The northern ghats - Panchganga to Adi Keshava, where the Varuna meets the Ganga

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Namaste. This is the last walk of our series on the ghats of Kashi. We began at Assi, at the southern edge of the old city. Today we start at Manikarnika, where our first walk ended, and go north along the quieter ghats, all the way to the place where the Varuna river meets the Ganga. It is early morning again, and the light is soft. If you have walked with us from the first episode, thank you. If this is your first walk, you are very welcome, and you can go back to the others at any time.

As we leave Manikarnika behind, walk slowly and keep your camera down for a little longer. The smoke thins out, the lanes open up, and the riverbank grows calm.

Just past Manikarnika, near Scindia Ghat, look toward the water. You will see a stone temple of Shiva that leans into the river, its base often under water, its spire tilted to one side. People have many stories about why it leans. What you can see for yourself is how close the city lives to the river, and how the river, over the years, takes back a little of what is built on its bank.

The ghats north of here are fewer in visitors and richer in everyday life. You will see men washing clothes on flat stones and laying them out on the steps to dry, long rows of white and colour. A cow stands in the shallows. Children jump from the steps into the water near the edge, under the watchful eyes of older brothers and sisters. A priest sits alone on a small platform with his books. Nobody hurries.

After a while we reach Panchganga Ghat, one of the five places of the Panchatirthi that we have been following through this series.

Panchganga means five Gangas. The Kashi Khanda says that here the Ganga is joined by four other rivers, which cannot be seen: the Yamuna, the Saraswati, the Kirana and the Dhutapapa. So a bath at Panchganga is spoken of as a bath in five rivers at once. As with every story on this bank, you will find it told in different ways, and we share it as it is told.

Above the ghat, up a steep flight of steps, is the temple of Bindu Madhava, a form of Vishnu, who is honoured in Kashi alongside Shiva. The Kashi Khanda has much to say about Vishnu's place in Kashi, and many pilgrims climb up to have darshan here, to see and be seen by the deity, before they go on.

In the month of Kartik, Panchganga is known for its akash deep, sky lamps. Small lamps in baskets are raised high on tall bamboo poles above the ghat, and in Kashi people say they are lit in memory of ancestors, to show them the way. If you ever come in Kartik, look up at dusk and you will see them swaying above the steps. Check the exact dates for your city in a panchang.

Panchganga is also remembered for a story about the poet-saint Kabir, who was born and lived in Kashi, and who is loved by people of many faiths. In Kashi's tradition, the young Kabir wanted to learn from the teacher Ramananda. One morning before dawn he lay down on these steps, where Ramananda came to bathe. In the dark, the teacher's foot touched him, and Ramananda spoke the name of Rama. Kabir took that name as his teaching for the rest of his life. It is a tradition, told with love, and we share it that way.

Look up from the ghat and you will also see the tall minarets of a mosque above the steps. It has been part of this skyline for more than three centuries. On this one stretch of riverbank you can see how many people, of many faiths and many places, have made their homes along the Ganga.

We walk on. The steps grow older and more broken here, and fewer people pass. Watch your feet, especially where the stone is wet or where the steps have worn away.

We pass Gai Ghat, where cows are brought down to the river, and Trilochan Ghat, named after Shiva as Trilochana, the three-eyed. Then come smaller ghats, some with only a few steps, some with a single temple and a tree. In the mornings, the people you meet here are mostly from the neighbourhood, coming for their own quiet bath and their own quiet prayer.

Take a moment to look back the way we have come. From here, the ghats curve away to the south in a long bow, one after another, all of them facing the sunrise. The spires and the old palaces are small in the distance now. The noise of the busy ghats does not reach this far. Only the boats remind you, sliding slowly past on their way up and down the river.

Ahead of us now is a long bridge across the river, carrying road and railway. Below it is Raj Ghat. This is one of the oldest parts of Kashi. Archaeologists who dug in the high ground here found signs of a town that goes back well over two thousand years. People have been living on this bank, drawing water from this river, and lighting lamps at dusk for a very long time.

And now we come to the end of our walk, at Adi Keshava.

Here a small river, the Varuna, flows into the Ganga from the west. It is the northern boundary of the old sacred area of Kashi, just as the Asi, at the other end, is its southern boundary. We began this series at one river and we end it at the other.

The Kashi Khanda tells that when Vishnu came to Kashi, in the long story of King Divodasa that we heard at Dashashwamedh, he first set foot in the city here, at the meeting of the Varuna and the Ganga. So the temple here is called Adi Keshava, the first Keshava, Vishnu as he first arrived. It is the fifth place of the Panchatirthi, and for the pilgrims who walk all five, it is often the last stop before they turn back toward the city.

The temple is simple and quiet. There are fields near the river, and birds on the water. After the crowds of Dashashwamedh and the smoke of Manikarnika, it can feel like another world, though it is the same city and the same river.

Stand at the edge of the steps and look at the water. On a clear morning you can sometimes see the two rivers side by side for a little way, the Varuna a shade darker, before they mix and move on together toward the east. Behind you is the whole city, the ghats we have walked, the temples, the smoke, the bells, the lanes. In front of you is only the wide river and the open bank on the far side.

This is a good place to be quiet. Let us sit here together for a little while, and simply listen to the water.

A word of care here. The water where two rivers meet can be unpredictable, with currents that are hard to see from the bank. If you wish to bathe or offer water, do it only from the steps, at a place where local people bathe, and do not go in deep.

Let us sit on the step for a moment and gather the whole series.

We began at Assi, in the dark, with people waiting for the light, and we heard how the small Asi river gave its name to the ghat and a part of its name to the city. We spent an evening at Dashashwamedh, where the Kashi Khanda remembers Brahma's ten sacrifices, and where thousands of people watch the lamps turn over the river. We went gently to Harishchandra and Manikarnika, and learned how to stand with respect near other people's farewells. And this morning we walked the quieter ghats to Panchganga, Raj Ghat and Adi Keshava, where the Varuna meets the Ganga.

Along the way we have tried to share what the texts say and what Kashi remembers, and to say clearly which is which. If you go to Kashi yourself, you will hear many more stories, and many of them will be told differently. Listen to them all.

One thing to take with you. Kashi's riverbank is held between two small rivers, and everything happens in between. Your own day is also held between a morning and an evening. Tomorrow, mark both ends of it: one quiet breath of thanks when you wake, and one before you sleep.

Thank you for walking with us. May your own mornings be calm, and may you one day stand on these steps yourself and watch the light come up over the Ganga.

Keep going

• Listen: The northern ghats - Panchganga to Adi Keshava, where the Varuna meets the Ganga
• Previous: Manikarnika and Harishchandra - the cremation ghats, with respect
• Next: When the ghats are lit for the gods
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• All episodes of Kashi Vishwanath: the city of light