Kedareshwar Temple (Kedar Ghat)

Perched at the head of the broad stone steps of Kedar Ghat, the Kedareshwar Temple is one of the most instantly recognisable shrines on the Varanasi riverfront, its facade painted in bold vertical stripes of red and white in the unmistakable South-Indian temple idiom.

• Dedicated to Lord Shiva as Kedareshwar, the temple enshrines a rough, uneven, self-manifested (swayambhu) lingam that legend says rose from the earth resembling a mound of khichdi — cooked rice and lentils — which is why khichdi is offered and distributed here as prasad to this day.
• Scriptural references to the shrine appear in the Skanda Purana and the Kashi Khanda, and devotees hold that worship here carries the same merit as a pilgrimage to Kedarnath high in the Himalayas, earning it the affectionate title 'Kedarnath of the South.' For elderly and infirm pilgrims unable to make the arduous Himalayan trek, Kedareshwar in Kashi has for centuries been the accessible substitute.
• The temple's origins are traced to a South-Indian saint, and the present structure is associated with restoration in the 18th century during the era of Rani Ahilyabai Holkar, whose patronage revived many of Kashi's shrines.
• Daily rituals are conducted in the South-Indian tradition, and the site is administered in association with the Kumaraswamy Mutt, giving it a distinctly Tamil and Dravidian flavour rare among Varanasi's temples.
• This heritage draws a steady stream of Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and Bengali pilgrims, and the surrounding Kedar Khand quarter — with its Bengali Tola lanes and Sonarpura bylanes — has long been home to South-Indian and Bengali communities, mutts and lodges.
• Kedar Ghat itself is among the quieter, more meditative stretches of the riverfront, less thronged than Dashashwamedh yet rich in atmosphere.
• Its steps descend to a small bathing tank called Gauri Kund, believed to hold sacred waters, and the ghat glows especially beautifully at sunrise when the first light strikes the striped temple wall.
• A boat gliding in from the Ganga can drop you almost at the temple steps, making it a rewarding stop on any dawn river excursion.
• For vegetarian travellers, Kedar Ghat sits in one of the most reliably satvik corners of the old city.
• The temple's own khichdi prasad is wholly vegetarian, and the Sonarpura–Bhelupur neighbourhood immediately behind the ghat is dotted with pure-vegetarian eateries — from South-Indian dosa houses that echo the temple's Dravidian roots to classic Banarasi chaat and thali kitchens.
• You can eat your fill of idli, sambar, kachori-sabzi, tamatar chaat and Banarasi sweets without ever encountering meat, fish, egg or alcohol, making this an easy and comfortable base for a purely vegetarian pilgrimage day.