Tulsi Manas Mandir

Rising in serene white marble amid a walled garden a short stroll south of Durga Kund, Tulsi Manas Mandir is one of Varanasi's most beloved modern temples and a shrine to the written word as much as to Lord Rama.

• It stands on ground long associated with the sixteenth-century poet-saint Goswami Tulsidas (c.
• 1532–1623), who is traditionally believed to have composed his Awadhi retelling of the Ramayana, the Ramcharitmanas, at or near this very spot.
• The temple takes its name directly from that connection — 'Tulsi' for the poet and 'Manas' from the epic's full title, Ramcharitmanas, literally 'the lake of Rama's deeds within the mind.' The result is a place of worship that doubles as a monument to one of the most influential works of Indian devotional literature.
• Built in 1964 by the Thakur Das Sureka family of Howrah on the former Bhinga Raj garden plot, and inaugurated by India's second president Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the two-storey shikhara-style temple is celebrated above all for its walls.
• Every stanza of the Ramcharitmanas is inscribed across the marble surfaces, so pilgrims can literally read the epic as they circumambulate the sanctum, its verses illustrated with painted and engraved scenes from Rama's life.
• The central shrine houses images of Rama, Sita, Lakshmana and Hanuman, and the whole edifice is wrapped in fountains, lawns and flowering beds that make the compound unusually tranquil for busy Varanasi.
• An upper-floor gallery presents automated tableaux and puppet scenes retelling episodes from the Ramayana and Mahabharata, a gentle draw for families and children.
• For the vegetarian traveller, the setting could hardly be easier.
• Tulsi Manas Mandir sits in the deeply satvik Durgakund–Assi belt, where meat, fish, egg and alcohol are essentially absent from the temple neighbourhood by custom, and pure-vegetarian eating is the default rather than the exception.
• Within a few minutes you can reach long-running pure-veg kitchens for a thali, South Indian tiffin or a bowl of Banarasi chaat, while the classic clay-cup rabri and thandai of the old city — always the non-alcoholic kind — round out a wholly meat-free day.
• Carry a refillable water bottle and eat where turnover is brisk.
• Plan for a calm, unhurried visit of about forty-five minutes to an hour.
• Entry to the temple is free; only the upper gallery charges a token fee.
• The temple closes for a midday break, so morning or late-afternoon visits are best, and the monsoon month of Sawan (roughly July–August) brings special puppet exhibitions and a surge of devotees.
• Pair it with the adjacent Durga Kund temple and nearby Sankat Mochan Hanuman temple for a rewarding half-day loop through southern Varanasi.