Shri Vishwanath Mandir

History

In the past 900 years Shri Kashi Vishwanath Mandir was destroyed by multiple invaders, however, the locals supported by their Hindu patrons reconstructed this ancient temple as many times. First reported temple destroyer was the founder of the slave dynasty Qutb-ud-din Aibak. He was obsessed by the fellowship of his master Mahmud Ghori the tyrant. On 1194 CE Qutb-ud-din Aibak entrusted his nomadic soldiers to ruthlessly kill locals, maraud their city, enslave young girls and boys, torture the wealthy, kill the Hindu priest, damage ancient scriptures, malign sacred idols, and burn the holy temple to ashes and rubbles. Such an extreme show of power and hatred against the locals of Varanasi was just the beginning of the curse which continued for the next 600 more years. Many more notorious invaders followed footsteps of Qutb-ud-din Aibak. Time failed to heal the scars left by the likes of Hussain Shah Sharqi between 1447 and 1458 CE, and then Aurangzeb in 1669 CE. Hindus still remember how their ancestors survived centuries of tyranny, religious and social persecutions. Even to this day local poetry, religious texts, preserved Hindu paintings, and anecdotal stories remind people how certain intolerant fanatical individual's used incomprehensible, inhumane military tactics against innocent Hindus, their beloved deities and their holy sanctuaries such as the Shri Kashi Vishwanath Mandir. Following the first invasion many eminent Hindus made unconditional efforts to revive the architecture of the destroyed Shri Kashi Vishwanath Mandir to its glory days. All their sacrifices indeed helped preserve the temple history, Hindu faith and the legend of the Lord Vishwanath. Finally, after a period of 700 years, in 1930s, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya planned to replicate Shri Kashi Vishwanath Mandir in the campus of Benaras Hindu University. The Birla family undertook the construction and foundation was laid in March 1931. The temple (Shri Vishwanath Mandir) was finally completed in 1966.