A numbered path around the Dham: new boards map the darshan order for 18 shrines

First-time visitors to Kashi Vishwanath Dham almost always ask the same thing once they have bowed at the main shrine: after Baba Vishwanath, where next? The temple administration has now answered it in signage. A board and a map have gone up inside the complex laying out a numbered sequence for the darshan of 18 shrines, so pilgrims can walk the circuit in order instead of stopping strangers to ask. The route starts at Baba Vishwanath — number one — and moves counter-clockwise through the campus. Along the way it takes in Tarakeshwar, the Navagraha Mandap, Bhuvaneshwar, Badrinath, Annapurna, Bhairav, Kubereshwar, Vyaseshwar, Gyan Vinayak, Parvati, Vighnanayak Ganesh, Akshayvat Hanuman, Dandapani, Vishnu, Virupaksheshwar, Vaikunth and Satyanarayan. Nandi, facing Gyanvapi, sits at number eight; the Gyanvapi well is number eleven. The closing stops bring Ganga, Yamuna, Saraswati and Ganesh together at the end of the walk. The panel also carries a QR code. Detailed descriptions of each shrine are marked as coming soon, so the board should only get more useful as that content fills in. For anyone who has walked out of the Dham and realised only later that they missed a shrine tucked behind a corridor, this is a small but genuinely practical fix: one look at the map before you begin, and the whole circuit falls into place.

Compiled by HelloBanaras from public sources: Amar Ujala