Sri Sringeri Shankar Math (Kedar Ghat)

Tucked into the lanes just above Kedar Ghat, the Sri Sringeri Shankar Math is the Varanasi branch of the Sringeri Sharada Peetham — the southern (Dakshinamnaya) monastery that tradition holds Adi Shankaracharya himself founded on the banks of the Tunga in Karnataka.

• Its Kashi outpost is a quiet, whitewashed island of Advaita Vedanta amid the swirl of the riverfront: no jostling crowds, no touts, only the low hum of Vedic recitation and the scent of camphor.
• The math traces its origins to Sri Vidyaranya Mahaswami, the revered Jagadguru who blessed the founders of the Vijayanagara Empire; according to the Peetham's records he installed a Chandramouleeshwara Shivalinga at the Varanasi math in circa 1346 CE, making this one of the older living monastic footholds in the city.
• The present temple, a graceful stone shrine renovated in a later era by the Maharani of Burdwan, Smt.
• Radha Rani Devi, houses three sanctums that together tell the story of Sringeri: Sri Sharadamba, the goddess of learning who is the presiding deity of the mother math; Sri Maha Ganapati, remover of obstacles; and Sri Adi Shankaracharya, the eighth-century philosopher who unified the Advaita tradition.
• Daily worship follows the disciplined southern rhythm — abhisheka, archana and puja to the Chandramouleeshwara linga, with regular vedaparayana (Vedic chanting).
• Navaratri and Maha Shivaratri are the great festivals here, when homas and elaborate pujas fill the courtyard with sound and light.
• For travellers weary of Kashi's sensory overload, an hour spent seated on the cool stone floor here is a genuine reset.
• Because it is a functioning math rather than a marquee attraction, visitors are asked to move gently: dress modestly, remove footwear, keep voices low, and treat the resident scholars and pilgrims with courtesy.
• The math also maintains simple rooms for visiting devotees and can arrange rituals such as Rudra Homa for those with a family connection to the Sringeri lineage.
• Combine a visit with the neighbouring Gauri Kedareshwar Temple and a slow walk along Kedar Ghat.
• Vegetarian travellers will feel completely at home.
• The Sringeri tradition is strictly satvik and vegetarian, and the surrounding Sonarpura–Bangali Tola quarter is one of Varanasi's best pockets for pure-vegetarian eating.
• A short walk brings you to Ksheer Sagar in Sonarpura for immaculate chhena sweets and thalis, while Godowlia's legendary Kashi Chat Bhandar and the kachoris of Rajbandhu are a rickshaw ride away.
• One honest caution common to the whole ghat belt: many riverside lassi and thandai stalls quietly add bhang (cannabis) — always ask specifically for plain lassi or plain thandai, and when in doubt eat at an established pure-veg sweet house instead.