under the guise of urbanization. Says Desai, that the construction of mosque had sought to air an "explicitly political and visual" assertion about

2204-615: A small stream in the southern part of the city, near Assi Ghat. The old city is located on the north shores of the Ganges, bounded by Varuna and Assi. In the Mahabharata and in ancient India, the city is referred to as Kāśī from the Sanskrit verbal root kaś- "to shine", making Varanasi known as "City of Light", the " luminous city as an eminent seat of learning ". The name was also used by pilgrims dating from Buddha's days. Kashi

2320-557: A temple of Mahadeva was constructed by the Rani of Hyderabad. In the south, two small shrines —one of marble, and the other of stone— existed. The first legal dispute seem to have arose in 1843, when the priest of the Gyan Vapi well approached the local court about two attendants of the mosque who had been constructing a house in the temple precincts in violation of longstanding government orders that disallowed any unilateral modification of

2436-732: A twenty-member commission charged with advising the Secretary of State on enhancing and protecting religious freedom in the overall context of human rights. In 1998, President Bill Clinton and the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded her the National Humanities Medal for her work on religious pluralism in the United States. In 2002, Diana Eck received the Martin Marty Award for

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2552-733: Is Mridula Jaiswal, and the municipal commissioner is Nitin Bansal. Water supply and sewage system is operated by the Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam. Varanasi is represented in the Lok Sabha by the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi who won the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 and subsequently in 2019 by a huge margin. Hospitals in the city include the Sir Sunderlal Hospital , a teaching hospital in

2668-533: 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 Islamic 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

2784-620: Is headed by SP rank. The development of infrastructure in the city is overseen by the Varanasi Development Authority (VDA), which comes under the Housing Department of Uttar Pradesh government . The divisional commissioner of Varanasi acts as the ex-officio chairman of the VDA, whereas the vice-chairman, a government-appointed Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer , looks after the daily matters of

2900-513: Is neither well-used nor embedded enough in the cultural life of the city. On the eve of the 2004 Indian general election , a BBC report noted over a thousand policemen to have been deployed around the site. From 1984, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and other elements of the Hindu nationalist Sangh Parivar engaged in a nation-wide campaign to reclaim mosques which were constructed by demolishing Hindu temples. The Gyanvapi mosque

3016-536: Is now being run by the Tata Memorial Centre after intervention by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who represents Varanasi. Sushruta , an ancient Indian physician known as the primary author of the treatise Sushruta Samhita , the Sanskrit text of surgery, lived in Varanasi and practised medicine and surgery sometime during the 5th century BCE. Since 1922, Ayurveda has been a subject of training in

3132-475: Is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together. Benares became a princely state in 1911, with Ramnagar as its capital, but with no jurisdiction over the city proper. The religious head, Kashi Naresh, has had his headquarters at the Ramnagar Fort since the 18th century, also a repository of the history of the kings of Varanasi, which

3248-468: Is regarded as one of seven holy cities ( Sapta Puri ) which can provide Moksha ; Ayodhya , Mathura , Haridwar , Kashi, Kanchipuram , Avanti , and Dvārakā are the seven cities known as the givers of liberation. The princesses Ambika and Ambalika of Kashi were wed to the Hastinapur ruler Vichitravirya , and they later gave birth to Pandu and Dhritarashtra . Bhima , a son of Pandu, married

3364-518: Is situated to the east of Varanasi, across the Ganges. The Kashi Naresh is deeply revered by the local people and the chief cultural patron; some devout inhabitants consider him to be the incarnation of Shiva. Annie Besant founded the Central Hindu College , which later became a foundation for the creation of Banaras Hindu University in 1916. Besant founded the college because she wanted "to bring men of all religions together under

3480-405: Is sometimes epitomised in the history of one of its principal cities. The city of Benaras represents India religiously and intellectually, just as Paris represents the political Sentiments of France. There are few cities in the world of greater antiquity, and none that have so uninterruptedly maintained their ancient celebrity and distinction. Author Mark Twain wrote in 1897 of Varanasi, Benares

3596-528: Is stated to have been the birthplace of the previous Buddha, known as Kassapa Buddha . In the sacred geography of India Varanasi is known as the "microcosm of India". In addition to its 3,300 Hindu religious places, Varanasi has 12 churches, three Jain mandirs, nine Buddhist shrines, three Gurdwaras (Sikh shrines), and 1,388 Muslim holy places. Languages in Varanasi Municipal Corporation and Cantonment Board area, 2011 Census At

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3712-473: Is still widely popular. Hindu religious texts use many epithets in Sanskrit to refer to Varanasi, such as Kāśikā ( transl.  "the shining one" ), Avimukta ( transl.  "never forsaken by Shiva" ), Ānaṃdakānana ( transl.  "the forest of bliss" ), Rudravāsa ( transl.  "the place where Rudra resides" ), and Mahāśmaśāna ( transl.  "the great cremation ground" ). According to Hindu mythology , Varanasi

3828-589: Is the best response to the challenges of religious diversity. The term pluralism has been understood in numerous ways but Eck is clear to distinguish between pluralism and plurality —two words which are often used interchangeably and without distinction. Whilst plurality is the fact of diversity, pluralism is a response to that diversity—and in Eck's account, it is an active, positive response. Eck lays out three prevalent responses to religious diversity: exclusivism , inclusivism and pluralism . An exclusivist approach takes

3944-443: The 2011 census , the Varanasi urban agglomeration had a population of 1,435,113, with 761,060 men and 674,053 women. The Varanasi municipal corporation and CB had a combined population of 1,212,610 of which 642,882 were males and 569,728 in 2011. The population in the age group of 0 to 6 years was 137,111. The population of the Varanasi urban agglomeration in 2001 was 1,371,749 with a ratio of 879 females every 1,000 males. However,

4060-532: The Banaras Hindu University , Heritage Hospital, Marwari Hospital, Pitambari Hospital, Mata Anand Mai Hospital, Rajkiya Hospital, Ram Krishna Mission Hospital, Shiv Prasad Gupta Hospital, Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital (managed by the state government), and Varanasi Hospital and Medical Research Centre. The urban parts of the Varanasi district had an infant mortality rate of 70 per 1,000 live births in 2010–2011. The Railway Cancer Hospital

4176-434: The Central Hindu College in 1898. In 1916, she and Madan Mohan Malviya founded the Banaras Hindu University , India's first modern residential university. Kashi Vidyapith was established in 1921, a response to Mahatma Gandhi 's non-cooperation movement . Traditional etymology links "Varanasi" to the names of two Ganges tributaries forming the city's borders: Varuna , still flowing in northern Varanasi, and Assi, today

4292-533: The Comparative Study of Religion . Since 1991, Diana Eck has also turned her attention to the United States and has been heading a research team at Harvard University to explore the new religious diversity of the United States and its meaning for the American pluralist experiment. The Pluralism Project has developed an affiliation with many other colleges and universities across the country and around

4408-769: The Himalayan region cause temperatures to dip across the city in the winter from December to February and temperatures below 5 °C (41 °F) are not uncommon. The average annual rainfall is 1,110 mm (44 in). Fog is common in the winters, while hot dry winds, called loo , blow in the summers. In recent years, the water level of the Ganges has decreased significantly; upstream dams, unregulated water extraction, and dwindling glacial sources due to global warming may be to blame. Varanasi has been ranked 9th best “National Clean Air City” (under Category 1 >10L Population cities) in India. According to provisional data from

4524-621: The Kachwaha Rajput rulers of Amber (Mughal vassals themselves) most notably under Raja Man Singh rebuilt various temples and ghats in the city. The Raja of Jaipur established the Annapurna Mandir, and the 200-metre (660 ft) Akbari Bridge was also completed during this period. The earliest tourists began arriving in the city during the 16th century. In 1665, the French traveller Jean-Baptiste Tavernier described

4640-822: The Oudh camp, using his troops, forced the Nawab to withdraw his main force. The region eventually ceded by the Nawab of Oudh to the Benares State , a subordinate of the East India Company , in 1775, who recognised Benares as a family dominion. In 1791 under the rule of the British, resident Jonathan Duncan founded a Sanskrit College in Varanasi . In 1867, the establishment of the Varanasi Municipal Board led to significant improvements in

4756-667: The Parliament of India since 2014 . Modi inaugurated the Shri Kashi Vishwanath Corridor project, which aimed to enhance the city's spiritual vibrancy by connecting many ghats to the temple of Kashi Vishwanath, in December 2021. Varanasi is located at an elevation of 80.71 metres (264.8 ft) in the centre of the Ganges valley of North India , in the Eastern part of the state of Uttar Pradesh, along

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4872-936: The World Council of Churches , and the National Council of Churches . Eck's mother, Dorothy Eck , was a Montana State Senator for twenty years, president of the Montana League of Women Voters, and a delegate to Montana's 1972 Constitutional Convention. Eck's father, Hugo Eck, was an architect and Professor of Architecture at Montana State University. Eck received her B.A. in Religious Studies from Smith College in 1967, and her M.A. in Indian History from The School of Oriental and African Studies , University of London in 1968. In 1976 she received her Ph.D. from Harvard University in

4988-602: The 20th-century, the Hindi-Urdu writer Premchand and the shehnai player Bismillah Khan were associated with the city. India's oldest Sanskrit college, the Benares Sanskrit College , was founded by Jonathan Duncan , the resident of the East India Company in 1791. Later, education in Benares was greatly influenced by the rise of Indian nationalism in the late 19th-century. Annie Besant founded

5104-614: The 8th century, when Adi Shankara established the worship of Shiva as an official sect of Varanasi. Chandradeva , founder of the Gahadavala dynasty made Banaras a second capital in 1090. In 1194 CE, the Ghurid conqueror Muizzuddin Muhammad Ghuri defeated the forces of Jayachandra in a battle near Jamuna and afterwards ravaged the city of Varnasi in the course of which many temples were destroyed. Varanasi remained

5220-671: The Banaras Hindu University, and in 1927 a separate Ayurvedic College was established. There are many ayurvedic centres in Varanasi providing treatments such as Panchakarma as well as other treatments. Diana L. Eck Raised as a Christian Methodist in Montana , Eck is a member of Harvard Epworth United Methodist Church in Cambridge. She has worked for many years in Interfaith Relations with

5336-516: The Bhakti movement were born in Varanasi, including Kabir and Ravidas . In the 16th century, Rajput nobles in the service of the courts and armies of the Mughal emperor Akbar , sponsored the building or further enhancement of the major Shiva temple in the city; they also built other temples, all displaying an empire-wide architectural style. In 1740, the Banaras State , a zamindari estate

5452-522: The Court not only sealed-off the area but also restrained congregations of more than twenty mosque-goers at a time. AIM, claiming the object to be a medieval stone fountain, petitioned the Supreme Court of India for an indefinite stay of the survey and for vacating of all restrictions. However, the Court declined to grant full relief and only restored unfettered access to the mosque, before transferring

5568-602: The District Magistrate held that unlike the mosque proper, which had belonged to the Muslims exclusively, the enclosure was a common space thereby precluding any unilateral and innovative use. This principle would continue to decide multiple cases in the next few decades. Edwin Greaves, visiting the site in 1909, found that the mosque was "not greatly used", and remained an "eyesore" to the Hindus. His description of

5684-552: The Gyan Vapi pond had only began to be worshipped from around twenty years before. Visiting in September 1824, Reginald Heber found the plinth to be more revered than Ahilyabai's temple and filled with priests and devotees; the "well", fed by a subterranean channel of the Ganges, featured a stair for the devotees to descent and take a bath. Four years later, Baiza Bai , widow of the Maratha ruler Daulat Rao Scindhia , constructed

5800-610: The Kashi Vishwanath Temple; in turn, a Hindu mob, comprising mostly of Gosains , burnt the Gyanvapi Mosque, massacred the Muslims sheltering within, and then, attempted to demolish it. Several deaths, mostly of Muslims, were reported and property damage ran into lacs, before the British administration quelled the riot. Widely believed to be first significant riot in N. India under Company rule, this hastened

5916-429: The Mughal command over the city's religious sphere but instead, "transmuted Vishweshwur into the undisputed fulcrum of the city's ritual landscape". In October 1809, a riot broke between the Hindus and the Muslims out of a disputed construction at the Laat Bhairav site on the outskirts of the city. The day after, the riot spread across the city proper — a Muslim mob destroyed the Laat and proceeded to attempt demolishing

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6032-431: The PoW Act. Nonetheless, the request for survey was granted in April 2021 and a five-member committee of archaeologists — with two members from the Muslim community — was constituted to determine whether any temple existed at the site, prior to the mosque. AIM opposed such a survey and moved before the High Court, who, in September, criticized the judgement for wanton breach of judicial decorum and issued an indefinite stay on

6148-413: The annual meeting of RSS adopted a resolution to similar effects. The site continues to remain volatile — Dumper finds it to be the "focus of religious tension" in the town. Access to the mosque remains prohibited for non-Muslims, photography is prohibited, the approaching alleys have light police-pickets (alongside RAF units ), the walls are fenced with barbed wire, and a watchtower exists too. The mosque

6264-406: The architectural beauty of the Vindu Madhava temple on the side of the Ganges. The road infrastructure was also improved during this period. It was extended from Kolkata to Peshawar by Emperor Sher Shah Suri ; later during the British Raj it came to be known as the famous Grand Trunk Road . In 1656, Emperor Aurangzeb ordered the destruction of many temples and the building of mosques, causing

6380-400: The area under Varanasi Nagar Nigam has a population of 1,100,748 with a ratio of 883 females for every 1,000 males. The literacy rate in the urban agglomeration is 77% while that in the municipal corporation area is 78%. Approximately 138,000 people in the municipal area live in slums. Religion in Varanasi City (2011). Hinduism is predominantly followed in Varanasi with Islam being

6496-484: The authority. The vice-chairman of the Varanasi Development Authority is Pulkit Khare. The Varanasi Municipal Corporation oversees civic activities in the city; the head of the corporation is the mayor, and the executive and administration of the corporation is the responsibility of the municipal commissioner, who is appointed by the government of Uttar Pradesh and is either an IAS officer or Provincial Civil Service (PCS) officer of high seniority. The mayor of Varanasi

6612-410: The calendar in order to revise existing astronomical tables. Tourism in the city began to flourish in the 18th century. As the Mughal suzerainty weakened, the Benares zamindari estate became Banaras State, thus Balwant Singh of the Narayan dynasty regained control of the territories and declared himself Maharaja of Benares in 1740. The strong clan organisation on which they rested, brought success to

6728-498: The cellars. On 31 January 2024, the Civil Court allowed a Hindu petitioner to take possession of the cellar and initiate worship. It was reported that, according to the Emperor's [Aurangzeb] command, his officers had demolished the temple of Viswanath at Kashi. Varanasi Varanasi ( ISO : Vārāṇasī , Hindi: [ʋaːˈraːɳəsi] ; also Benares , Banaras ( Banārasa [bəˈnaːrəs] ) or Kashi ( Kāśī [ˈka:ʃi] ) )

6844-508: The central government and oversees the elections held in the city. The DM is also responsible for maintaining law and order in the city, hence the SSP of Varanasi also reports to the DM of Varanasi. The DM is assisted by a Chief Development Officer (CDO), four Additional District Magistrates (ADM) (Finance/Revenue, City, Protocol, Executive), one chief revenue officer (CRO), one City Magistrate (CM), and four Additional City Magistrates (ACM). The district has three tehsils , each headed by

6960-443: The city and employed in the tannery industry. Numerous eminent scholars and preachers visited the city from across India and South Asia. Guru Nanak visited Varanasi for Maha Shivaratri in 1507. Kashi (Varanasi) played a large role in the founding of Sikhism . In 1567 or thereabouts, the Mughal emperor Jallaludin Muhammad Akbar sacked the city of Varanasi on his march from Allahabad (modern-day Prayagraj ). However, later

7076-474: The city around 635 CE, attested that the city was a centre of religious and artistic activities, and that it extended for about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) along the western bank of the Ganges. When Xuanzang visited Varanasi in the 7th century, he named it "Polonise" ( Chinese : 婆羅痆斯 ; pinyin : Póluó niè sī ; lit. 'Brahma') and wrote that the city had some 30 temples with about 30 monks. The city's religious importance continued to grow in

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7192-414: The city include Adampura, Anandbagh, Bachchhaon, Bangali Tola, Bhelpura, Bulanala, Chaitganj, Chaukaghat, Chowk, Dhupchandi, Dumraon, Gandhinagar, Gautam Nagar, Giri Nagar, Gopal Vihar, Guru Nanak Nagar, Jaitpura, Kail Garh, Khanna, Kotwali, Lanka Manduadih, Luxa, Maheshpur, Mahmoorganj, Maulvibagh, Nagwar, Naipokhari, Shivala, Siddhagiribagh, and Sigra. Located in the Indo-Gangetic Plains of North India,

7308-443: The city magistrate came down with his men and ordered the worshippers to vacate the site; days later, the mosque committee unsuccessfully demanded before the District Magistrate that the restriction on crowd-overflow be waived off. It was also demanded, unsuccessfully, that Muslims be allowed to offer prayers anywhere in the complex. In December 1935, local Muslims attacked the Police after being prevented from offering prayers outside of

7424-418: The city of Varanasi in this state, the hanging head of Brahma dropped from Shiva's hand and disappeared in the ground. Varanasi is therefore considered an extremely holy site. The Pandavas , the protagonists of the Hindu epic Mahabharata , are said to have visited the city in search of Shiva to atone for their sins of fratricide and brahmahatya that they had committed during the Kurukshetra War . It

7540-441: The city to experience a temporary setback. However, after Aurangzeb's death, most of India was ruled by a confederacy of pro- Hindu kings . Much of modern Varanasi was built during this time, especially during the 18th century by the Maratha and Bhumihar Brahmin rulers. The kings governing Varanasi continued to wield power and importance through much of the British Raj period, including the Maharaja of Benares, or simply called by

7656-404: The city's infrastructure and basic amenities of health services, drinking water supply and sanitation. Rev. M. A. Sherring in his book The Sacred City of Hindus: An account of Benaras in ancient and modern times published in 1868 refers to a census conducted by James Prinsep and put the total number of temples in the city to be around 1000 during 1830s. He writes, The history of a country

7772-492: The country — and even administrative elites — started investing in Brahminising the cityscapes of Banaras, to claim cultural authority back in their homelands. The Marathas, in particular, became highly vocal about religious injustice at the hands of Aurangzeb and Nana Fadnavis proposed demolishing the mosque and reconstructing a Vishweshwar temple. In 1742, Malhar Rao Holkar proposed a similar course of action. Despite such consistent efforts, these plans did not materialize due to

7888-450: The date of 24 March 2021 was headed by a Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), who is an IPS officer, and is assisted by six Superintendents of Police (SP)/ Additional Superintendents of Police (Addl. SP) (City, Rural Area, Crime, Traffic, Protocol and Protocol), who are either IPS officers or PPS officers. Each of the several police circles is headed by a Circle Officer (CO) in the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police. The last SSP

8004-423: The demolition. Ian Copland and others support Iqtidar Alam Khan who had concluded Aurangzeb to have built more temples than he had destroyed; they caution that the religious politics of the Mughal emperors ought not to be viewed in light of their personal piety but in the sociopolitical contingencies of their times. The Oxford World History of Empire notes that while the demolition of Gyanvapi might be interpreted as

8120-519: The desecration, Brahmin priests were allowed to reside in the premises of the mosque and exert their privileges on issues of Hindu pilgrimage. The remnants of the temple, especially the plinth, continued to remain a popular hub for Hindu pilgrims. The mosque came to be known as the Alamgiri Mosque — after the name of Aurangzeb — but with time, the current name was adopted in common parlance, deriving from an adjoining sacred waterbody — Gyan Vapi ("Well of Knowledge") — which, in all likelihood, even predated

8236-482: The dismantled Vishweshwar temple. The temple-plinth and the Gyan Vapi well (pond) were demarcated separately from the mosque. The Amber court went on to purchase significant land around the Gyanvapi precincts, including from Muslim inhabitants, with an aim to rebuild the temple — but without demolishing the mosque — yet failed. Eventually, an "Adi-Vishweshwar Temple" was constructed at the initiative of Bishan Singh's successor Sawai Jai Singh II , about 150 yards anterior to

8352-632: The district court, by both the plaintiff and the defendants on disparate grounds, which were merged and the civil court was ordered to adjudicate the dispute, afresh, after considering all evidence. The mosque management committee successfully challenged this allowance in the Allahabad High Court , who passed an order in October 1998, staying the proceedings. After a limbo of 22 years, the Civil court recommenced proceedings after petitioners cited

8468-596: The division, is in charge of infrastructure development in his division, and is also responsible for maintaining law and order in the division. The District Magistrate of Varanasi reports to the Divisional Commissioner . The Commissioner is Deepak Agarwal. Varanasi district administration is headed by the District Magistrate of Varanasi, who is an IAS officer . The DM is in charge of property records and revenue collection for

8584-460: The first same-sex couple to be masters (now called faculty deans) of Lowell House , one of the twelve undergraduate residences at Harvard. In 1995, Eck was the recipient of the University of Louisville and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary Grawemeyer Award in Religion. In 1996, Prof. Eck was appointed to a U.S. State Department Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom Abroad,

8700-709: The first time only in the first decade of the twelfth century; however, they soon become extremely abundant esp. as the Avimukteshwara seals, prevalent for centuries, die out. Thus, to Desai, it appears unlikely that there existed any prominent-enough Vishweshwar temple in Banaras, during the Ghurid raids (c. late-12th century) — or even during Razia Sultana's reign (fl. 1236) —, to have attracted particular attention in conflicts. She emphasizes that Hindu traditions were not timeless but fluid in time and space — they shared

8816-518: The four principles of pluralism: Eck's concept of pluralism has been influential within the wider interfaith movement, and is cited by the Interfaith Youth Core as foundational to its organisational values. She is the founder of The Pluralism Project which supports the study of pluralism in urban areas of the United States, including the application of Noahidism in the United States . In 1998, Eck and Dorothy Austin became

8932-404: The growth of competitive communalism in Banaras. In memorials submitted to the government, about a year after the riot, the Hindus had accused Aurangzeb of being a bigoted ruler who had wrested Vishweshwar — among other temples — from them and pleaded for its restoration; the Muslims, in turn, accused the Hindus of having a perennial habit of claiming random mosques as Hindu shrines and asserted that

9048-482: The history of the mosque, as purveyed by Hindus, center around a litany of repeated destruction and re-construction of the original temple which is situated in contrast to the timelessness of the lingam. The original temple was allegedly uprooted by Ghurids in 1193/1194 CE, upon the defeat of Jayachandra of Kannauj ; the Razia Mosque was constructed in its place, a few years later. The temple would be rebuilt by

9164-609: The idea that Aurangzeb had demolished any temple to construct the mosque. In the meanwhile, tensions increased in the wake of the demolition of the Babri mosque in December 1992, even though the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, including those who had supported the demand for reclaiming Babri mosque , opposed the VHP's demand for the Gyanvapi Mosque since it was actively used. Further, VHP leaders issued multiple calls across

9280-600: The ideal of brotherhood in order to promote Indian cultural values and to remove ill-will among different sections of the Indian population." Varanasi was ceded to the Union of India in 1947, becoming part of Uttar Pradesh after Indian independence. Vibhuti Narayan Singh incorporated his territories into the United Provinces in 1949. Narendra Modi , prime minister of India since 2014, has represented Varanasi in

9396-504: The immediate south of the mosque — this, however, had a markedly different spatial configuration and was ritually inconsistent. Compounded with the belief that the original lingam was hidden by the priests inside the Gyan Vapi during Aurangzeb's raid, the plinth would attract greater devotion than the temple for well over a century. Under British Raj, the Gyanvapi, which was once the subject of whimsical Mughal politics, got transformed into

9512-459: The inscription claims him to have transported Shiva from Banaras to Lalitpur since "he [Shiva] was dejected by terrible yavanas [Muslims]." In 1698, Bishan Singh , the Kachhwaha ruler of Amber , had his agents survey the town — rather its ritual landscape — and gather details about the land-use patterns; their maps (' tarah ') were explicit in holding the Gyanvapi mosque to lay at the site of

9628-507: The land is very fertile because low-level floods in the Ganges continually replenish the soil. Varanasi is situated between the Ganges confluences with two rivers: the Varuna and the Assi stream. The distance between the two confluences is around 2 miles (4 km), and serves as a sacred journeying route for Hindus, which culminates with a visit to a Sakshi Vinayak Temple. Varanasi experiences

9744-539: The largest minority. Nearly 70% of the population follows Hinduism. The city also agglomerate different religions such as Christianity, Sikhism, Jainism and Buddhism. The city is also a centre for Buddhist pilgrimage. At Sarnath , just northeast of Varanasi, the Buddha gave his first teaching ( Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta ) after attaining enlightenment . According to the Buddhavaṃsa , a hagiographical Buddhist text, Varanasi

9860-438: The late 16th century. The temple contributed to the establishment of Banaras as a vaunted center of Brahminic assembly, drawing scholars across the subcontinent esp. Maharashtra, for adjudicating a spectrum of disputes concerned with Hindu religious law. Architectural historian Madhuri Desai hypothesizes that the temple was a system of intersecting iwans —a borrowing from Mughal architecture— with prominent pointed arches; it had

9976-776: The late-thirteenth century, a temple for Vishweshwar/Vishvanath finds mentions in both literary and inscriptional records — an inscription issued by Narasimha III in 1279 endowed the revenue of a village for payment toward taxes by the inhabitants of Banaras and for services at the Visvesvar Temple; an inscription from 1296, used as spolia in the Lal Darwaza Mosque , refers to a temple for Vishweshwar; and, Bhatta's Tristhalisetu (c. mid-16th century) mentions about how at times, "though there may be no Vishweshwar lingam due to mlechhas or other evil kings", yet pilgrimage must go on. Richard G. Salomon and others read this as

10092-576: The left crescent-shaped bank of the Ganges, averaging between 15 metres (50 ft) and 21 metres (70 ft) above the river. The city is the headquarters of Varanasi district . By road, Varanasi is located 797 kilometres (495 mi) south-east of New Delhi , 320 kilometres (200 mi) south-east of Lucknow , 121 kilometres (75 mi) east of Prayagraj , and 63 kilometres (39 mi) south of Jaunpur . The "Varanasi Urban Agglomeration" – an agglomeration of seven urban sub-units – covers an area of 112 km (43 sq mi). Neighbourhoods of

10208-454: The lesser known Hindu princes. There were as many as 100,000 men backing the power of the Benares rajas in what later became the districts of Benares , Gorakhpur and Azamgarh . This proved a decisive advantage when the dynasty faced a rival and the nominal suzerain, the Nawab of Oudh , in the 1750s and the 1760s. An exhausting guerrilla war , waged by the Benares ruler against

10324-572: The likes of Maulana Abdus Salam Nomani (d. 1987), the erstwhile Imam of the Gyanvapi mosque, who posited that the mosque was constructed much before Aurangzeb's reign; Shah Jahan had allegedly started a madrasah at the mosque in 1638–1639 CE. The mosque management committee, Anjuman Intezamia Masjid (AIM) supports Nomani and maintains that both the (new) Kashi Vishwanath Temple and the Gyanvapi mosque were constructed by Akbar, true to his spirit of religious tolerance. Local Muslims emphatically reject that Aurangzeb had demolished any temple to commission

10440-809: The local population, as do the Banaras Locomotive Works and Bharat Heavy Electricals . The city is known worldwide for its many ghats , steps leading down the steep river bank to the water, where pilgrims perform rituals. Of particular note are the Dashashwamedh Ghat , the Panchganga Ghat, the Manikarnika Ghat , and the Harishchandra Ghat, the last two being where Hindus cremate their dead. The Hindu genealogy registers at Varanasi are kept here. Among

10556-524: The mid-90s for Hindus to congregate in large numbers on the occasion of Maha Shivaratri and worship the Shringar Gauri image at the southern wall; public response was poor and no fracas occurred due to a proactive state administration. Hearings commenced in the civil court from June 1997. Four months later, the suit was held to be summarily barred by the PoW act. Three revision petitions were filed before

10672-458: The mosque proper, injuring several officials. This gave way to a law-suit urging that the entire complex be treated as an integral part of the mosque — a waqf property — by customary rights, if not by legal rights; the contention was rejected by the lower Court in August 1937 and an appeal was dismissed by the Allahabad High Court with costs, in 1941. In March 1959, Hindu Mahasabha conducted

10788-646: The mosque. Nonetheless, there has been little engagement with these claims in historical scholarship; Desai interprets Nomani's arguments as a strategic "rewriting of history" arising out of the Hindu-hegemonic nature of discourse in postcolonial Benaras. In 1678, the chief minister of the Malla ruler of Lalitpur constructed the Bhaideval temple for Vishveshwara in the Patan Durbar Square —

10904-499: The mosque; the construction was borrowed from contemporary Mughal architecture — with Desai finding the typology to be more reminiscent of a Mughal tomb than temple — in what was a pointer to imperial patronage. By the early 18th century, Banaras was under the effective control of the Nawabs of Lucknow ; simultaneously, with the advent of the East India Company and their increasingly severe annexation policies, multiple rulers from across

11020-620: The notable temples in Varanasi are the Kashi Vishwanath Temple of Shiva , the Sankat Mochan Hanuman Temple , and the Durga Temple . The city has long been an educational and musical centre : many prominent Indian philosophers, poets, writers, and musicians live or have lived in the city, and it was the place where the Benares gharana form of Hindustani classical music was developed. In

11136-704: The onus of deciding on merits to the District Court. On 25 January 2024, the Archeological Survey of India presented its survey report to the court. It was determined that there existed a multi-chambered Hindu temple at the site prior to the construction of the mosque; most of the temple pillars were reused and they still had multiple votive inscriptions — in Devanagri , Kannada and Telugu scripts — featuring various names of Shiva. In addition, several sculptures of Hindu gods were found buried in

11252-582: The pavilion paralleled Sherring's; the well commanded significant devotion too — however, pilgrims were not allowed direct access and instead, had to received its sacred water from a priest, who sat on an adjoining stone-screen. In the meanwhile, legal disputes continued unabated. In 1929 and 1930, the cleric of Gyanvapi was cautioned into not letting the crowd overflow into the enclosure on the occasion of Jumu'atul-Wida , lest Hindu pilgrims face inconvenience. Subsequently, in January 1935, upon such an occurrence,

11368-491: The people of Benares as Kashi Naresh . The Kingdom of Benares was given official status by the Mughals in 1737, and the kingdom started in this way and continued as a dynasty-governed area until Indian independence in 1947, during the reign of Vibhuti Narayan Singh . In the 18th century, Muhammad Shah ordered the construction of an observatory on the Ganges, attached to Man Mandir Ghat, designed to discover imperfections in

11484-407: The position that "my way is the only way". An inclusivist might consider that there are grains of truth in other ways, but ultimately understands that "my way is the better way". In contrast, a pluralist response seeks to find new ways of positively engaging with diversity, exploring differences whilst seeking common understanding. On the website for Harvard University's Pluralism Project, Eck describes

11600-437: The precincts. M. A. Sherring, writing in 1868, noted the Hindus to have claimed the plinth as well as the southern wall; the Muslims were allowed to exert control over the mosque but quite reluctantly, and permitted to only use the side entrance. A peepal tree overhanging the gateway was also venerated, and Muslims were not allowed to "pluck a single leaf from it." In 1886, adjudicating on a dispute about illegal constructions,

11716-594: The same name of 2,500 years ago. The Lion capital of Ashoka at nearby Sarnath has been interpreted to be a commemoration of the Buddha's first sermon there in the fifth century BCE. In the 8th century, Adi Shankara established the worship of Shiva as an official sect of Varanasi. Tulsidas wrote his Awadhi language epic, the Ramcharitmanas , a Bhakti movement reworking of the Sanskrit Ramayana , in Varanasi. Several other major figures of

11832-531: The scarce literature about the temple, prior to thirteenth century, with the evidence from seals by proposing that a temple, located at the current-day Gyanvapi precincts but devoted to Avimukteshwara, was indeed destroyed in 1194; he cites Hasan Nizami's chronicling of wanton temple-demolition during Qutb ud-Din Aibak's raid on Banaras in support. At that time, Vishweshwar only occupied the adjacent hill-top that still bears an eponymous name. Soon Razia Sultana would have

11948-405: The site; the Court ordered in her favor and had the house demolished. Soon, legal disputes became frequent — in 1852, a dispute arose concerning the rights of cutting of a tree in a compound; two years later, a plea to install a new Nandi idol in the complex was rejected; etc. — and hostilities grew. In 1854, a Bengali pilgrim noted that Muslim guards were to be "either bribed or hoodwinked" to access

12064-463: 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 is one of the world's oldest continually inhabited cities . Kashi, its ancient name, was associated with a kingdom of

12180-471: The supremacy of Avimukteshwar and does not mention Vishweshwar; however, certain corrupt manuscripts include it, suggesting a late interpolation. Krtyakalpataru , an encyclopedia of traditional Hindu law, written during the reign of Govindachandra (c. early 12th century) quoted a detailed description of Banaras — including an enumeration of all religious sanctuaries — from the Linga Purana ; Kedareshwur

12296-407: The survey. However, on 12 May 2022, the Civil court — adjudicating on a fresh plea by five Hindu women to worship the Shringar Gauri image at the southern wall — allowed a video-survey of the site. The survey went ahead notwithstanding local Muslim protests and accusations of bias by AIM. An object was discovered on draining the ablution pool which was alleged to be a shivling by the petitioners and

12412-410: The temple. Scholars attribute political reasons rather than religious zealotry to be the primary motivation for Aurangzeb's demolition. Catherine Asher, a historian of Indo-Muslim architecture, notes that not only did the zamindars of Banaras frequently rebel against Aurangzeb but also the local Brahmins were oft accused of interfering with Islamic teaching. Consequently, she argues that the demolition

12528-520: The time of Maitreya . Excavations in 2014 led to the discovery of artefacts dating back to 800 BCE. Further excavations at Aktha and Ramnagar , two sites in the vicinity of the city, unearthed artefacts dating back to 1800 BCE, supporting the view that the area was inhabited by this time. During the time of Gautama Buddha , Varanasi was part of the Kingdom of Kashi . The celebrated Chinese traveller Xuanzang , also known as Hiuen Tsiang, who visited

12644-532: The time of the 2011 Census of India , 83.87% of the population of Varansi Municipal Corporation and Cantonment Board spoke Hindi , 9.03% Urdu , 4.81% Bhojpuri , and 0.92% Bengali as their first language. Varanasi division which consists of four districts, and is headed by the Divisional Commissioner of Varanasi, who is an IAS officer of high seniority, the Commissioner is the head of local government institutions (including Municipal Corporations) in

12760-915: The world. In 1994, Diana Eck and the Pluralism Project published "World Religions in Boston, A Guide to Communities and Resources" which introduces the many religious traditions and communities in Boston , Massachusetts - from Native Americans , Christians , Jews , Muslims , Buddhists , Hindus , Sikhs , Jains , to Zoroastrians . In 1997, Diana Eck and the Pluralism Project published an educational multimedia CD Rom, On Common Ground: World Religions in America (Columbia University Press). This CD Rom received awards from Media & Methods, EdPress, and Educom. These resources are now online at www.pluralism.org. In 2001, her book A New Religious America: How

12876-504: Was Amit Pathak. On 25 March 2021 the Government of Uttar Pradesh passed an order to divide the Varanasi police into Varanasi City Police and Rural Police. Since then City Police is headed by the Commissioner of Police (CP) , who is an IPS officer of ADGP rank, and is assisted by two additional commissioners of police (Addl. CP) who is of DIG rank, and two deputy commissioners of police (DCP) who are of SP rank. And Rural Police

12992-580: Was a political message in that it served as a warning for the Zamindars and Hindu religious leaders, who wielded great influence in the city; Cynthia Talbot, Richard M. Eaton , Satish Chandra and Audrey Truschke agree on similar grounds. O' Hanlon highlights that the temple was demolished at a time when the conflict with Marathas was at its zenith. In general, scholars emphasize upon how Aurangzeb granted protection and patronage to several temples, ghats, and maths, including in Banaras, both before and after

13108-663: Was established in the city. Under the Treaty of Faizabad, the East India Company acquired Benares in 1775. The city was later annexed under the Benares Division of the Ceded and Conquered Provinces in 1805, the North-Western Provinces in 1836, United Provinces in 1902, and after India's independence of Uttar Pradesh in 1950. Silk weaving , carpets, crafts and tourism employ a significant number of

13224-478: Was founded by Shiva , one of three principal deities along with Brahma and Vishnu . During a conflict between Brahma and Shiva, one of Brahma's five heads was torn off by Shiva. As was the custom, the victor carried the slain adversary's head in his hand and let it hang down from his hand as an act of ignominy, and a sign of his own bravery. A bridle was also put into the mouth. Shiva thus dishonoured Brahma's head, and kept it with him at all times. When he came to

13340-702: Was prominently included among them. In 1991, a title-dispute suit was filed by three local Hindus in the Varanasi Civil Court on behalf of three Hindu deities — Shiva, Shringar Gauri, and Ganesha — for handing over the entire site to Hindu community to facilitate the reconstruction of temple; AIM, acting as one of the defendants, contended that the petition contravened the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act (henceforth PoW), which had expressly prohibited courts from entertaining any litigation that sought to convert places of worship. Nonetheless, AIM contested

13456-459: Was the only linga that was recorded to have been housed in a temple, Avimukteshwara was mentioned to be in the north of a sacred well, and of the two references to Vishweshwar, one is a literal reference to Shiva being the "Lord of the Universe" while the other is a linga. None of the extant Gahadavala inscriptions refer to a Vishveshwar shrine. Seals, excavated from Rajghat, mention Vishveshwar for

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