Beyond the Ghats: Five Lesser-Known Varanasi Landmarks That Reveal the City's Deeper Heritage
Varanasi is easy to reduce to a single image — a boat at dawn, lamps on the water at Dashashwamedh. But the city rewards travellers who walk a little further inland, where a set of quieter landmarks tell the story of Kashi's layered heritage. Start with Ratneshwar Mahadev, the leaning temple near Manikarnika Ghat. Tilted at a striking angle and submerged for much of the monsoon, its sandstone tower is one of the most photographed yet least understood structures on the riverfront, wrapped in several competing local legends about who built it and why it leans. A short ride away sits Bharat Mata Mandir at Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith, unusual for housing no idol at all. In its place lies a relief map of undivided India carved in marble, an early-twentieth-century tribute to the land itself. Nearby, on the road toward Durgakund, Tulsi Manas Mandir marks the tradition that Goswami Tulsidas composed the Ramcharitmanas in this area; its walls carry verses from the epic, making the building both shrine and open book. Two more stops complete the picture. Kedareshwar Mandir at Kedar Ghat, with its distinctive striped facade, is one of the oldest active shrines in the southern stretch of the city. And in Chowkhambha, the ancestral home of Bharatendu Harishchandra — widely regarded as the founder of modern Hindi literature — anchors Banaras firmly in India's literary history. Together with a Banarasi saree workshop or an evening of kachori, chaat and malaiyo, these places make an excellent second-day itinerary. Most sit within a compact area, so an auto or cycle-rickshaw is enough to link them across a relaxed half-day.
Compiled by HelloBanaras from public sources: