The household of Kashi: Annapurna, Kaal Bhairav and Dhundhiraj Ganesh

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Namaste. Welcome back to our series on Kashi Vishwanath. Last time we sat on the steps of Dashashwamedh Ghat and heard how King Divodasa ruled Kashi while Shiva waited on a far mountain, and how Brahma came, performed ten sacrifices, and stayed.

Today we climb back up into the lanes. Because Vishwanath does not live alone. In Kashi's own way of speaking, the city is a household. There is the lord of the house, and around him live others who each have their part in running it. Today we meet three of them.

Let us begin with the one you meet first.

If you walk up the lane towards the Vishwanath temple, close to it you will come to a small, crowded shrine of Ganesha. He is called Dhundhiraj Ganesh, or Dhundhi Vinayak. Many pilgrims stop here before they go on to Vishwanath. In Kashi people say that you greet Ganesha first, as you would in any home, and then go in to the lord of the house. This is a local tradition, and like all such things, families keep it in their own way.

The name Dhundhi has a story, and it continues the story we heard last time. The Kashi Khanda tells that while King Divodasa ruled, and Shiva was still away, Shiva sent Ganesha to Kashi too. Ganesha came in the guise of an astrologer, an old man who read people's fortunes. He moved among the people of the city, listened to them, and slowly, gently, prepared the ground for Shiva's return.

When Shiva came back, the Purana says, he was pleased with Ganesha. In Sanskrit there is a root that means to search, to seek out. Because Ganesha had searched and found the way, Shiva named him Dhundhi, the one who seeks. That is the name the shrine in the lane still carries.

We like this name very much. Most of us know Ganesha as the one who removes obstacles, and so he is. Here in Kashi he is also the one who searches, who looks carefully and patiently until a way opens. There is a lesson hidden in that for anyone who is stuck in a problem.

The Kashi Khanda goes further and speaks of many forms of Ganesha placed all around the city, like guards at every gate. In Kashi people speak of fifty six Vinayakas, set in rings around the sacred area, and some devotees make a round to visit them. Near the end of the old pilgrimage route around the city there is a shrine called Sakshi Vinayak. Sakshi means witness. A local tradition says that pilgrims stop there so that Ganesha may bear witness that their pilgrimage was made. Again, families differ in how they follow these rounds, and all of them are held with love.

Now let us walk a few steps further, to the mother of the house.

We met her briefly in our first episode. Just beside the Vishwanath temple is the temple of Mother Annapurna. Anna means food. Purna means full, complete. Annapurna is the one whose store of food never runs out.

In Kashi, there is a saying and a feeling that no one in this city sleeps hungry, because the mother of the house is watching. It is an ideal that the city tries to live up to, and people in Kashi say it with faith and with a sense of duty. For generations, the city's temples, maths and families have run kitchens and fed pilgrims, the poor and the wandering sadhus. To feed someone in Kashi is thought of as a way of serving Annapurna herself.

There is a well-loved story told about her. In the popular telling, Shiva, the great renouncer, the one who owns nothing, goes to Annapurna with a begging bowl, and she fills it. Many images in Kashi show exactly this. Shiva stands with his bowl held out, and the goddess serves him with a ladle. We find it a beautiful picture. The lord of the universe, who never leaves this city, still receives his food from the mother's hand.

A hymn to Annapurna, which tradition attributes to Adi Shankaracharya, returns again and again to one request. The devotee asks the mother for alms. And the hymn makes clear that what is being asked for is more than food. It asks for the gifts of knowledge and of detachment, so that one may live well. We think of that whenever we eat. What we are given feeds the body, and we can also ask that it feed the mind.

On a few special days each year, the temple shows a golden image of Annapurna, and the lanes are full of people who come to see her. The days are announced by the temple, so if you wish to go, please check with them or in a panchang for your year.

Before we go on, let us walk for a minute.

To reach the third member of the household, you leave the temple lanes and head north, through older neighbourhoods. The walk takes you past houses with carved wooden doors, small shrines set into walls, and shops where men sit cross-legged weighing sweets. You hear the clack of a handloom from an upper window. Someone has left a clay cup of water on a step for passers by. A group of students in white, from one of the Sanskrit schools, hurries past with books under their arms. In Kashi, the sacred and the everyday live pressed together, wall to wall. You do not leave the city to reach the gods. They live in the same lanes as everyone else.

Now we come to the third member of the household, and he looks very different from the other two.

A little to the north of Vishwanath is the temple of Kaal Bhairav. Kaal means time. Bhairava is a fierce form of Shiva. In pictures he is dark, with a garland and a staff, and a dog stands beside him. People who see him for the first time are sometimes a little startled.

The story of how he came to Kashi is told in the Shiva Purana and in the Kashi Khanda. The texts tell that once Brahma became proud, and spoke with disrespect towards Shiva. From Shiva arose Bhairava, who humbled Brahma's pride by removing the fifth of his heads. But the act had a weight of its own. The skull clung to Bhairava's hand and would not fall, and he wandered from place to place carrying it.

Only when he reached Kashi, the texts say, did the skull fall from his hand. The place where it fell is remembered as Kapalamochana, the release of the skull. And Shiva then gave Bhairava a task. He was to stay in Kashi and be its guardian.

This is why, in Kashi, people call Kaal Bhairav the kotwal of the city, the chief watchman, the one who keeps order. The word kotwal is an everyday one, the kind you would use for the officer in charge of a town. That tells you how close he is to people's lives. He is fierce, yes, but for Kashi he is a protector, the way a strict and honest watchman is a comfort to a street at night.

Many local traditions gather around him. Some pilgrims take a black thread from his temple and tie it on the wrist. Many feed the dogs of the lanes, because the dog is Bhairava's companion. Some families say that you should pay your respects to Kaal Bhairav when you arrive in Kashi, as a guest greets the watchman, and some say you should visit him before you leave. These customs differ, and we share them as they are told, without placing one above another.

So this is the household we have met today. Vishwanath, the lord of the house, who never leaves. Dhundhiraj Ganesh at the door, who searched and made the way. Mother Annapurna in the kitchen, whose store of food never runs out. And Kaal Bhairav at the gate, who keeps watch over the city. When people in Kashi speak of their city like a home, this is what they mean. Everyone has a place, and everyone is looked after.

One thing to take with you. Every home has people who keep it running quietly, who cook, who watch, who search for solutions when things are stuck. Today, think of one such person in your own life, and thank them in some small way. If you share a meal with someone today, you might remember Annapurna for a moment before you eat.

In the next episode we look at the temple building itself: how it has been destroyed and rebuilt more than once, and how the people of many regions came together to raise it again.

Keep going

• Listen: The household of Kashi: Annapurna, Kaal Bhairav and Dhundhiraj Ganesh
• Previous: Dashashwamedh: the ghat of ten sacrifices
• Next: The ghats from Assi to Manikarnika
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• All episodes of Kashi Vishwanath: the city of light