The shrine is genuinely ancient
the goddess Mangala Gauri is named in the seventeenth-century Sanskrit text Giravana-padamanjari, and a mid-seventeenth-century inscription glorifies both the temple and the ghat below. Tradition holds that her image was installed by Surya, the Sun himself. Around the small sanctum you will find a cluster of associated murtis and lingas — Mangala Vinayaka (Ganesha), the Sun-form Mayukha Aditya, Gabhastishvara Shiva, and rows of votive lingas left by generations of worshippers. Directly beneath the temple lies Panchganga Ghat, one of Kashi's five holiest ghats, where the Ganga is said to be joined by four invisible rivers. Here stands Ahilyabai Holkar's slender stone pillar with 108 lamp-niches, lit each Kartik as women hoist akash-deep (sky lamps) on tall bamboo poles — and it was on these very steps, folklore says, that the poet-saint Kabir sought initiation from his guru Ramananda.