Adi Keshava Temple

At the far northern edge of Varanasi, where the modest Varuna river slips into the broad Ganga at a spot the city calls Rajghat, stands one of Kashi's oldest and least-visited sanctuaries — the Adi Keshava Temple.

• "Adi" means first or original, and "Keshava" is a name of Vishnu, and together they carry the temple's founding legend: this, tradition holds, is where Vishnu first set foot in the holy city on Shiva's invitation, bathing at the confluence to wash the dust of the journey from his lotus feet.
• From that act the water here earned the name Padodaka Tirtha, the "tirtha of the foot-washing water," and pilgrims still take a quiet dip at the sangam believing it loosens the knots of birth and death.
• In the old imagining of Kashi as a divine body mapped onto its riverfront, Adi Keshava marks the feet — the humble beginning of a sacred geography that rises through Panchganga, Manikarnika and Dashashwamedh to Assi at the head.
• The temple's history runs as deep as its legend.
• Rajghat was the administrative heart of the Gahadavala kings in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and excavations here have peeled back strata reaching from the Sunga and Kushan ages through the Guptas to the Gahadavala period, along with medieval Brahmanical sculpture and temple fragments.
• The shrine was razed in 1194 during the campaigns of Qutb-ud-din Aibak, and its present, comparatively modest structure was raised again in 1807 by a Diwan of the Scindia (Gwalior) house — one of many cycles of destruction and patient rebuilding this ground has weathered, including a spell as a military outpost during 1857.
• What survives today is not a grand towered temple but a quiet riverside complex of shrines endowed by generations of devout patrons.
• Because it sits away from the tourist-thronged central ghats, a visit here feels worlds apart from the crowded lanes near Dashashwamedh.
• Mornings are best, when the aarti bell rings around seven and boats drift past the confluence in a wash of soft light; the new Namo Ghat promenade just downstream has made the approach far easier than it once was.
• Come for the stillness, the archaeology of a very old city, and the rare sight of Vishnu worshipped at the heart of a Shiva town.
• For vegetarian travellers, Varanasi's old city is a natural home — the culture of Kashi is overwhelmingly satvik, and the eateries clustered a short auto-ride south around Godowlia and Dashashwamedh are almost entirely pure-vegetarian, with no meat, fish, egg or alcohol on the menus.
• Rajghat itself has little organised dining, so plan to pair the temple with a chaat-and-sweets crawl in the old city: crisp tamatar chaat and palak chaat at the legendary Kashi Chat Bhandar, tangy bhelpuri and dahi-vada at Deena Chaat Bhandar, and morning kachori-sabzi with jalebi at Ram Bhandar.
• Carry your own water, and remember that during festival days simple prasad and fruit are the safest, most authentic bites near the shrine.