There's a city in India that Hindus believe will outlast the universe. According to ancient scripture, when the cosmos finally ends — every star burned out, every ocean gone — the god Shiva lifts the city of Varanasi off the earth on his trident and holds it above the flood. Everything else disappears. This one city floats on a god's weapon, waiting for creation to begin again. It wasn't born when the universe was born. It won't die when the universe dies. It is the one place that is always.
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Gods & Monsters·3/3·1′
The place
Varanasi (Kashi — City of Light)
The City on Shiva's Trident
When the universe is destroyed, one city survives -- lifted above the floodwaters of oblivion on the weapon of a god who swore never to leave
Mythological origins (before creation itself); temple history spans 2nd millennium BCE to presentVaranasi (Kashi — City of Light)
Moral of the Story
“The story of Shiva's city teaches that even perfect worldly governance cannot deliver the one thing the human soul ultimately requires -- liberation from the cycle of existence itself -- and that the places where we confront death most honestly are the places where God is most intimately present.”
Characters
S
Shiva (Lord of Kashi, who carries the city on his trident)P
Parvati (Shiva's consort, who chose Kashi as their home)K
King Divodasa (the righteous king who expelled the gods)V
Vishnu (who persuaded Divodasa to relinquish the city)K
Kala Bhairava (Shiva's fierce guardian form, the divine policeman of Kashi)M
Maharani Ahilyabai Holkar (who rebuilt the Vishwanath Temple in 1780)Source
Skanda Purana, Kashi Khanda (12th-14th century CE); Kurma Purana, Avimukta Mahatmya; Jabala Upanishad; Shiva Purana (Jyotirlinga narrative); Eck, Diana L. Banaras: City of Light, Princeton University Press, 1982; Singh, Rana P.B. Banaras: Making of India's Heritage City, 2009; Maasir-i-Alamgiri (Aurangzeb's court chronicle, compiled by Saqi Must'ad Khan)