Vishvanath

Form of the god Shiva, in his manifestation as the “Lord of the Universe” at the
Vishvanath temple in Benares. Shiva is
present at Vishvanath in the form of a
linga, the pillar-shaped image that is his
symbolic form; the Vishvanath linga is
one of the twelve jyotirlingas, a network
of sites deemed especially sacred to
Shiva, and at which Shiva is uniquely
present. Benares, or Varanasi, is one of
the most sacred cities in India; it is
considered particularly sacred to Shiva,
and of all the Shiva temples there,
Vishvanath is the most important. The
original temple was destroyed by the
Moghul emperor Aurangzeb, who built
a mosque on the site, and the only
remaining part of the original temple is
the Gyan Vapi (“well of knowledge”),
into which the original Shiva linga was
reportedly cast (to save it from desecration by Aurangzeb’s soldiers). The present temple was built in 1776 by the
Maratha queen Ahalya Bai Holkar, on a
site adjoining the original temple. It was
later roofed with gold by Maharaja
Ranjit Singh of Lahore, and thus one of
its nicknames is the “Golden Temple.”
Even in preceding centuries the history and proximity of the Vishvanath
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Vishvanath
Vishvanath Temple
temple and Aurangzeb’s mosque made
for delicate relations between the Hindu
and Muslim communities, and like
many northern Indian cities Benares has
seen its share of bloodshed between
these two communities. In recent times
the destruction of the original Vishvanath
temple has been taken up as a political
issue by the Vishva Hindu Parishad
(VHP), a Hindu activist organization
calling for the “return” of this and other
northern Indian sites by force if necessary. The VHP’s presence and activity have
significantly escalated tensions between
Hindus and Muslims as a whole. Given
the political gains that these confrontational strategies have brought, it seems
likely that they will continue in the future
and that the Vishvanath temple will be a
site connected with conflict.