Rudraksha, flowers and a Mangala Aarti start: Kashi Vishwanath Dham on the last Monday of Sawan

The fourth and last Monday of Sawan fell on 24 August, and Kashi Vishwanath Dham was dressed for it — the temple decorated with rudraksha and flowers, the day opening with the Mangala Aarti and the jalabhishek queues forming straight after. Flower petals were showered on the kanwariyas as they came in, and the chant of Har Har Mahadev carried through the corridor from before first light. The city had been filling since Sunday. Trains from Bihar, Prayagraj and Lucknow brought crowds into the stations through the night, and the shelters set aside for kanwar pilgrims were fully occupied by morning. If you are planning a visit on a Sawan Monday, two practical notes are worth carrying. Sugam darshan tickets were not issued on the three Sawan Mondays — 10, 17 and 24 August — so the day runs on the free darshan lines, and it pays to arrive with time in hand rather than a plan. Police arrangements are extensive along the Dham and the kanwar route, with the city divided into zones and sectors and a dedicated traffic plan; officers on Sawan duty were also briefed to address devotees as 'sir' and 'madam', a small courtesy instruction that says something about how the month is run here. With this Monday, Sawan's biggest crowd days in Kashi are done for the year — and the lanes around Godowlia and Maidagin will start easing back to their usual rhythm.

Compiled by HelloBanaras from public sources: Amar Ujala — Varanasi · The Varanasi News · Amar Ujala — Sawan arrangements