KASHI.......THE SHIVA POPULATED CITY

The mythology of Banaras, including the stories of Śiva's connection to this city, is found in the Purāṇas in a genre of praise literature called māhātmya. The most extensive of such māhātmyas is the Kāśī Khaṇḍa, an entire section of the voluminous Skanda Purāṇa. One myth tells of the divine hierophany of Śiva in this place. Here, it is said, Śiva's fiery pillar of light (jyotirliṅga) burst from the netherworlds, split the earth, and pierced the sky—a luminous and fathomless sign of Śiva. Kāśī is not only the place where that liṅga of light is said to have split the earth, but in a wider sense, Kāśī is also said to be the liṅga of light—an enormous geographical liṅga, with a radius of five krośas (about ten miles). Even today pilgrims circumambulate Kāśī on the Pañcakrośī Road, a five-day pilgrimage circuit around the whole of the city.

There are countless shrines and temples of Śiva in Kāśī, each containing a liṅga, which, according to Saiva theology, is a symbol (pratīka) of that fathomless light of Śiva

It is said that in Kāśī there is a liṅga at every step; indeed, the very stones of Kāśī are Śiva liṅgas. Within this wider array, however, there are several temples that have special fame as sanctuaries of Śiva. The most significant of these liṅgas are Oṃkāreśvara, Viśveśvara, and Kedāreśvara, which traditionally centered the three khaṇḍas, or "sectors," of Banaras—north, central, and south.

In another mythic sequence from the Kāśī Khaṇḍa, Śiva populated the city of Vārāṇasī with the entire pantheon of gods. At that time, Śiva dwelt in his barren Himalayan home with his new bride, Pārvatī. He surveyed the entire earth for a suitable abode for the two of them. Seeing the beautiful Kāśī, he set about the task of evicting its ruling king, Divodāsa, so that he could have the city for himself. One by one, Śiva sent the various gods and demigods to Kāśī to find some way to force the king to leave. Not only did each god fail, but all the gods were so entranced with the city itself that they remained there without reporting to Śiva. Finally, with the help of Viṣṇu, Śiva succeeded in evicting King Divodāsa. The city into which he triumphantly entered was full of the gods.