Located in Vishwanath Gali of Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, Kashi Vishwanath is one of the most famous temples of Bhagwaan Shiva. The Temple, standing on the river Ganga’s western bank, is one among the twelve Jyotirlingams of Shiva Temples. Kashi was the older name of the city Varanasi and the main deity was called Vishwanath since the beginning leading the temple to be popularly known as Kashi Vishwanath Temple. It is believed that visiting the temple and bathing in the water of the holy river Ganga is one of the many methods to attain Moksha. Hundreds of temples have been built in India in the same structural style as the Kashi Vishwanath temple because of its immense popularity. Many legends have recorded that the true devotee achieves freedom from death and hell by worshipping Bhagwan Shiva and are taken directly to his abode on Mount Kailasha by his messengers and not to Yamaraja.
The temple had been demolished by many Muslim rulers. Aurangzeb demolished it to construct Gyanwapi Mosque. The current structure was built on an adjacent site by Ahilya Bai, a Maratha ruler of Indore in 1780.
History
The temple has got a place in Puranas such as Skanda Purana. The original temple was demolished by the army of Aibak when he defeated the king of Kannauj. Then a Gujarati merchant rebuilt it during the reign of Delhi Sultan Iltutmish. Again the demolition took place during the rule of either Hussain Shah Sharqi or Sikandar Lodhi. During Akbar’s rule, Raja Man Singh built the temple and it was further re-built by Todar Mal with Akbar’s funding at its original site in 1585.
The Legend
Going by Shiva Purana, once Brahma (the creator) and Vishnu (the preserver) argued about who was supreme. Shiva, to test them pierced the three worlds as a huge endless pillar of light, the jyotirlinga. To deduce the supremacy, Vishnu took the form of Varaha and began in search of the bottom while Brahma took the form of a Swan to fly to the pillar’s top. Brahma, filled with arrogance lied that he had found the bottom and offered a katuki flower as a witness. Vishnu confessed with the modesty of being unable to find the bottom. Brahma’s dishonesty angered Shiva and he took the form of Bhairava. He cut off Brahma’s lying fifth head and cursed him that he would never be worshipped on earth while Bhagwan Vishnu would be worshipped as equal to Shiva with his own temples till eternity. The jyotirlinga is an ancient axis Mundi symbol that represents the supreme formless reality at the core of creation, out of which the form Shiva appears. The Manikarnika ghat on the banks of river Ganga near the temple is considered as Shakti Peetha.