Mystical systems
Varanasi
Direct answer
Varanasi: Varanasi, also known as Kashi and Banaras, is a city on the Ganges in northern India, held by Hindus to be the city of Shiva, where to die and be cremated is believed to bring liberation.
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At a glance
- Also called
- kashi, banaras, benares, kashi vishwanath
- Found in
- Mystical Systems
- Related
- Pilgrimage, Kumbh Mela, Sadhu, Moksha
Varanasi, also known as Kashi and Banaras, is a city on the Ganges in northern India, held by Hindus to be the city of Shiva, where to die and be cremated is believed to bring liberation.
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Why is Varanasi a holy city?
Varanasi lines the west bank of the Ganges for several kilometres, and its river front is a wall of stone steps, the ghats, more than eighty of them, leading down to the water. At dawn pilgrims bathe facing the rising Sun across the river. At dusk priests at Dashashwamedh ghat perform the offering of lamps to the river. Behind the steps a maze of lanes holds the Kashi Vishwanath temple of Shiva and hundreds of smaller shrines.
For many Hindus the city is above all the place to die. Hindu tradition teaches that Shiva whispers a saving mantra into the ear of anyone who dies in Kashi, releasing them from rebirth. The old and the ill come to wait for death in hostels kept for the purpose, and at two ghats, Manikarnika and Harishchandra, the funeral pyres burn day and night. A few kilometres away is Sarnath, where the Buddha is said to have given his first sermon.
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What sets Varanasi apart
Varanasi reverses the usual Hindu feeling about death and its places. A cremation ground is ordinarily outside the town and unlucky; here the chief burning ghat is at the centre of the sacred river front and is counted the holiest spot in the city. The Ganges also bends at Varanasi to flow north for a stretch, back towards its mountain source, which tradition takes as a sign. The city faces east across an empty far bank, so every sunrise is seen over water.
- Other names: Kashi and Banaras, or Benares
- Place: Uttar Pradesh, on the west bank of the Ganges
- Presiding deity: Shiva, as Vishwanath, lord of all
- Ghats: more than eighty flights of steps to the river
- Cremation ghats: Manikarnika and Harishchandra
- Nearby: Sarnath, site of the first sermon of the Buddha
Often mistaken for something else: The Kumbh Mela is a gathering that comes to four river towns by turns on a cycle of years; Varanasi is a fixed city whose holiness is permanent and draws pilgrims every day.
The story behind Varanasi
Excavations on the northern edge of the city show a settlement from the early first millennium BCE, which makes Varanasi one of the oldest continuously lived-in cities of India. It was a seat of learning when the Buddha came to Sarnath in the fifth century BCE. Its temples were destroyed and rebuilt several times under the Delhi sultans and the Mughals; the present Vishwanath temple was built in 1780 by Ahilyabai Holkar, queen of Indore. Most of the stone ghats date from the eighteenth century.
Why Varanasi matters
Varanasi is the model of a holy city in Hinduism, where river, temple and funeral ground meet, and where death is treated as a goal of pilgrimage.
How to read Varanasi
Hindus go there to bathe, to worship Shiva, to perform rites for ancestors and to scatter ashes; scholars and musicians know it as an old centre of Sanskrit and of the arts.
Varanasi in practice: an example
A boat at sunrise drifts past bathers, washermen, priests under umbrellas and the smoke of Manikarnika, all within one bend of the river.
Where readings of Varanasi go wrong
The river at Varanasi is heavily polluted, and the cremation grounds are places of mourning where photography is unwelcome.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Mystical Systems
- Aliases
- kashi, banaras, benares, varanasi ghats, varanasi holy city, kashi vishwanath
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
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Common questions
Why is Varanasi a holy city?
Hindus regard it as the city of Shiva, founded by him and never abandoned by him, set on the sacred Ganges. Bathing there is held to cleanse, and dying there is believed to free the soul from rebirth.
Are Varanasi, Kashi and Banaras the same place?
Yes. Kashi, the luminous, is the oldest name. Varanasi is taken from two streams, the Varuna and the Assi, that bound the city. Banaras, or Benares, is a later form of Varanasi.
How old is Varanasi?
Archaeology traces settlement to the early first millennium BCE, roughly three thousand years ago. Claims of a far greater age come from religious tradition and are not supported by excavation.
