Varanasi Ghats - Panchganga Ghat

Varanasi Ghats - Panchganga Ghat :

Where five rivers are supposed to meet, dominating the ghat is Auangazeb's small mosque, also known as the Alamgir Mosque, which he built on the site of a large Vishnu temple erected by the Maratha chieftain Beni Madhav Rao Scindia. Beyond Lakshmanbala Ghat, with its commanding views of the river. Lies one of the most dramatic and controversial ghats, Panchganga Ghat, dominated by Varanasi's largest riverside building, the great mosque of Alamgir, known locally as Beni Madhav-ka-Darera. With its minarets now much shortened, the mosque stands on the ruins of what must have been one of the city's greatest temples, Bindu Madhava, a huge Vishnu temple that extended from Panchganga to Rama Ghat before it was destroyed by Aurangzeb and replaced by an impressive mosque. Panchganga also bears testimony to more favourable Hindu-Muslim relations, being the site of the initiation of the medieval saint of the Sufi-Sant tradition, Kabir , the son of a humble Muslim weaver who is venerated by Hindus and Muslims alike.

Along the river front lies a curious array of three-sided cells, submerged during the rainy season, some with lingams, others with images of Vishnu, and some empty and used for meditation or yoga. One of these is a shrine to the Five (panch) Rivers (ganga), which, according to legend, have their confluence here: the two symbolic rivulets of Dhutapapa (Cleansed of Sin) and the Kirana (Sun's Ray), which join the mythical confluence of the Yamuna and the Yamuna and the Sarasvati with the Ganga.