Welcome to the City of Lord Shiva "Varanasi"

Varanasi also known as Banaras and Kashi. The sacred city on the river Ganges is one of the oldest living cities in the world. It is the place where Shiva, the Lord of all, is said to have made his permanent home since the dawn of creation.

This is the dwelling place of Shiva, who is known also by his ancient name, "Rudra". In Banaras there is a popular saying, "Kashi ke kankar Shiva Shankar hain", -"The very stones of Kashi are Shiva." Shiva dwells not only in the city's great temples, but in the very ground and substance of the place itself.

Not only are the stones saturated with Shiva, but, according to the mahatamyas, so is everything else in Kashi: the trees, animals and people of the city. "Whatever touches Kashi, that thing becomes her.

Kashi transforms what is ordinary into what is called Rudramaya-"made of substance of Rudra himself." Kashi is called Rudravasa, not because Rudra lives here, but because everyone who lives here is Rudra.

Mahashamshan:The Great Cremation Ground.
	Kashi is the Mahashamshan. You can burn the dead anywhere here. The whole of Kashi is a cremation ground. In the rest of India the cremation ground, called the shamshan, is specifically marked off outside of town, often to the south, the direction of Yama, the Lord of Death. The cremation ground is the most inauspicious of places because of the ritual pollution imparted to it by the bodies of the dead. Yet in Kashi, the cremation ground, particularly at Manikarnika Ghat, is considered the most auspicious of places.

Varanasi is a city of wealth, exuberance, and life. It is also a city of poverty, confusion, suffering and death. But the City of Light, they say, extends one's vision across the river of life and death to the far shore of immortality.

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