Varanasi Holy City

Varanasi, also called Benares or Kashi, stands on the Ganges and was the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Kashi in the first millennium BCE. Hindu tradition holds that Shiva founded this holy city, where death and cremation are believed to release the soul from rebirth. Pilgrims bathe from its ghats; the Kashi Vishwanath temple is one of the twelve Jyotirlinga shrines of Shiva.

The Ghurid ruler Muhammad of Ghor sacked Varanasi in 1194 and destroyed the original Vishwanath temple. Rebuilt under Akbar, it was demolished by Aurangzeb in 1669, who raised the Gyanvapi Mosque on its site. The Maratha queen Ahilyabai Holkar built the present temple nearby in 1780.

The Bhakti saints Kabir and Ravidas were born here. As Mughal power weakened, the Kingdom of Benares emerged under Balwant Singh in 1740 and passed to the East India Company in 1775.