Jangamwadi Math

Tucked into the tight, timeworn lanes of Jangambari, barely a ten-minute walk from Kashi Vishwanath and Dashashwamedh Ghat, Jangamwadi Math is one of the oldest living monastic seats in Varanasi and among the most quietly remarkable.

• It is the northern headquarters of the Veerashaiva-Lingayat tradition, the sober, egalitarian Shaiva movement carried across India by the Jangams, wandering ash-smeared monks who take the name of Shiva himself.
• Founded, by the math's own reckoning, somewhere around the eighth century of the common era on land said to have been granted by a local raja, the institution has preserved an unbroken lineage of Jagadgurus, presided over today by its eighty-sixth Peethadhipati.
• For the Lingayat community of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Telangana, this modest complex in Kashi is a spiritual capital of the north, a living thread that ties the southern devotional world of Basavanna and Allama Prabhu to the ancient Shaiva heartland on the Ganga.
• Within the walls the atmosphere is meditative rather than theatrical.
• The heart of the math is the Kailash Mandap, which houses the Jnana Simhasana, the "throne of knowledge" from which acharyas have delivered discourses on Veerashaiva philosophy for over a thousand years; successive Jagadgurus are still consecrated upon it.
• Courtyards hold shrines and the samadhis of past pontiffs, and the complex is famed for tens of thousands of small Shiva lingas set into its shrines and walls, an extraordinary act of accumulated devotion.
• Just as precious, and far less known, is the math's manuscript library, a collection of roughly seven hundred paper and palm-leaf texts in Kannada, Sanskrit and Marathi kept in old almirahs, much of it now digitised and released to the public.
• It is a working scholarly archive, not a museum, and that lends the place its unusual gravity.
• Unlike the ghat-side temples, Jangamwadi Math sees few tourists, which is precisely its charm.
• Enter quietly, dress modestly, remove your shoes at the shrines, and ask before photographing the sanctum or the resident monks; a small donation is always welcome but never demanded, and there is no entry ticket.
• If you show genuine interest, resident Jangams may explain the Vachana literature or point out the manuscript collection.
• Vegetarian travellers are entirely at home here, and indeed the setting could not be more suited to them.
• The Veerashaiva-Lingayat tradition is strictly vegetarian and teetotal by conviction, so no meat or alcohol touches this place, and the math has a long history of annadana, free community meals served without distinction of caste or means.
• Just outside, the surrounding lanes of Godowlia are one of Kashi's great pure-vegetarian food quarters: legendary chaat at Kashi Chat Bhandar, thick spiced tomato chaat and jalebi at Deena Chaat Bhandar, hot kachori-sabzi at Ram Bhandar in Thatheri Bazar, and comforting thalis at Keshari.
• One gentle caution for the unwary: several lassi and thandai stalls around Kashi serve bhang (cannabis), so always ask specifically for plain lassi or plain thandai.