Sarveshwar Ghat (Pandey Ghat)

Sarveshwar Ghat is the older, scriptural name of the stone landing that Varanasi now knows as Pandey Ghat — a calm, culturally rich stretch of the Ganges riverfront wedged between the tourist crush of Dashashwamedh Ghat and the quieter Chausatti and Rana Mahal ghats.

• The name Sarveshwara — "Lord of All" — comes from the small Shiva shrine that still crowns the steps and is cited in the seventeenth-century Sanskrit text Giravan-padamanjari, where the landing appears as Sarveshvara Ghat.
• The devout climb the ghat to offer water and bilva leaves at this modest Sarveshwara Shiv Mandir, and the shrine remains the quiet anchor of a ghat that has otherwise become famous for something far more muscular.
• That something is kushti, India's indigenous mud wrestling.
• In the early nineteenth century Babua Pandey, a prosperous Bhumihar Brahmin patron from Chhapra in Bihar, had the ghat rebuilt in stone (pucca) around 1805 and established an akhara — a wrestling arena of consecrated earth — on its terraces.
• His patronage was so associated with the place that the older Sarveshwar name gradually gave way in common speech to "Pandey Ghat." Even today, in the cool blue hour before sunrise, you can watch pehlwans (wrestlers) rub the ochre soil onto their bodies, swing heavy stone maces (gada) and joris, and grapple in the pit while the river glints below — a living link to Varanasi's centuries-old culture of physical and spiritual discipline.
• The ghat's uncrowded steps also make it a favourite launch point for a gentle sunrise or sunset boat ride, and a peaceful perch for yoga and quiet river-gazing away from the Dashashwamedh throng.
• For a vegetarian traveller, the neighbourhood behind the ghat is a gift.
• Sarveshwar/Pandey Ghat sits within an easy walk of Bengali Tola, Sonarpura and Godowlia, some of the most reliable pure-vegetarian eating in the old city.
• You can break a morning walk with a plate of tamatar chaat or the famous choorra-matar at Kashi Chat Bhandar, sink into a bowl of thick, saffron-flecked Banarasi rabri at Ksheer Sagar in Sonarpura, or sit down to a proper thali at Keshari Restaurant near Godowlia.
• One honest caution: the lassi and thandai stalls fringing the ghats often serve bhang (a cannabis preparation) — always ask specifically for plain lassi or plain thandai, as several well-known lassi shops in this quarter are not suitable for families or anyone who wants a clear head for the day.
• Unhurried, photogenic and steeped in both devotion and sporting heritage, Sarveshwar Ghat rewards the traveller who prefers the texture of everyday Kashi to its headline spectacles.