Hanuman Ghat

Set in the atmospheric Bangali Tola quarter of Varanasi, a short stroll south of Harishchandra Ghat and north of Shivala, Hanuman Ghat is one of the old city's most characterful and least touristy riverfronts.

• It is a working, devotional ghat rather than a scenic viewpoint — a place where the fragrance of incense mingles with the smell of mustard oil rubbed onto wrestlers' shoulders, where South Indian mutts, Bengali households and Ramanandi sadhus have coexisted for centuries.
• The stone steps descend to the Ganga past small shrines, mud-floored gymnasiums and quiet ashrams, and in the soft light of dawn the whole slope hums with prayer, exercise and the slap of laundry on stone.
• The ghat carries deep layers of legend.
• In its earliest incarnation it was called Rameshwaram (Rameswara) Ghat, and tradition holds that Lord Rama himself founded it and installed a Shivalinga here — the Rameshwar lingam, revered as one of Kashi's own set of jyotirlingas.
• The site takes its present name from the poet-saint Goswami Tulsidas, author of the Ramcharitmanas and the Hanuman Chalisa, who is said to have consecrated a Hanuman temple on this bank in the sixteenth century.
• The steps were rebuilt in solid stone (made pucca) in 1825 by Mahant Hariharnath of the Juna Akhara, and the ghat has remained a stronghold of Ramanandi devotion, with the Rameshwar lingam today enshrined within the Juna Akhara precinct of the Naga sadhus.
• Because Hanuman is the patron of physical strength and disciplined celibacy, the ghat became a magnet for pehelwans (wrestlers).
• Its akharas — earthen kushti rings such as the Ganga Akhara on the upper terrace — still ring at daybreak with young wrestlers grappling in the red clay, swinging the heavy mace (gada) and doing endless squats before bathing in the river.
• Visitors are welcome to watch respectfully; there is no ticket, no membership and no fee, and the wrestlers are famously friendly.
• Around them cluster Kerala, Kanchi and Sringeri mutts and a dense Bengali neighbourhood, giving the lanes behind the ghat a gentle, scholarly, pan-Indian character.
• For vegetarian travellers, Hanuman Ghat and its surrounding old-city lanes are effortlessly comfortable — this is deeply satvik territory where the temple-and-mutt culture keeps kitchens strictly pure-vegetarian.
• Within a short walk or rickshaw ride you can graze on Banaras's legendary meat-free street food: tangy tamatar and palak-patta chaat at Kashi Chat Bhandar, a leisurely Banarasi thali or a crisp masala dosa at Keshari Restaurant near Shivala, pure-vegetarian fare on the terrace of the long-running Pizzeria Vaatika Cafe at Assi Ghat, and a cooling glass of clay-cup lassi or pure-vegetarian sweets.
• Nothing here needs a dietary disclaimer, and no alcohol is served on the ghats themselves.