Sankat Mochan Hanuman Temple

Set amid a leafy grove in the southern reaches of Varanasi, the Sankat Mochan Hanuman Temple is one of the holy city's most cherished shrines, dedicated to Hanuman in his form as Sankat Mochan, the "reliever from troubles." Tradition holds that it was founded by the poet-saint Goswami Tulsidas, author of the Ramcharitmanas, who is said to have had a vision of Hanuman on this very spot in the sixteenth century and enshrined the deity beneath a sacred fig tree.

• The present temple complex was largely built in the early twentieth century through the efforts of Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya, founder of the neighbouring Banaras Hindu University.
• Unlike the dense lanes of the riverfront old city, the temple sits in an open, garden-like courtyard where troops of red-faced monkeys clamber and play, earning it the affectionate nickname "the Monkey Temple." Devotion here has its own gentle rhythm.
• Tuesdays and Saturdays, the days sacred to Hanuman, draw the largest crowds, when long queues of the faithful shuffle forward carrying marigold garlands and small clay bowls of besan ke laddoo.
• The temple is celebrated across India for the Sankat Mochan Sangeet Samaroh, a classical music and dance festival that has been held every April around Hanuman Jayanti since 1923.
• Over roughly six nights, some of the country's finest musicians perform through the small hours entirely free of charge, offering their art as worship rather than for a fee, and audiences sit rapt on the temple grounds until dawn.
• It is one of the rare occasions when a place of prayer becomes a great concert hall.
• For vegetarian travellers, Sankat Mochan is effortless: like almost all of Varanasi's temple quarter, the entire area is strictly satvik, with no meat, fish, egg or alcohol anywhere near the shrine.
• The signature prasad, warm ladoos of roasted chickpea flour (besan) and sugar, is itself pure vegetarian, and the surrounding Assi, Lanka and Bhelupura neighbourhoods brim with pure-veg sweet shops, chaat counters and thali houses.
• You can move from the temple to a plate of rabri or a glass of chilled (non-alcoholic) thandai without a moment's worry.
• Budget around thirty to forty-five minutes for a visit.
• Leave phones, cameras and leather goods with the free counters outside, keep a firm hold on any food or spectacles around the monkeys, and let the unhurried, incense-scented calm of the courtyard do its work before you wander on to nearby Assi Ghat.