Varanasi- Hindu LocationLocation · Landmark"City of Light"

The Eternal City

The Kashi Khanda of the Skanda Purana declares that Shiva founded Varanasi at the dawn of creation. While other sacred sites are destroyed and rebuilt across cosmic cycles, Varanasi rests upon Shiva's trident, lifted above the waters of dissolution when the universe is unmade. The city sits where the Ganga makes a distinctive northward turn, and the Kashi Khanda states that Shiva whispers the taraka mantra, the liberating prayer, into the ear of every soul that dies within its boundaries. For this reason, devout Hindus have sought to spend their final days here, and the cremation ghats have burned without ceasing for as long as anyone can remember.

Manikarnika

The Kashi Khanda records how the holiest cremation ghat received its name. Vishnu dug a sacred pool at this spot with his Sudarshana Chakra and filled it with his own perspiration while performing fierce austerities. When Parvati bathed in the pool, her earring, her manikarnika, fell into the water. Shiva came searching for it, and the place became the most sacred ground in the city. The cremation fires there are said to have been lit by Shiva himself. They have never gone out.